grabbed 2, 18 wheeler truck rims for 5 bucks each.

what do you think about stacking them,  with a brake drum in the middle.

 

or..putting a disc tooth [farm equipment] in the middle

Frodo, what exactly are you wanting to do? I think you're asking about a forge and firepot design. If that's the case I'd make it easy on myself until I knew for a fact what I needed. The best thing to do is look at the 55 forge and build one of those. They're easy to make and work beautifully.

I agree on the forge. Drums and rims can be reperpused but I think they are hard to make forges. The "simple 55" or "55 sideblast) are hard to beat. I oersonaly like side blast. Three legs and the clamping ring off a clamp top make a nice setup, you want the pan 8" now if you cut the sides so that the back of the dum is intact (about a third or the circumference) then cut at an agle up to say 6-8" for a hood. Ad a bit of 12" pipe to the top of this. Yiu get a hood, shade and wind block. 

Bring in a 3/4-1" peice of black pipe , you want the center of the hole in the back wall to be 3 1/2- 3 3/4"of the bottom, and extend the pipe to about 3-4" from the center of the pan (3" for charcoal, 4" for coal) if you place two old bricks (red brick works, 2" thick hard fire brick it better) it will keep you from diging to deap in the ash when you are cleaning out or reforming the forge hole. Then place two more, with notches in the sides to fit the pipe (this keeps the pile fromm burning up or slag geting under it as that is a PITA. An alternitive is to take some plate and make an "L" with a hole for the pipe ( i weld it in so I have I" under the pipe to the floor, and the floor of the "L" is off the botom of the pan 2") this keeps the pipe from burning up, keels from digging all the way to the bottom of the pan, keeps the slag from sticking to the brick. One can do the same with good old clay soil (adobe) and it will fire some what. The trick is to fill the pan up with sand, dirt, ash or somthing so you can form o bowl, for charcoal you want it all the way level with the top, for coal it can be a inch or two below thw top to make room for reserve fuel. So you have 3-4" of fuel under the steel and 2-4" piled on top. 

You do need to do somthing with the sharp edges. And sort an air supply, the simplest air controle is a ball valve or gate valve and blower of chaice (the electric bed inflators work well for this) if you need a bigger fire then get a pool inflator or such. On on off switch is good to (I like a momentary switch i can step on)

Semi drums are of limited utility, especially for a forge, they're just too big. they do however make decent outdoor fire pits and outstanding in ground anchors.

Semi drums are inviting especially seeing as how inexpensively you can pick them up. Think about that, BIG useful looking brake drums are almost always really cheap or freebies.

I'd pass.

Frosty The Lucky.

this is where i am headed,

IMO too heavy mate, go with a 55gal drum filled with sand, save the brake drums for a stand or a pot belly stove

I seriusly suggest you look at the "simple 55 forge" and the "55 side blast forge" the built in hood is a good thing.

 

this is where i am headed,

isnt this a 55 g drum forge?  

 

 

 

 

 

Sorta is, but it's not as quick and easy to make as the one Charles is talking about mate, do a search here for 55gal forge, so easy to make even I can do it! Cheers

It's in the blueprint 100 series