So I haven't really posted much on this forum. I've been reading so much and getting new ideas that I never had the time..... Annnnnnd let's be honest, I have nothing to offer. But I decided to build my first smithy. This is my first big thread so kinda bear with me. I started off with this forge. nothing too extraordinary, just another brake drum forge. It worked well but the drum itself was 8 inches across. And I'm intending on making mostly knives, so big choppers are out of the picture with this forge. So now I need a bigger one. But since I'm making it bigger, I need to make it permanent. So I made room in my garage for it. isn't my wife an excellent model? Next I went to the scrap yard to find a large steel table. I ended up coming home with a shipping crate. It was about the right height, depth, and width I was looking for. I can weld the rest on. Here is a mock up in the garage. so far so good. Now the hard part. To buy a fire pot or make one? Lets make one! 3/8" plate steel, a trip to a weld shop to cut the pieces, some late night welding and VUALA! 2 fire pots for under 50 bucks. not quite done when these pics were taken. My humblest apologies! 11"x15" at the top. 2 inch pipe hole. Back to the table.... Lots of cutting, cussing, grinding, hitting, and welding and the table is now done. mock up with my blowers. I think this will do just fine. Now I need to get to the hood and chimney. And THAT is going to be the hard part. And suggestions? Thanks for reading.

That looks pretty good to me. I dont know anything yet about hoods chimneys yet.

Do 2 side draft hoods, if I wasn't going for looks with my hood I would smash it and do a side draft, or a straight 12 in. Pipe right over the pots straight out the top. Look around on here lots of info..

Nice shop area... and I love the "go big or go home" approach, jumping from a brake drum forge to a self built, two pot forge... nice. You wife looks like she's having fun "helping" :). Isn't it great to have a wife that backs up our desire to try new things? My wife has been very supportive of my desire to learn this art... {she thinks it's sexy.... LOL}

I was planing on making a single hood going over the top with the bottom of it resting at 18 inches above the table with a 10 inch chimney going straight up out of the roof. Side drafts look pretty cool, but the wall it's on faces south and wouldn't get enough air passing by to create the vacuum needed unless I shot the pipe straight up. As I understand it, the more bends u have in a pipe, the less vacuum u have. I figured straight up and extend it 2 feet out of the roof.
Thanks bombrey. I knew this was going to be a big project. I thought I might as well do it right and not have to rebuild it in a year. My wife thinks it is awesome that I " make something out of nothing". She helps me a lot with my projects. She broke off and started her own projects now. She makes things out of shipping pallets. But the most awesomest part ever is she wanted me to build her a forge 2! That's y I went ahead and built 2.

A Hood with a 10 in pipe will NOT work! Save your time and money I'm telling you I just went through this. Mine just barely works ,hood closed both sides 16 or so inch front with straight 12 inch pipe 3 foot over roof line...

Pugh I checked out ur smithy build. Very nice! I won't be able to hit THAT status, but I'm going to try my best. How deep is your table? It seems kind of shallow. Mine is 3'3". Probably a little overkill but it won't hurt anything. I'll take ur advice and go with 12" piping. I think I'm going to stick with my hood idea for now, build it, try it out and modify if I need to. What kind of paint did u use?( in my mind... Probably wrong, but) The only drawback to using a 12" pipe is creating the high pressure area inside the forge that vacuums out into the lower pressure air outside(similar to a carburetor in motorcycles) I know passing air aids in creating that low pressure, but won't a bigger pipe take away from that effect?

You might want to take pugs advice and read up on hoods and chimneys. First, the chimney needs to extend above the highest point of the roof for good draft, second, 18" between the hood and table will lead to stooping over, and cussing if you need to shift something big and heavy in to the fire. Trust me you will try and get something big in there, that fire pot just asked for it. Think of how much fun working in your kitchen if the uppers extended out to the edge of the counter. Hood up atleast as high as your head, or a foot smaller than the table all the way around. Higher is better.
All that said, the rest is coming along beautifully.

Do y'all have any thread links that talk about it? All the ones I saw had just bits and pieces

Just make the hood adjustable so for start up you can have it low then when you are up and running good you can move it up. You can do that with flaps (sides) that hinge up or remove or you can use garage springs on the corners to move the hood up and down or you can use ropes and pulley. you just need a chimney section to fit inside of your chimney to allow the hood to move up and down.

One flue per pot, or the hood will be too big if you have only one pot burning at a time.  You can solve this by putting a barrier between the two pots so that the heat from the working pot creates a vacuum and draws the just enough air out of the working chimney.

 

Brian Brazeale has a 12" pipe hanging  just inches over his fire.  No hood at all. Maybe 18" over the hot zone.  And it draws like a champ.  If you can't go straight up through the roof, try going out the wall and then up.  A side-sucker hofi-style chimney gets rave reviews from folks that have tried it.

 

Your forge looks fantastic.  I'm very jealous of your fabbing skills!!

Thank y'all for ur responses, and more for ur positive, constructive advice. I hate reading threads where people bag each others ideas. I had my dad draw out my idea for my hood. I'm posting 2 pictures, one a cad drawing and one of my inspirations off of this forum. ( I'm sorry for stealing these pics, but I figure it could best describe the route I am looking to take)

Matto- the extra plate on the front that can hinge down is a fantastic idea. I think I might just go for that. Thank u.

VaughnT- thank you for the kind words. This is actually my very first fabrication project and my first welding project. It has been a BLAST! Try it out when u get the chance.

Some action pics!

Nothing to do with my forge build, but these are my first 2 knives and my first big chopper blank.

Good luck with that. At least your shop is big it will take some time to fill with smoke..lol..your just like me... just had to have a Hood....lol

Personally, I love the look of a forge with a hood.  It's something traditional.......

 

But, in picture 2/7, those pots have separate hoods and a blower to evacuate the smoke.  Picture 3/7 looks very nice for a hooded forge, single pot, and I'd love to have it for my own...... but we don't know how he's set up.  Might be a very windy location that naturally draws the smoke from the chimney, or he could have blower assist.

 

Not to say you shouldn't give it a whirl, though.  As good as you are with the fabrication (can't believe you're tigging that thing!!), I'm sure you'll succeed at whatever you come up with.

I sure hope that's the case vaughnt. Pugh is almost making me second guess my whole design. Does anyone have any references into the "science" of chimneys and hoods, side drafts, etc? All I've been going on is pictures and people saying yes that'll work great or no it won't work, but they never explain why.

Do what you won't, mine work's, it could be Better though! It all depends on what you are looking for in you're shop. If you do it use 2 12inch pipes straight up and at least 2 feet over roof line, at least that's where I would start..

Not to change the subject to much but how do people exhaust their propane forges in tighter spaces. Do they use hoods over them or do some sort of point vacuum?

I use a side draft hood. The hood is about 4' tall. The chimney is a piece of 10" pipe about 5' long. It works. I burn coke. I use wood to start fires(fat lighter). Lots of flame and smoke until wood is burned up. The flames and smoke turn 90 degrees at the top of forge and enter the hood. Nothing escapes that sucker(pun intended ;) ). Overhead hoods are less efficient due to the distance from the fire, they draw a lot of cooler ambient air which reduces the draw. A side drat sits at the top of the fire and is much less affected by the surrounding air.