Everything Mac Posted December 15, 2015 Share Posted December 15, 2015 Nice one. Great forge you have there. Thanks for posting pictures. Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joel OF Posted December 15, 2015 Share Posted December 15, 2015 Nicely fabricated! How are you finding the forge now you've got it up and running? Not so much the size of the hearth, I mean the depth of the pan and the position of the tue in relation to the height of the sides? How are you finding managing fire sizes/angleing work down/laying work across/ getting to the heart of of the fire etc? I'm curious because I've recently fabricated a side blast forge as well, but to different dimensions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Everything Mac Posted December 15, 2015 Share Posted December 15, 2015 Out of interest, what thickness is the pipe you've used for the outer part of the tue? I have picked up a 5" Dia by 1/8" fire extinguisher I had intended on using as I have struggled to find any pipe in a suitable diameter with a thick wall. Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joel OF Posted December 15, 2015 Share Posted December 15, 2015 I think you were aiming that at kubiack but FYI I used some 6mm thick pipe I found. 75mm diameter, not tapered. I have since heard that 100mm might have been better. I remember when researching what pipe to use I saw Alan Evans (I think) saying the pipe has to be thin enough to allow the water to cool the pipe, or it defeats the purpose. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Everything Mac Posted December 15, 2015 Share Posted December 15, 2015 Cheers Joel - I must admit I did wonder about that. I'm sure there's some maths involved in there somewhere but I assume there is a sweet spot. In the plan linked above Mark used 5" pipe. I was going to use some 3" pipe I had but then found this old steel extinguisher bottle which is 5". I figured more water wouldn't hurt. I also happen to have a thick donut of steel with a 1" hole running through it which would be ideal for the end cap. How are you finding your tue Joel? Any issues with the lack of taper? Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kubiack Posted December 15, 2015 Author Share Posted December 15, 2015 I really like the way this forge preforms. I played with the depth of the tue in the pan a little before settling on the depth. The only thing I would like to change is to have the cutout on the sides and front a little deeper. The pipe for the tue was just whatever I could find at the time. It was scrap of something for the oil-field. They use some strange sizes but I think it was close 7/16”. The disk at the front was made from ½” plate. I don’t think you would have any trouble with 1/8 as far as the fire is concerned. The water keeps it plenty cool. I can’t see any degrading of the pipe of the welds. I would be more worried about corrosion on the inside if the pipe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles R. Stevens Posted December 16, 2015 Share Posted December 16, 2015 Automotive antifreeze has rust inhibitors, and acualy transfers heat better than plane water. Now, obviously their is an issue with cats I jesting the old green stuff, ethaline glycal is real bad for them, and the only treatment is to mainline ethanol, so use the lower toxicity stuff and lid the bosh. The old green stuff is good for 2 years in a car and the red stuff is good for 5, 50/50 mix is good for most, Frosty might need 25/75... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Everything Mac Posted December 17, 2015 Share Posted December 17, 2015 What's the measurement from the cut outs to the centre of the tue Kubiack? Is it too high? I'll get cracking with this project when I get home in a couple of weeks. Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joel OF Posted December 17, 2015 Share Posted December 17, 2015 I haven't had any problems so far Andy. I fabricated my bosh and tue all in one so I just shimmed up the back of the bosh to tilt the tue nose down a smidge. I welded a 20mm plate cap on the end of my tue. Kubiack, with the depth of the cut outs you have at the minute are you finding you have to build bigger fires than you feel is neccessary so that you can get the heart of the fire high enough in line with the cut outs? When I first fabricated my side blast that's the problem I had as from the centre line of my tue to the top of the sides of my forge was 4", with no cut outs. I have since cut out some sections to reduce that height to 2". I did this after visiting a couple smiths who have always used side blasts and their forges were only 2" deep. I'm much happier with mine now as I can still build big fires, but importantly I don't have to build a big fire just work on something small. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted December 17, 2015 Share Posted December 17, 2015 On 12/16/2015 at 4:46 PM, Charles R. Stevens said: Automotive antifreeze has rust inhibitors, and acualy transfers heat better than plane water. Now, obviously their is an issue with cats I jesting the old green stuff, ethaline glycal is real bad for them, and the only treatment is to mainline ethanol, so use the lower toxicity stuff and lid the bosh. The old green stuff is good for 2 years in a car and the red stuff is good for 5, 50/50 mix is good for most, Frosty might need 25/75... I do fine with the wood stove, single malt and a little water. Talking to the HVAC guys about running Propylene Glycol, the less toxic stuff in our boiler and baseboard I was told it doesn't transfer heat as well as clean water until it reaches boiling temperature. At that point being a liquid it transfers heat much better than steam bubbles. The anti corrosion additives work well and it is a strong penetrant. Frosty The Lucky. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles R. Stevens Posted December 18, 2015 Share Posted December 18, 2015 Automotive systems have a sweet spot of about 205 deg, figured you for 75% ethenal and 25% water, lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kubiack Posted October 6, 2017 Author Share Posted October 6, 2017 I saw Charles recent thread about side blast forges and read this one again. I see there were a few questions I never responded to and I thought I would give an update as I have been using this forge for several years now. As to the questions of the depth of the side cutouts in relation to the height of the tue. First, I like the height of the top of the sides of the forge in relation to the tue. It works well for getting smaller work down into the fire. However if you want to heat the middle of a long bar and need to run the bar out both sides of the forge then the cutouts are not deep enough for the bar to get to the hottest part of the fire. It would be easy enough to fix however, I do not heat of long bars often so I have just been building the fire up a bit. The other change I would make to this forge is that I would like the pan to be a bit larges. When I clean the forge in between fires, I rake back all of the unused coke to get to the clinker and ash. The pan of the forge is not large enough to rake it all out with some of it falling off the sides onto the floor. This does not affect the usefulness for the forge but it is annoying that every time I use the forge I have to deal with it. I would like it to be another 8” wider and longer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles R. Stevens Posted October 6, 2017 Share Posted October 6, 2017 30x60" seems to have been a sweet spot over the years, tho I think the extra 30" was more of a bench/tool tray for hot work. I still drool over your side draft hood Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kubiack Posted October 6, 2017 Author Share Posted October 6, 2017 I think I went with 24"x36" for the pan, I'll have to measure to be sure. I can see see 30"x60" being a nice size. I think 30"-32" is just about right for the width and then however long you want to make the length that would fit well in your shop with somewhere around 40" being the minimum I would go. In addition to being a spot to set hot work any extra length on the front would be nice for supporting longer bars that were being heated on the end. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles R. Stevens Posted October 6, 2017 Share Posted October 6, 2017 I think 30x30 is about right for a shop forge, with the additional 30x30 as a brick table. Any wider and I think reaching the fire could be a drag (unless you 6'8") my mark one dirt box was 30" and it was very comfortable to work with. Being semi ambidextrous I like my hand pump om the right, as I don't have to fumble around with the tongs, that I hold in my left. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlpservicesinc Posted July 21, 2023 Share Posted July 21, 2023 Nice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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