Thanks guys, appreciate your advice and comments. I've been working all week and by the time I get home, its been too late (and dark) to fire it up. But I'm off tomorrow afternoon, so hopefully I can finally get it fired up and broken in.

I fired it up for the first time today and am very pleased with it.  It took a little while to learn to manage the fire and get some coke made.  But once I understood what it wanted, it worked quite well.  I'm glad I put the mouse hole door in the back, I used it a couple times today already - very handy.

 

 

I made a few small things to start out, a bottle opener, a lantern holder and part of a tong rack.  Then my wife came out to watch.  She saw that I was having too much fun, and decided that she wanted to make something too.  Now remember, I'm a green newbie, but discretion being the better part of valor, I said sure and I showed her how to manage the fire, heat up the 1/4" round stock and she forged out a small heart. 

 

 

Well, it wasn't perfect, but she was real happy with it.  So now that she's happy, I can be happy! 

 

 

That's very cool man! You guys look like you had a fun time! And that's what this is all about..

What is the size of the blower fan?

there small , i had one on a home made job i made , think its about 10 in. ? work good though !

 

I measured across the blower housing.  Its about 6.5".  Pretty small, but it works well for the size of the forge.  

Pug, did you ever finish this forge? I was wondering how it looked with the barstool stand...

this is the only one i got , it came out good.... sold as a kit..

 

ndnchf, that is a beautiful forge! There is a good post stickied on here about fire making, and I also wrote my own as a blog post on my blog on how to make a fire. Be sure to keep the coal covering the metal, espeically when using the mousedoor in the back. It is a nice addition, by the way! The whole thing looks like a mighty fine piece of kit to use. But, show us what you made with it! We love to see things like that!

The forge looks sweet! I just picked one up just like it except mine has a heat shield instead of the hood. I am disassembling the blower to clean and repaint everything but I can't seem to separate the blower housing from the gear box housing. Anyone know what I am doing wrong?

Hi Guys,

I thought I'd give you an update on my little forge.  I've been using it for a couple months now and its been really good.  But the fire grate was burning out and I needed to replace it.  I snagged the iron floor drain grate from my wife's laundry room with the promise to replace it with a new one.  While replacing the grate, I decided to install the pressed steel model T brake drum I mentioned earlier.  I fired it up yesterday and forged for about 3.5 hours.  The drum made an improved fireball by holding the fire together better and making it a little taller.  I definitely made it easier to use.  Today I inspected the grate and drum and they looked fine.  Here's a photo with the coals raked away to show the drum.  Overall, a very worthwhile improvement.

 

ndnchf,

 

Was looking at the photo of your wife using the forge, your fire is looks too shallow, center should be 2-3" taller then the rim minimum.  If you go higher then you can create a cave which heats the metal quicker.

 

To make the cave, after you get the fire going good and deep, add green coal over the top and dampen.  Let it burn and coke up, pull a few pieces of coal out to open a small hole into the fire core.  As you work, scrape coal from the inside into the fire, add green coal to the cave arch and keep it damp.  After the cave approaches the size of a tennis ball, you can also slowly break out the far side and now you have a nice tunnel that throws heat at all sides of the iron.  Feed the fire with coke that you have created outside the cave.

 

A soup can on a rod or a cut-off gatorade bottle is your friend with a rivet forge, periodically take a cup full of water and wet the coal outside of the active fire.  This will do 2 things, keep the fire smaller and more efficient and build up a stock of coke as the heat will penetrate the wet coal to boil off the light oils, but not allow the coke to get hot enought to burn.  Also this will prevent you from overheating and shocking your pan (for those of you using cast iron).

 

Have fun.

Rich C.

Thanks for the advice Rich!  With a small forge with no fire pot, it is a bit of challenge getting a good tall fire.  Adding the drum helps to hold the pile together.   

Thanks for the advice Rich!  With a small forge with no fire pot, it is a bit of challenge getting a good tall fire.  Adding the drum helps to hold the pile together.   

 

I stack fire brick around the air grate for depth and shape. I don't have a fire pot at all, just a duck's nest. a shallow depression in the rammed clay liner about 3" dia. to expose the air grate completely. All the rest I do with fire bricks.

 

Frosty The Lucky.