I just wanted to share the pics of my homemade adobe lined charcoal forge. I had a wild hair last fall, so put it together then, after becoming disgusted with the cost of propane for my regular dual burner beast. Since I was making one anyway, I could design it to handle longer pieces as I principally forge blades. This unit is handmade, including the hand cranked blower unit. Yes, I just used what was laying around...  :D  :ph34r:

 

 

 

The forge unit is made from an old electric roaster pan, and two steel tv trays which I chopped a side off and set in a 'V' shape and lined with adobe. I know the adobe will crack and flake, but it is easily patched or replaced. No biggie. The tuyere is 1" black pipe, and the air inlet is a 1 1/2" nipple. I designed it so that I can remove the end pipe cap easily for cleaning. Truthfully, if I had to I could line this sucker with ordinary dirt due to my design.

 

 

 

 

Here is my hand cranked blower. As you can see, it is 'V' belt driven with the main drive pulley being an old bicycle rim. I brazed nuts to the rim to attach a handle, and the handle is a bolt covered with loose fitting hard rubber. Believe it or not this unit is all ball bearing construction, as I sunk two bearing races into the wood support for the blower driveshaft. Sitting on the end is a quicky steel reducer cone I made as an adapter from the blower output to the tuyere inlet pipe.

 

 

 

I believe the fan itself came from a dryer, but don't quote me on this. I happened to have it on a shelf. The cage is made from an old large popcorn tin I cut down.

 

This unit actually works great, and develops quite a bit of air output for very little cranking effort.

 

I just thought you guys might enjoy this redneck project I threw together.

awesome way to use what you have available, your ability to use scrap and make it useful in my opinion is the basis of black smithing (well it's the part i like anyways)

Interested to see what else you can come up with.

Well played sir! The blower unit is very similar to ones I've seen in pictures from Viet Nam, an old guy made his living making hand crank blowers out of old bicycles.

 

Your adobe won't heat check as much if you first mix in sand and then ram it in damp. The sand will allow it to move internally as it thermal cycles and not laying it as mud the particles won't bind as tightly so it can flex a little as it expands and shrinks.

 

All in all it's an excellent build.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

Inspiring!  Very interesting work!

That is awesome thanks for the idea of the round container I was trying to figure how to build that out of flat sheet metal. 

Nicely done! The Christmas popcorn tin adds a festive touch!

For all those that whine " I can't find any equipment around here " , this thread is your key to whats up in smithing.  Good job bud.

cool!--- gives new meaning to "I'm going for a spin" :D

Pauldude,  this is absolutely WIZARD!!!  You are a genius! I can't wait to try the blower; I think I've got a tin somewhere... :D

Well played sir! The blower unit is very similar to ones I've seen in pictures from Viet Nam, an old guy made his living making hand crank blowers out of old bicycles.

 

Your adobe won't heat check as much if you first mix in sand and then ram it in damp. The sand will allow it to move internally as it thermal cycles and not laying it as mud the particles won't bind as tightly so it can flex a little as it expands and shrinks.

 

All in all it's an excellent build.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

Thank you all for your kind words, and I am glad everyone enjoyed the build.

 

The adobe is a sand/clay mix which I rammed in wet, and let dry. I expect it to spall due to the fact that I used bentonite clay, which doesn't bond quite as well as kaolin or fireclay, and has a high shrinkage value. That is why it cracked on the ends in drying. The saving grace is that bentonite is a high temp clay and is extremely cheap in the form of some kitty litters.

 

For anyone wanting to try using kitty litter, make sure it is 100% clay. This is the super cheap unscented kitty litter, which is clumping and is not "dust free". Check the bag, and if in doubt leave it on the shelf. 

 

I call it adobe, but it is actually a homemade refractory mix. If I remember correctly, my mix is 2 parts sand, 2 parts clay, 1 part perlite. (Don't use vermiculite. Both are high temp volcanic materials, but Vermiculite is porous like foam rubber and readily absorbs and retains water, while perlite is like closed cell foam beads.)

Do you have a compressor? Run a hose with an needle valve adjuster for air volume.

 

Neil

How does the V style forge work for you? Does the air pipe get clogged at all? What size holes are in the black steel pipe?

 

Im thinking of switching from my basic bowl style to something like this to make my blade forging easier.

Anyone know of an alternate location for the pictures from this? 

Search on Tim Lively forge or neo tribal metalsmiths or adobe forge.  Designed for charcoal that doesn't require much blast using a compressor is way overkill in the "Look how much money I can throw away" if you want a powered blast a cheap yardsale blowdryer will put out WAY MORE than you need.

 

Note when I used this type of forge, (about a decade before the NTM's popularized it),  I made a ramrod to go in the tuyere pipe so I could control the length of the fire as except for heat treating you don't want to heat more of the blade than you will work on before it gets cold at the anvil.. Heating more increases grain growth, decarburization and scale losses all bad things for blades!

Very nicey done! That should serve you well.