J W Bennett Posted May 28, 2007 Share Posted May 28, 2007 Having always used propane except for a breif beginning with a brake drum forge I decided to revisit coal after using a good coal forge for a week at JCCFS. It's amazing the difference good equipment can make! I looked thru the scrap pile and the metal racks and came up with enough stuff to build one. The side draft hood is modeled after the one at JCCFS as is the slide gate and ash dump. The hood is 34"w40"t and 11 1/2"d. I built a smoke shelve into it because the one down there had one and it had a good draw to it. The flue pipe is 10' and extends 5' above the roof line of the shop. The forge table is a table I used for my old brick forge. It is 36"x40". Since it already had steel grating for a top I welded some old 3/16" shelving together to make the pan. The firepot is made from 1/4" diamond plate because that is what I have on hand. The design for the firepot came from the how to section of blksmth.com. If it works out I will make one out of heavier plate in the future. The clinker breaker is made of 1/2"hrrs and 1/4" plate. I will just have to wait and see how it holds up The slide gate is made of 1/4" scrap. I didn't get any pictures of the linkage and the bell crank assembly from JCCFS so I just winged it. So far it works smooth and controls the airflow well. The Ash dump is your standard counterweight set up. The blower motor was scrounged off of a piece of surplus equipment. I did have to buy 15' of 10" flue pipe and believe me it did hurt my feelings to do so. I have had 2 test fires in it so far and the hood draws good and I have more than enough air. I will try to weld some chain tomorrow. If all goes well I will paint it tomorrow night to try to make a silk purse out of a sows ear. John Comments and suggestions welcome Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skunkriv Posted May 29, 2007 Share Posted May 29, 2007 Nicely built forge. Really deserves a better blower. That one will not be enough. Very few squirrel cage blowers are satisfactory. They fall short when trying to overcome the backpressure to blow through an 8" pile of coal, ash, clinkers and crap. Yes it will "work" but you will soon realize not anything like the ones you used at Campbell. You need a blower with a paddle type impeller as opposed to the squirrel cage. They are more of an air pump and are designed to work against some amount of backpressure. This is why many people use vacuum cleaner blowers. They are too noisy for me but they do work great. Are you going to the Indiana Blacksmith Assoc. conference this weekend? Should find a good blower there. If you find me I'll buy you a beer :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J W Bennett Posted May 29, 2007 Author Share Posted May 29, 2007 The only day I have free is Sunday unless I can get someone to trade days with me. If I do get a chance to go I'll take you up on that beer;) As far as the blower goes I will keep my eye out for a good one. Thanks for the info. John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blacksmith Jim Posted May 29, 2007 Share Posted May 29, 2007 I just got my forge set up with a blower left over from a kids bouncing play structure. The thing is awesome. It's quite, and the blower looks about the size of an old hand crank. Its model was an ENP air pump. I had a hard time finding too much info on it online. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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