After many years, I have finally made a "hopefully" workable idea.  I made a mini-double bellows and tied it to a Lively-style washtub charcoal forge.  I put it in a sorta-portable framework cobbled from scrapwood.  haven't fired it up yet.

bellows is "leathered" with mini-pond liner epdm/rubber sheet staplegunned to the plywood frames.  LImited pictures for now, till I try and fire it up.

I also put a piece of 3.25 round bar I had "laying around" into a buck of concrete for a post anvil I can leave outdoors with limited worry.

cant wait to see the results of the fire.
Looks like a very large fire pot do you plan to fire the whole thing the whole time you use it or block some area off with bricks?

Looks cool Paul. I was out your way last week and picked up some coal on my return trip. Looking forward to seeing it fired up.

 

Mark <><

781, you got it The idea is to block of the un-needed holes - Tim Lively's site shows him using clay to block the offending holes.  That way I figure I can customize the length of the fire.  I did not cut in the notches at either end;  i will see if I regret this.

 

Mark, where'd you get the coal from?  pittsboro area?  I too am anxious to light it up.  I have a 55-gallon drum and a half of pallet charcoal I have had for several years, and a brother in law just gave me 2.5 bags of cowboy lump charcoal.  messages from vulcan

yeah I wanna see some fire to.    Is that first pic called solid steel round anvil in a bucket?    of cement

Borntolate, the bar is a piece of 3.25" round bar about 31" long in a bucket of concrete.  The bar is supported 5 inches from the bottom of the bucket on a "table" of 1/4" square bent into two nesting upsidedown U's with a cross of #5 rebar below the table. 

this is not a striking anvil, rather it will be used as a training anvil for kids and scouts, and can be left outside pretty much indefinitely.  The total weight is between 140 and 150.

The fire was lit!!  With the exception of the state fair, I have very little experience with a solid-fuel forge.  And charcoal is different than coal.  I have several things to do with the forge for tuning, but it works and gets great air flow/pressure.  I lit it last night and knocked out a quick little leaf key hanger/fob out of some 1/2" round.  Now I know what fire-fleas are.  woohoo.