Charcoal Forge design

[Iron Song]

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a241/kovona/Forging/ForgeRoughSketch_zpsa95de66b.jpg

 

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a241/kovona/Forging/ForgeCrossSectionDimensions_zpse1a3fcbe.jpg

 

This is what I have in mind for my first forge. Its gonna be a square box made from 2x8s with a plywood bottom, some bricks and gravel arranged into a trough shape that would be covered in 1 inch of Hawthorne flint clay mix. The front piece is gonna have a curved lip so I can stick my steel deeper beneath the charcoal. My air supply is a 120v leaf blower, but I might make a hand cranked rotary blower from sheet aluminum in the future.

 

I went by what I can remember from Lone, some links the guys at chat gave me, and pictures from a basic blacksmithing book. I gave myself 7 inches depth in the firepot. The top-wise dimensions is about 12x12 inches, is that too small?

 

Anything I should change or add? Thanks in advance :) .

[ThomasPowers]

In general: if you don't tell us what you are trying to do it's hard to give advice: Forging knives is quite different in forge requirements than making large gates so: "is that too small?" *YES*, *NO*, *MAYBE* depending on information *you* have but did not provide *us*.

Anyway:
1 the leaf blower is way *way* WAY too much air as well as being noisy. I don't know where you are at but in general it helps to NOT annoy the neighbors when forging. A blow drier is generally too much air for a charcoal forge. I'd suggest hunting for a quieter smaller blower. Modern high efficiency furnaces often use a small blower as an exhaust assist. You might ask at a HVAC company if they had a bone pile of used furnaces that you could get a blower from. Tell them what you want to do with it as people are often very interested in forging and will often go out of their way to help you.

2 depending on what you are making the 12" wide is very wide. Pretty much all the charcoal in the forge area will burn so any not directly involved in heating your piece is a waste of fuel. When I use charcoal in my coal forge I put fire bricks in the firepot to make a narrow deep trough to hold the charcoal. Perhaps you could engineer in a shelf that you could set firebrick on to keep the firepot smaller but could remove if you needed a wide fire for a specific task.

[Iron Song]

I throttle the leaf blower by adjusting the angle of the air to the tuyere pipe, but yeah I definitely need an alternative. That shelf thing sounds like a great idea, I can probably mold something from the flint clay and add handles. I'm mostly gonna be shaping and welding together small items like short blades or axeheads.

 

 

I'm setting up shop in a upper end suburban neighborhood, and despite what most would think, noise is not an issue here. My neighbors' gardeners have no qualms about coming in at 8:00 am like clockwork with their leaf blowers and lawnmowers to wake me from my sleep. No one complains, so I don't either. I think as long as I pack it in by dusk, I should be fine. I was using a hair dryer earlier, but it melted after a 2 hour bout.

[Charles R. Stevens]

First order of buisness on a hairdryer, disable the heating eliment.
Second is to protect the drier from radiant heat. Third, scam a sewing machine rheostat. Lol, sounds like my set up back in junior high.
Ps, don't hijack moms hairdryer or sewing machine rheostat, makes her very unhappy. Mine still holds a grudge, 32 years later!

[ThomasPowers]

Having had a student shut down from forging by their neighbors complaints to the city I still suggest you get over heavy ground as lightly as possibly.

My idea on the shelf was just to have a step molded into the sides that you could stick bricks on as wanted or needed

[PaulKrzysz]

Remember 2x8's are not really 2'' by 8''. I do not remember the exact measurements but grab a 2x10 instead and yo should be fine.

[Iron Song]

Remember 2x8's are not really 2'' by 8''. I do not remember the exact measurements but grab a 2x10 instead and yo should be fine.

 

I got them already, just some old ones my dad has for roofing support. I'll make up the difference with some smaller lumber.

[Maillemaker]

What is your front made of?  If it is a combustible material, make sure you clay it in a similar fashion to the rest of the firepot.

 

Check out Tim Lively's washtub forge here http://timlively.com/arrowheadwtf.htm It might answer some questions you have.

[eric sprado]

GenAir blowers from their exhaust systems are DANDY blowers. Very Quiet.. Control air with a lid from Johnson's Wax can attached with one screw so you can open or close air intake..