Did iforgeiron lose some threads during the recent servers issues? There was a thread going about the new forge i'm working no but now i can't find it.

Anyways here's an update. I got the forge 99% done, just need some flexpipe to connect the blower to the bottom of the forge. I did a test last saturday burning some wood in the firepot using a vacume cleaner hoze to connect the blower.

It's working good, new chimney is having good draw, and this was with little to no wind outside and with the garage door open on the shop.

Here's some pics posted rudimentarily on my own web site cuz i can't post pics in the gallery right now...

We lost only a few posts in the move to the new server. Please replace any post that you find missing.

Feukair...

I have been looking for the plans to that style of side draft hood. Where did you find the plans, or did you design it on your own? It looks great!

Peyton

I didn't have a plan per se... but i do have a picture of the hood without the sheetmetal on so you can see how it's made.

Also, we didn't work to specific dimensions, we made it as big as we could to fit in the space we had with the materials we had. Most of the pieces of scrap sheet metal we had were about 30" by 24" so thats roughly the size of the hood. I'll post some better pics of the whole thing too.

Lt

WOW, looks great, you did an awesome job. How much for one?

Haha! Considering how long it takes me to do this stuff (i'm just a beginner hobbyist), and how much i consider my free time to be worth these days, I'd have to charge thousands to get back what i feel like i put into it... the whole new forge project, table, firepot, clinkerbreaker, hood, chimney, took weekends and weekends of my time hehe...

Lt

Yeah, that is a really nice forge, and did you fab the fire pot also?

I built my side draft hood using the plans on this website Steel s-draft drawing It draws really good. Do you have a drawing for that fire pot? I would like to make one for a portable forge I plan to build.

Yeah i made the fire pot also. I will post some specifics of how its made. I took a couple paper templates to a steel place and asked for 1/4" plate steel cut to the sizes i need, and some 4" square steel tube. I don't know how well my design will work yet, also i've seen the some others have done 3/8" steel plate instead of 1/4". My pot is about 6" deep, i also don't know if that's the right size or not, we'll see once i get to using it. Hopefully this weekend.

Lt

Here's some pics of the hood without the sheetmetal covering, the whole forge, and the chimney outside. Sorry they're a little blurry, these were from a cell phone camera...

That is so cool! I am just building my first forge.

I was wondering how I would put a forge inside my garage.

Now I know.

Christopher

As i understand it a forge draws much better if the chimney goes straight up (through the roof) instead of out a side wall but my dad didn't want to put a hole through the roof. I was nervous about that but it turns out that it draws pretty good anyways in this setup, not near as good as the forges where i took a blacksmith class but good enough to keep me from choking on smoke...

I don't advocate putting a chimney through a window as we did, even though it does go through a piece of sheet metal and is probably separated from the wall farther than it would be if we had used one of those proper spacer sleeves to put the chimney through. Just make sure it's safe. Definitely gotta use 10" pipe.

Lt

When you have used it it few times let us know how it well it draws. I have my pipe run strait up with no bends in it. I'm curious to know if that will have any effect on the draw of the chimney.

New here...

Anyway, I rent a property on an old farm, so I can't make any building mods. I also ran my forge through a window. I used an old box fan to help pull the smoke out the back.

My forge sits about three feet from the window and has a sloping hood that extends down from the top of the window to the firepot. I've used it several times a week for months with no problems. Works great.

I'd post pics, but I just broke it down in preperation for a move. My traveling forge is now my main forge until I get a new place in Charlottesville.

Good work on that design.

Paul Fritz

Looks good...I was quite worried about draw on my chimney design but now that I see yours working I can see that I'm probably going to be ok. Let us know if you have any draw issues.

Well i got to run the forge for just a couple hours last saturday. It works good. Seems to draw good but only once the chimney is nice and warmed up. It wasn't very windy outside. On days when it's windy it draws constantly even when cold.

Here's some pics of the first burning of coal in the new forge. I'm a little worried that i made my fire pot a little too deep. When working on long pieces i'll have to build up a pretty big pile of coal to get the sweet spot of the fire up to the top of the firepot. I'm still pretty in-experienced with that. I think i may have to modify my firepot, cut a couple inches off around the top making it less deep, which will also make it smaller in size unfortunately. I'm still playing with it though. I hurt my foot a couple weeks ago and wasn't able to stand for too long to expiriment. Couple more weeks healing before i can stand at the forge for a whole day... Lt

BTW, i did get some good pics of the firepot and clinker breaker i made. I'll post them soon. I have to modify my clinker breaker design too. Turns out my design doesn't lock the clinker breaker on the rod tightly enough to prevent if from slipping when you turn the rod. I've thought of a better design but it'll take an hour or two of work...

Lt

Here's some pics of the first burning of coal in the new forge. I'm a little worried that i made my fire pot a little too deep. When working on long pieces i'll have to build up a pretty big pile of coal to get the sweet spot of the fire up to the top of the firepot. I'm still pretty in-experienced with that. I think i may have to modify my firepot, cut a couple inches off around the top making it less deep, which will also make it smaller in size unfortunately. ...

Would it be possible to clay the pot instead of chopping it up? At least then you could experiment with different depths. I do not have a formula, but I understand that the cheapest unscented cat litter is plain clay, and one recipe suggested clay, ashes and maybe more ingredients as a crude fire clay. I'm sure some of the more experienced smiths will have an opinion on this.

Thats a great idea... My clinker breaker would be too far below the bottom of the clay i think but i could try it a least to experiment as you say...

How about a refactory cement like satanite or something? There's no where around here sells satanite that i know of, i may have to order some.

Lt

What is the thickness of the steel that you used for your hearth?

I used 1/4" plate steel. I haven't done any forge welding in it yet.

I did get time this weekend to play with the forge some more and I will definitely be making it shorter. I think I'm just going to cut a couple inches off the top of the fire pot all the way around so it will be shallower. It's just to hard to keep the fire going big enough to have the sweet spot of the fire up high enough to lay long pieces across.

Once I get it modified and tested again I'll be posting a picture of the dimensions of the fire pot.

Lt

I just finished making a side draft hood that sits on the end of my Canady Otto forge. I made the hood frame from 1 inch angle iron and covered with 16 gauge sheet metal. Went out the side of the pole building with 8 inch pipe. Once the flue gets warm ( burn a wad of newpaper to heat the flue) it will suck the fire sideways into the flue with a man door open just to the end of the forge and a 10x10 sliding door wide open. I am posting pictures in the gallery, they are to big to post here.

Cory

That is really looking good. You will need to try some of the new Sewell coal that BAM is getting now and really give it a workout. It smokes a lot more that the Pocahontas stuff we had been getting. I may eventually have to go with something like your setup instead of my overhead hood.