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I Forge Iron

Safety advice for a beginner


iDuggitz

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Hello everyone!
 
I am just starting out doing some smithing...well I have't actually STARTED...but...y'know.  It has been a dream of mine since I was a little boy.  I was in a place in British Columbia called "Barkerville" and I saw a smithy hammering out a gold-mining pan.  It's a memory that will always stick with me.
 
Now that I am older and own my own house and a large garage, I have the means to finally start following that dream...
 
I have began collecting tools and a few pairs of tongs (that I will be resurfacing).  I have aquired a few large (3 foot) sections of 1" thick I-Beam that I am going to substitute as an anvil until I manage to acquire one (I have a friend that might be bringing one back for me today from a road trip).  I also have safety gear (leather gloves, glasses, leather smock, etc.).  Of course I also have a large vise, a bench grinder, etc.  Basic stuff.
 
The only thing I need now is a forge.  I am going to be building a propane forge utilizing 2" fire bricks and refractory mortar.  It's just going to be a tiny forge as all I want to do for now is get used to the whole process.  I am a very fast learner, but I don't expect to just be able to pull of a masterpiece by throwing some random piece of metal into the forge and hitting it with my cross-pein.  I want to see how the metal works, moves, bends and folds.  I want to see how hot I need to make it and when to quench, etc.  To be honest, I expect it to be a year before I forge anything even half decent.
 
Now to the whole purpose of this post.  I want to make sure that I don't kill myself or anyone else in the process.  My fiancee fully supports what I want to do, but she is concerned about me burning down the garage.  I have been relentlessly reading the forums here and haven't really found any solid answers to my questions.
 
1.) If I am running a tiny propane forge in a large, 2 car garage, do I require any ventilation?
 
-I have read a few posts that say yes, and some that say no.  I can obviously leave a window or the overhead doors open, but is that enough?  The last thing I need is to leave my fiancee a widow shortly after I marry her.
 
2.) The garage is made out of wood and has a gravel floor.  Is there any precautions I need to take as far as fireproofing is concerned?  If a hot piece of metal hits one of the walls, is it going to instantly combust?
 
I have been working in the paint industry (industrial, architectural and marine coatings) for over 11 years now.  I easily have access to fire-resistant coatings, but they are extremely expensive...even for me.  So if I can help it, I would prefer to not have to use them.
 
The other thing you guys need to know is that I will be selling this house next year and we will be purchasing one together.  Yes, a shop with a concrete floor is mandatory...or the property for me to build one.  So I don't want to sink vast amounts of money into the building itself.  I am already renovating the entire house myself, I don't want to add the garage to it if I can help it.
 
Any advice from you awesome people would be greatly appreciated - and more importantly - listened to.
 
Cheers!
 
P.S. I look forward to being a part of this wonderful online community.
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1.) If I am running a tiny propane forge in a large, 2 car garage, do I require any ventilation? 
             Only if you intend to breathe, buy a CO detector and if it starts going up get more ventilation!  (tiny you mean like 4' cube compared to the forges that take train cars?  Of do you mean "tiny" like a 1 soft firebrick forge compared to my Oxygen tank forge?)
 
2) The garage is made out of wood and has a gravel floor.  Is there any precautions I need to take as far as fireproofing is concerned?  If a hot piece of metal hits one of the walls, is it going to instantly combust?
              Used metal roofing makes a nice hot metal proof siding inside an old garage. Easily applied and removed when you leave. As for fire resistant coatings US$10 of borax mixed with water should "whitewash" a lot of wall!  I worked for 15 years in a 1920's garage with nothing on the walls.  When hot metal hits it would smolder/flame and I'd throw a cup of water on it after picking up the hot piece.  (two months after we left it burned down mysteriously...)
 
I have found my sand floor much more comfortable to my back and feet than a concrete floor (half my shop is sand, half concrete)
 
You know that I beam will be very LOUD and not work as well as half that amount of metal in a solid cube.
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Excellent! Never thought of a dirt floor. Thought it might be better with concrete haha. As for my "small" forge, it will be 2 bricks high by 2 bricks deep. So not even 8" by 8". As for the i-beams, I actually just got a line on a few different anvils! I am going to check them out and buy one one way or another haha.

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There are good and bad points to a dirt floor. It's a real nightmare if you have any sort of water issues. Mud sucks. It's also hard to move heavy items around on. Pallet jacks, and small wheeled carts don't deal well with dirt floors. I will admit it's easier on the back, that is unless you have to lie on the ground under something...  Concrete has it's own pluses and minuses. I've worked off dirt, gravel, blacktop and concrete floored shops over the years. Given a choice I think I prefer concrete for most things. But then again I usually use shop space for so many things, metal working, machining, woodworking, auto repair/plow maintenance. painting...

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Can you make a sturdy layout table from the I beams?

 

Concrete's a great floor---easy to move equipment around on; hard to lose small items/tools in; but putting a concrete floor in my 20x30 shop addition would have cost me about twice as much as it cost me to build it!.  Instead I boxed it in with pressure treated lumber and filled it with the sand/gravel mix from my local arroyo---and discovered how much nicer it was on my feet, ankles, knees, hips and back than the concrete  floor in the "old half"  (rather a misnomer as the old half was built with new materials and the new half was built with old used materials)

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Welcome aboard, glad to have you. If you'll put your general location i the header you might be happy to discover how many of the IFI gang live within visiting distance.

 

Yes ventilate! Or can you make your kit portable enough to put the forge outside the roll up door while your smithing? I'm rooting for you finding an anvil, that I beam is going to truly SUCK as an anvil. It'll work but your ears will ring if you wear plugs AND muffs not to mention how much your neighbors will hate you.

 

A little modification of Thomas's suggestion re. roofing tin. You can make an easily moved screen you can set up around the anvil and forge while you work and fold up out of the way when you're not. Taking a garden spray bottle of borax solution to the wood in the garage will go a long way to making it fire resistant. NOT fire PROOF, resistant.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

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DSW - I do agree with you in all aspects.  I think I might do a dirt floor just to be comfortable while working and simply deal with any other issues that may come of it.  Ideally, I will have a garage at my new house on top of having my own shop so that I can do any other work in there :-)  I walk around on a concrete floor for 11 hours a day already....so the dirt might be a nice change.
 
Thomas - That is actually an AWESOME idea for the I-Beams!  A layout table or maybe a stand for the anvil?
 
Frosty - Thank you for the warm welcome :-)  I updated my profile like you suggested.  I thought that I did that already, but I was mistaken.
 
With the size and construction of my forge, it would actually be very easy to make it portable.  I will just pop it outside one of the overhead doors when forging.  Ventallation successful!
 
As for the anvil, I have decided to wait to forge anything until I do actually own one.  The very last thing I want to do is xxxx of my neighbors.  That and having an anvil would just be bloody awesome!
 
I just found out about a place in Hinkley, MN that has several anvils for sale, along with antique smithing tools.  My birthday is coming up in October, so I cam going to see if I can convince the fiancee to buy me a new toy :-D  It's a 5 hour drive from my location, but I think it would be well worth the travel time.
 
I actually really, REALLY like the idea of making the portable screen!  I can definitely do that in the current garage without making any expensive modifications.
 
As for the Borax, it definitly wouldn't hurt!
 
Thanks guys.  I can't wait until I get up and running!
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