Everything Mac Posted February 12, 2016 Share Posted February 12, 2016 Hello everyone, Yesterday I started some work on fabricating a new water cooled side blast forge. I thought I'd take pictures along the way for those of you who may be interested. I started off with a length of 1/4" thick - 4.5" did pipe. About 12" long. I then measured the outer diameter of the material I plan to use as the plug - in this case 81mm. I used an online calculator to work out the circumference of each then took the smaller away from the larger one to in theory make them the same - I'm not sure what I did but I made the end of the pipe too small. So I'll need to cut some material back a bit. No big deal. I'd suggest cutting smaller pie slices out of the pipe to start with and increasing as necessary. I didn't take any pictures early on as I was busy getting on with it. So once I'd cut pie wedges out of the pipe I stuck it on the forge to start the shaping. You can see I've already started to bash the fins inwards so they meet. The pipe was really just resting on top of the forge initially. You want the sides to meet together as tight as possible, I left a slight gap here and there which became problematic when welding things up. Once it was pressed together I welded up the seams as well as I could. Grinding things flat and running a second or third bead over everything just to make sure. The welding could be better I'm sure but it will do for the time being. Again I don't take any pictures here as I'm sure you can imagine a weld bead easily enough. This is the pipe all welded up - sitting on top of a new anvil stand I fabricated the day before yesterday. The dog is unimpressed. At this stage it's just a simple cone, and an awful lot of work already. But I'm hoping it will be worth it in the long run. Please let me know if you would like to see more as the project progresses. Cheers Andy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Coke Posted February 12, 2016 Share Posted February 12, 2016 Greetings Andy, Looks like you have quite a project going.. Do you have a drawing yet on the mechanics of the water cooling? What will be the overall size of the forge? Lots of questions to come . Great build project and a buddy to watch you .. Have fun.. Forge on and make beautiful things Jim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles R. Stevens Posted February 12, 2016 Share Posted February 12, 2016 "Rubs hands in anticipation" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stroupe63 Posted February 12, 2016 Share Posted February 12, 2016 I for one would like to see more of your forge build. Thanks for offering to do this as I know it adds a lot of extra time and work to the build for you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coldironkilz Posted February 13, 2016 Share Posted February 13, 2016 Like your shaggy apprentice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Ling Posted February 13, 2016 Share Posted February 13, 2016 I know this isn't what the thread is about, but the anvil stand you might want to build it up around we're the feet are going to be so that it doesn't slide/bounce around. The side blast looks really good. I can't imaging how much welding and grinding that must have taken. Look nice, Littleblacksith Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kubiack Posted February 15, 2016 Share Posted February 15, 2016 I did the same thing on my forge and have been very happy with the way it works. If I were going to build another I would build the second one the same way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Everything Mac Posted February 15, 2016 Author Share Posted February 15, 2016 Well that's encouraging. Thanks Kubiack. Andy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kubiack Posted February 16, 2016 Share Posted February 16, 2016 Are you working off of the Asprey plans or just making it up as you go? Will the blower be hand crank or electric? If hand crank the inner tube should be larger than the hole in the end of the doughnut so it has less frictional loss. My tank hold 15 gallons and I'm pretty happy with that amount. I have not run it for a full 8 hour shift but after 4-5 hours it will get to simmering pretty good but quite to full boil. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Everything Mac Posted February 17, 2016 Author Share Posted February 17, 2016 I've got the Aspery Plans in a PDF yes. I was considering doing the side draft hood modification as well though I'm not sure on that front yet. Annoyingly there have been a couple decent looking forges pop up on ebay so if one stays within budget it would save me a lot of hassle to buy one. Typical eh? I'll be making the vast majority of it up as I go along. Andy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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