Hi guys, just looking to see what you think of my set up, Designed mainly to make the sharp and pointy things which is why I went for a open trough forge which allows for long objects to be inserted into fire easily and will help with heat tempering.

Just got the jumping castle blower worked out with some random DIYing in the garage.

Also finished making my stump and mounted the anvil at a nice height.

Made a quick video which can be viewed here: http://youtu.be/pjNpiYuI-wM

Added some fire bricks awhile back to try and get more heat, not too sure if it worked or not, I use charcoal in the forge as it is the simplest to obtain.

Seeing if there is some things I could to to improve my set up as it has been set up from a wide range of things i've seen, heard about and guessed at.

Thanks for watching

 

Charcoal likes a deep fire, the fire will spread to all of the charcaol on the froge if not kept under control (water)! Looks like it should work! You can always set more brick on their sides, on top of the angled ones, to get more height=deeper fire!

Love the can adapter/reducer!!!!!

 

I would suggest turning the forge so the other end is nearest the anvil! It will protect the air hose... sooner or later you will drop a red hot piece of steel... it will go through that hose and not even slow down, and happen at the worst time!

Great setup.....  LIke the blower, but it may be a bit more than needed...

 

Dale

Thanks, still trying to work out how i like things to be in the garage, yeah i should move the plastic
away from hot stuff.
Rather more air then less, bleeding most air off currently

Make sure you wear better footwear when forging! :)

I am generally a flip flop kinda guy for the convenience factor, If things drop around the shop I bail like no tomorrow automatically (bit of a dance really).

I usually wear a pair of thick rubber gum boots if doing lite grinding where I am just avoiding small sparks (have all the other safety gear on though)

Thinking I might get a designated set of clothing for forging( Boots, old jeans, long sleeved cotton shirt) that way I dont get small holes in all my clothes lol

Picked up a long leather apron which looks good, already got the ears and eyes covered, and got some thick long welding gloves if doing a job where gloves are the rage.

But there was nothing on fire in that video Jim so Japanese safety shoes it was  :D 

Looks good, a good set up. Charcoal will spread without airm so you might want to invest in a movable shee metal piece to keep the charcoal localized to the air. The main question: Does it get metal hot enough?

Was getting just up to forging temp and hardening temp with it. Was having issues getting to welding temp tho.

My solution was to add the fire bricks, add 60% more holes to my air tube and increase the air input via a bigger blower.

I also have coke that I can switch to if it will make things hotter. Have not got to testing the modifications yet, But i think it should get hot enough for welding now.

The charcoal seems to be lumpy enough to stay in a clump around the air source to not require metal sheets, Ill think about it next time i got it going tho.

Thanks

Well, if it is not getting hot enough, add more air. Fuel only controls the depth. Coke WILL get very hot, but will also require constant air. Try adding air and then let us know how it works.