jester forge Posted March 21, 2016 Share Posted March 21, 2016 I'm building a side blast forge out of 1/4" steel. It's 10" deep 20" wide and 30" long the fire will be 4" down and 5" away from the back wall. I will fill it with sand my question is will play sand be okay. And for the water tank would I be safe to use a galvanized bucket or will it get too hot Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn Posted March 21, 2016 Share Posted March 21, 2016 Photos or a drawing would be helpful. We need to know where and how deep the fire is to be placed. Are you going to use a water cooled twyere? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wayne Posted March 21, 2016 Share Posted March 21, 2016 I have a twenty gallon tank on the back of mine and can get it to a low boil after a full days work Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jester forge Posted March 21, 2016 Author Share Posted March 21, 2016 30 minutes ago, Glenn said: Photos or a drawing would be helpful. We need to know where and how deep the fire is to be placed. Are you going to use a water cooled twyere? Yes I'm going to use a water cooled tueyere the drawing I have isn't the best it's a little sloppy and hard to read but here it is it's not to scale and some of the measurements might be off the middle of the air pipe will be up 6" from the bottom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted March 21, 2016 Share Posted March 21, 2016 You really need to clean up the drawing, that's too hard to decipher. From what I see though there are a couple corrections I'll suggest. Make a tall wide and narrow tank. It needs a lot of surface area to shed heat. Put the tuyere at the bottom of the water tank, heat rises. This will cause a natural circulation due to convection, the hot water will rise in the tank and the cooled water will be concentrated at the bottom where the tuyere is. Cooled water will flow in the bottom of the bosh and back out the top. I'd also give serious thought to making a small heat shield between the fire and the water tank, you don't want more heat sources acting on the cooling water than you have to. If you use graph paper to make your concept sketches it makes it easy to keep things square, straight and scaled. I have pads of the stuff everywhere and use it all the time. Once you get the hang of sketching on graph paper you will find you can transfer it to anything with a tape measure and chalk or a drafting board or CADD software. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles R. Stevens Posted March 21, 2016 Share Posted March 21, 2016 How big is the tyere? Coal or charcoal? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jester forge Posted March 21, 2016 Author Share Posted March 21, 2016 I just drew that real quick the other night to figure out dimensions and stuff i just haven't been able to transfer it to my graph pad yet and what scale do you guys usually use for the graph paper I'm real bad about that I always make it to big or small Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jester forge Posted March 21, 2016 Author Share Posted March 21, 2016 1 hour ago, Charles R. Stevens said: How big is the tyere? Coal or charcoal? 1inch . Anthracite coal Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kubiack Posted March 21, 2016 Share Posted March 21, 2016 I don't think you are going to be happy with sand as the base material. It will most likely fuse with the burning fuel and cause to much build up. I used dirt in my side blast at first and every time I used it the dirt around the fuel had fused with the clinker and coke into a shell. It wasted quite a bit of fuel and I had to replace 1/4" of dirt when I cleaned out and rebuilt the fire. I found a source for some coal ash and have been much happier with it. We have loam soil here and I think the sand was the main contributor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jester forge Posted March 21, 2016 Author Share Posted March 21, 2016 9 minutes ago, kubiack said: I don't think you are going to be happy with sand as the base material. It will most likely fuse with the burning fuel and cause to much build up. I used dirt in my side blast at first and every time I used it the dirt around the fuel had fused with the clinker and coke into a shell. It wasted quite a bit of fuel and I had to replace 1/4" of dirt when I cleaned out and rebuilt the fire. I found a source for some coal ash and have been much happier with it. We have loam soil here and I think the sand was the main contributor. Thank you I was worried about that Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles R. Stevens Posted March 21, 2016 Share Posted March 21, 2016 Ash and clinker are the classic, but sand will work, the more ash that works it's way in to it the better it will get. I don't have much problem with loam (silt) or sand sticking, but clay is another issue, clinker loves it. Know when you say 1" is that OD, ID or nominal? What is the actual ID of the pipe? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jester forge Posted March 21, 2016 Author Share Posted March 21, 2016 1" ID Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles R. Stevens Posted March 21, 2016 Share Posted March 21, 2016 Ok, 4" from the top of the tuyere hole or from the bottom? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jester forge Posted March 22, 2016 Author Share Posted March 22, 2016 2 hours ago, Charles R. Stevens said: Ok, 4" from the top of the tuyere hole or from the bottom? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles R. Stevens Posted March 22, 2016 Share Posted March 22, 2016 Ok, so my experience and experiments lead me to believe that 4" from the top of the tuyere will be the heart of the fireball for a 3/4-1" tuyere (3" for charcoal) if you fill your pan with ash/dirt/sand to 3", and place an inch of coal on the table for reserve fuel things will be about right. In the agent you chose to use charcoal, simply remove the coal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jester forge Posted March 22, 2016 Author Share Posted March 22, 2016 Ok thank you I'll post pics when I'm done( if I'm not ashamed of my welds lol) for the water tank for the tueyere what can I use? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles R. Stevens Posted March 22, 2016 Share Posted March 22, 2016 Well, a 2mm ammo can comes to mind... as dose a drum on a stool (remote) as many old school forges had a barel on a stand, cold out the bottom hot up tord the top. i imagine an old radiator would work... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kubiack Posted March 22, 2016 Share Posted March 22, 2016 Perhaps is was the clay in the soil and not the sand. All I know is the soil we has made a terrible base. You might have to experiment to find a material that is suitable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jester forge Posted March 22, 2016 Author Share Posted March 22, 2016 5 hours ago, Charles R. Stevens said: Well, a 2mm ammo can comes to mind... as dose a drum on a stool (remote) as many old school forges had a barel on a stand, cold out the bottom hot up tord the top. i imagine an old radiator would work... I have a 55 gallon drum I can cut down about half and I can use the other half for an anvil stand hmmm I agree with the ammo can idea but I only have a 30 cal ammo can and I'm using that for its intended use. Thanks for all the great ideas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted March 22, 2016 Share Posted March 22, 2016 Don't get yourself stuck on using some particular thing to build a forge. It's just a fire place and only needs to be strong enough to support your fuel fire and stock safely. You can make a side blast with a pile of damp earth rammed tight sitting on a wooden table. It's not a precision piece of equipment you're not building a space shuttle. Spend a day or two playing with just the forges, toast lunch on the fire and have a brew or two in the process. This is fun, play it that way and you'll be ahead of the game. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jester forge Posted March 22, 2016 Author Share Posted March 22, 2016 I already have most of it built I just need the cooling tank and sand or dirt it's cost me 25 dollars so far I had most of it in my " steel depot" haha. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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