Legs for 55 gallon forge

[carlson]

I was thinking of using 1 in. EMT conduit for the legs of a 55 gallon drum forge but wanted to bounce it off you guys to see if you had a feel for whether or not they'd be stout enough.

 

 

I have a brake rotor my brother-in-law gave me and I picked up a 55 gallon barrel last weekend.  I still have a section of 3/4 inch black pipe from my previous side blast forge attempt.  I'm thinking of rigging it up as a side blast and spending some time at it and possibly changing it to a bottom blast as funds and/or necessity allows it.  As it is right now I have a cheap 5 gallon bucket shop vac that I can use for a bit.

 

I would like to do the cut out hole version shown in the blue prints '?do=embed' frameborder='0' data-embedContent>>.  All this just to give you a feel for the weight involved.

 

Assuming you think it'll work, If I buy a 10 ft section and cut that into 3 pieces that are 3ft 4in long.

 

Should I hammer the 4 inches flat and bolt them to the body of the barrel?  Or would it be more likely to bend that way and I'd be better off with longer bolts that go through an unsmooshed conduit end.

 

I feel like angle iron would be better but unless I can find some laying around the conduit is significantly cheaper than brand new angle iron.

 

Thanks for the help,

 

Brian

[carlson]

Also, would keeping the lid on the top and adding 4 feet or so of 8 in. duct do anything more draw wise than just removing the lid?  I don't have another 55 gallon drum to connect for the Supercharger version.

[Glenn]

I use 8 cinder blocks, 4 on each side to support my 55 Forge. It gives good support to the pan and leaves the area below the forge open for when you build a bottom blast, or ash.

 

 

 

One fellow used a potty chair for a stand to support his 55 Forge.

 

What ever you use, you should make it overly stout and add enough room for a hot table to the side.

[carlson]

Glenn where would you position the side blast pipe in relationship to the brake rotor?

 

Lay it on the edge?  Or does it need to be a bit higher up.  Angled up or down any?

 

In another thread I believe you or another poster said to have the end about 1/4 of the way inside the inner diameter of the rotor.

 

[Glenn]

You adjust the pipe so the fireball is roughly centered in the rotor or brake drum.

 

I placed the pipe about 2-3 inches higher than the top of the rotor, a bit lower for a brake drum. Again you want to watch the fireball and adjust as needed.

[DSW]

1" EMT should work just fine for legs, but you will probably want to brace them. Some sort of cross supports or diagonals would work to keep the legs in place so it doesn't want to collapse to the side if bumped.

[ThorsHammer82]

get two sections of conduit. cut one into three 3'4" sections. Hammer the top 3" flat and bolt to drum. Hammer the bottom 1" flat and fold over to act as a foot. cut  the section to fit the distance between the legs about 1/2" up the legs +3" Hammer 1.5" on each end flat and wrap around the legs. over lap the ends and put a single bolt through each leg to hold the legs solid.

 

Note, when you flatten the top part of the legs it should cause the leg when placed against the drum to angle outward from the drum (hint you want the round part of the conduit to be in contact with the drum as well as the flat part). I'd mark the drum at 4" above the bottom lip and line the top of the legs up with the mark. This should give you a wider base than top. This will help with stability.

[Steve Sells]

the 1 inch thin wall pipe will work for a while,  until it gets s  a good bump from the side.  why not get the 1inch IMT (intermediate) or even rigid and not have to worry ?