Begining of my first forge!

[Soldierz]

So this is the progress on my first forge. i used a water heater tank that had been lying around in my yard. using an old inducer motor from a furnace for my bellows.

[Soldierz]

update. i worked on it a little more tonight. instead of putting the blower through the whole, im going to take the 2 feet piece of flue i cut out of it and make a hole for it and just push it in and jb weld it to the flue still inside. then ill form the blower vent to the pipe and put a screw in on top. that way its easier to change out. hard part is making a hole in the flue already in the tank without cutting out the sides.

[Drewed]

You are going to need some way to empty the ash and other junk out of the burner flue/ tuyere pipe.  Also you will want line the "pan" with some type of clay or cement or you will burn threw it quickly.

[Soldierz]

going to use a bucket of water at the bottom of the pipe. someone mentioned that in chat. ill have to find something to line it with then. didnt know if it would hold up or not.

[Soldierz]

so i looked up that clay would make it rust faster and that i should use high temp paint. but i can only find high temp paint up to 1000 C. and the coal by the looks of it gets way higher. dont know if i should risk the paint or not. i can always get a water heater with me being plumbing heating and air XD

[GRiley904]

When I coated my forge with clay I picked up a can of primer/sealer and sprayed in a thick coat trying not to shoot runs in my pan but I suppose that doesn't really matter considering it will be covered, any way, seal it first and you should be ok. I don't know how long it will last or if I wasted my money but logic supports it.

[GRiley904]

Dp

[GRiley904]

Tp

[Soldierz]

that sounds like a plan. ill go ahead with that. dont know if i can  trust high heat paint lol. i know clay is good.

[Frosty]

Looks like you have the basic idea down though it could use some fine tuning. Search the IFI forge section for the 55 forge. What you're doing is very similar but the 55forge is more refined being designed by a working blacksmith.

 

Forget about high heat paint, even if it were proof against coal forge heat the expansion and contraction of the pan on the thermal cycling would flake it right off. This isn't like headers or a stove so header/stove paint isn't the answer.

 

laying a coat of paint to protect the pan and then ramming in clay liner is workable. Ram the clay, you ask? Yeah, thermal cycling will effect everything in the fire zone so you need to take it into account. First is your "clay" mix: 1pt. Fire clay to 1pt, mason's silica sand to 1/4-1/3 pt. Portland cement. Thoroughly mix it dry, then add only enough moisture so the mix will form a ball when squeezed in your hand. If it crumbles it's too dry add a LITTLE more, if it leaves smears on your hand it's too wet, add some sand. Break it inhalf, it should break into two clean(ish) pieces.

 

Now ram it into the forge pan with a wooden mallet or the end of a baseball bat or lay a short piece of lumber down and use a hammer. Ram it in lifts of no more than about 1.5" before ramming, if you need to lay another lift, score the surface to provide a bonding surface, a nail will work. Once you have the pan lined to about 1.5"-2" rammed let it dry completely, a couple days unless you live in a high humidity area, then a light bulb hung over it will help.

 

As a last step before drying it I like to burnish it with a piece of burlap till it almost shines. This may seem a little silly but the smoother the surface is the less junk will stick to it and the longer it'll last.

 

Uh, that's it for the pan and liner. your air grate is okay, lots of guys drill plates for them, my large forge as a drilled plate. Glenn likes laying 1/2" +/- rod with about 1/2" gaps to form a bar grate and it has good reviews.

 

Your air supply needs some work. Know anybody with a welder? Welding makes these things so much easier than the hassle of trying to redo JB Weld joints. At least use muffler tape and cure it in the oven. You really need a door under the pan so you can clean the ash and service bucket. Why put water in the ash bucket? Certainly you don't plan on doing much forging on the lawn, dry weeds, leaves, etc. do you? If so you're REALLY gonna need a charged hose right there all the time.

 

I like using exhaust pipe for my air supply, it welds easily, you can cut it with a hacksaw and match for intersections with a hole saw, it welds very easily and best of all you can buy flap caps. What's with the flap cap you ask? Well, they make them for virtually any size exhaust pipe, they clamp on and if you put one upside down on the bottom end of the vertical section of your air supply it makes a ready made ash dump. You'll need to add a little extra to the counter weight to keep the cap against the pipe but that's no biggy.

 

That aught to do it for this installment. <grin>

 

Frosty the Lucky.