After abortive attempts at overthinking, we settle on a nice rivet forge

[JHCC]

After a couple of abortive attempts to make a coffee can gas forge and a charcoal bucket forge, I decided to make a Tim Lively-style washbasin charcoal forge. Stopping at a local antique/junk shop to see if they had any old washbasins, I was rather surprised to find an old rivet forge that they had recently bought from a local farmer. It had apparently been buried under a pile of junk; judging from the combination of rat's nest and nameless filth (smelling suspiciously like raw sewage) that was clogging the blower, I can well believe it. The leather belt was not in great shape and snapped when I was looking at it in the store. $125 as-is.

Since I’m burning charcoal, I made up a deeper firebox with ash and some fragments of adobe from one of the earlier forges.

 I made a new belt out of some nylon webbing I had lying around.

And here we are, ready to go.

 

On the first firing, it did a good job of heating both some 3/8” round mild steel and a smaller-size jackhammer bit that I’m turning into a small hot-cut hardie. I will definitely be redoing the firebox, to make something more Lively-like, both to be more durable (since I have to move the forge in, out of, and around the garage) and to hold the fire at the right size and the right place.

Edited August 11, 2015 by JHCC

[Frosty]

Nice little forge. A couple little things: the built up section of adobe (duck's nest) needs to be thicker, think fire bricks not pottery. You'll probably want to rotate the duck's nest 90* so you can heat long stock farther in from the end. You're going to want to do some bending and will need the pass through.

Nice score. You might want to search IFI for charcoal retorts or buying lump charcoal is going to kill your pocket book of course being in Ohio there should be good smithing coal available and you'll get better mileage. Check with the local smithing organization, failing that call local farriers if the one you call doesn't burn coal s/he'll know who does and put you in touch.

Frosty The Lucky.

[JHCC]

Entirely agree about the thickness of the duck's nest. Another advantage of where I live in Ohio is that our soil is heavy clay, so materials won't be a problem.

[Charles R. Stevens]

Don't get over rambuctius with the air, charcoal likes it gental. Slow with the crank 

[JHCC]

One of the quirks of this particular forge is that the blower runs very smoothly at low speed, but if you crank it too hard, it starts rattling like a possessed thing. Perfect for charcoal.

[Charles R. Stevens]

Lol, the gods of iron smile on you ;-) 

[JHCC]

Saint Clement and Saint Dunstan, pray for us!

You'll probably want to rotate the duck's nest 90* so you can heat long stock farther in from the end. You're going to want to do some bending and will need the pass through.

I don't I think I want to rotate the ducks nest a full 90 degrees, as longer stock would then interfere with the lever for the blower. After I get back from vacation, I'll take a look at rotating it may be 45 degrees clockwise and shifting the attached shield a little bit counterclockwise.

Edited August 11, 2015 by JHCC

[JHCC]

Took the shield off this morning to look at alternative placements (and to roll the raw edge). Should I be worried that it appears to be galvanized?

[Squirrelonastick]

Took the shield off this morning to look at alternative placements (and to roll the raw edge). Should I be worried that it appears to be galvanized?

Yes apparently.  Apparently burning galvanized metal produces zinc oxide, which is not a good thing to breath.

[JHCC]

Yes apparently.  Apparently burning galvanized metal produces zinc oxide, which is not a good thing to breath.

Well, I know that, but the question is if the shield (which will not be in direct contact with the fire) will be close enough to the heat to generate ZnO fumes.

[JHCC]

Well, I moved the shield and reclayed the pot with rammed earth (the local clay with some sand and wood ashes mixed in). I'll try to get some pictures tomorrow.

[JHCC]

And here is the new duck's nest, rammed in place and drying nicely. I had more clay than I needed, so I decided to line the shield as well. Probably overkill, but what the heck.

And here's another view. The duck's nest is about 6" deep, grate to rim.

[arkie]

Where are you going to put the green coal around your fire to let it convert to coke?

The only place I see is directly in your cone of fire.  To my way of thinking, you have lost almost all the available area/volume of the forge by piling the clay up into a small hill with a hole.  Most smiths like to have an area of green coal surrounding the burning coke in the fire cone, the green coal being converted to coke and ready to be raked into the fire as the coke burns up.

[JHCC]

Where are you going to put the green coal around your fire to let it convert to coke?

I'm burning charcoal. If I were burning coal, I would not have bothered with the clay.

Edited August 21, 2015 by JHCC

[arkie]

Solved that problem/question!!!!!!!!!   Have fun and enjoy smithing!!!! 

[JHCC]

Yeah, Frosty had some advice for me on this, higher up in the thread.

[Nick O]

seen the same type of forge at a flea market about a week ago

[JHCC]

It's a little smaller than the first one I got about thirty-some years ago.

[JHCC]

Update: the clay lining of the shield was drying very crumbly (it was hard to ram as hard as the other parts), so I stripped that section out and redid it with a somewhat damper adobe. The whole thing is now drying.

[JHCC]

First fire in the new duck's nest. Took a lot of time to get up to forging temperature; I think the clay had some residual moisture that was soaking up the heat.

Also, I am still new to charcoal, so that's an adjustment, too.

[Frosty]

You are still really overthinking these things. To make a more traditional "duck's nest", Stand a cereal bowl in the 5-6' dia. x 2-3" high range right side up over the air grate. Ram your damp sandy clay into the forge pan about 1" +/ - thick and mound it up to the lip of the bowl in a smooth mound. Pop the bowl out and lay maybe 1/4" and ram it into the bottom of the pan.

That's a duck's nest. You alter it's depth and size by arranging bricks around it. OR if you have good dry sandstone, stones. Never, NEVER use river, lake or wet field stone around a fire. B-A-D things can happen.

Frosty The Lucky.

[JHCC]

I've got a lot of pieces of sandstone sitting around that would probably work.

[Frosty]

Be very VERY careful, any water trapped in the stone will make it explode once it hits 212f. If it's been laying on the ground get it off the ground and let it dry for a few days, then maybe light some charcoal briquettes and let them gradually heat it up.

Sandstone is generally safer than say granite because there is a lot of room between grains to let steam escape, just don't take any chances, there could be a mudstone or shist lens hidden in it.

Frosty The Lucky.

[JHCC]

What I have is a lot of sandstone veneer block, about 2" x 4" x various lengths. Most of it is sitting on a pallet outside, but I have a few pieces in the garage, that I actually used in the last (equally Frosty-savaged) version of the firepot.

It's a very porous sandstone, so it dries very quickly. Shouldn't be a problem.

[ThomasPowers]

*PLEASE* pretest it in a fire with PROPER PPE!  I have had a rather nasty experience with exploding rocks way back in Boy Scouts 40+ years ago and now pretest all the ones I use around fires---The Irish Living History group I was president used to cook meat with hot stones and part of my duties was to test and prove in a new crop every year. (as I recall we had the best luck with igneous mafics...)