Ubba Bloodaxe Posted April 8, 2016 Share Posted April 8, 2016 Hello all, I'm James. I'm new here and to the art of manipulating steel with heat and muscle . I've spent the last 2 - 2 1/2 years reading, watching, and listening to anything and everything about throwing the hammer. I finally alloted sone time and money to developing a new addiction. I'm starting from scratch and, I'd like to say cheap. But, not so cheap when I have to buy even the simplest tool to build my forge and cut iron, grind, file, measure, throw away failed projects, and sit down exhausted and weep. But, as of one hour ago I have my forge fire clayed and air supply pipe in place. I feel like I have a working elementary understanding of the basics due to this forum. I've been lurking and reading all of the shared knowledge posted here. I thank you all for sharing. I look forward to learning from your mistakes and your victories. I am a heat treater by trade and have access to tones of heating equipment..... As long as the boss doesn't find out. . Shhhhh. If you read this and want to warn me to stop before I start...... I'm pretty hard headed and overly excited to try my hand at this. My goal is pattern welding... Not Damascus but, Anglo saxon / Scandinavian pattern welding. Uthbert will be my goal. I'm excited to be here. Below is a couple pics of my new / First forge. Be gentle, I know I'll be ordering a new, better one soon. Just had to be moving forward. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
turbo7 Posted April 8, 2016 Share Posted April 8, 2016 Is that gal pipe for the air? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ubba Bloodaxe Posted April 8, 2016 Author Share Posted April 8, 2016 Lol no.... Even worse... Vent flashing. Very thin like dryer vent. I'm strongly reconsidering... I'm working on getting some black iron but the vent flashing is keeping the clay formed for now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn Posted April 8, 2016 Share Posted April 8, 2016 May want to look at that dryer vent again to see if it is galvanized. Put it in vinegar to see if any of the coating is removed after a period of time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ubba Bloodaxe Posted April 8, 2016 Author Share Posted April 8, 2016 I'm replacing it before I put heat to the forge. It was an impulse buy. I have a box full of impulse buys so far. Another reason it's already an expensive hobby. Lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted April 8, 2016 Share Posted April 8, 2016 Welcome aboard James, glad to have you. In the tons of reading you've done was any of it in the solid fuel forges section here? There are some fundamental errors in what you've built. As said your air supply and air grate may be dangerous though an aluminum vent pipe for the vertical will probably work at least for a while. Keep a large bucket or METAL pan of water under it in case it fails so the fire doesn't get away from you. Do you have a welder and can you weld thin, 14ga. sheet? A hand drill hole saw and some exhaust pipe makes an excellent Tuyere system. I use 3" semi exhaust pipe for the vertical, used a 2" hole saw to make the access and welded 2" exhaust pipe for the horizontal air supply section. If you don't have a welder you can cut slots say 3/4"-1" deep about 1/2" apart to bend out for screw tabs and make the join that way. The forge itself. Is it all clay? If so it's not going to survive firing, maybe not even drying. It's WAY deep and as configured will encourage huge fires and waste a lot of fuel. In most hobbyist cases a brake drum is more than enough fire pot, disk rotors are usually plenty. For that almost any sheet of steel, no NOT plate, an old washing machine door works a treat front loaders are primo. Just cut a hole in the lid the drum or rotor will slip into and rest on the rim. Rotors are a LOT easier because the disk is so much wider than the hub. Then plumb up the air supply, ram sandy clay on the table and you're ready to forge. An old blow drier is more than enough air for most general smithing especially learning the craft. All in all I'm afraid I need to tell you you've fallen into the trap of trying to make the perfect tool without knowing what you need. We've all done it, no sweat. There are I don't know how many hundreds of posts in the Iforge solid fuel forge section talking about building a forge, restoring a forge, ruining a forge. . . well about anything having to do with forges. I HIGHLY recommend you grab a comfy chair a snack, beverages and sit down for some serious reading. Don't be afraid to take notes, make sketches and book mark specific posts. Once you think you know what you want to build next I suggest you ask about it in the solid fuel forge section and see what the gang thinks. Of course if you would rather dive in and go after it on your own, more power to you. I've learned many a valuable thing from folk who didn't know enough to know a thing won't work and made it work anyway. I call it: "an opinion unpolluted by knowledge." And no I'm not making fun I'm serious it's why I love having young kids around demos, they have the most marvelous ideas and occasionally solutions that leave all the adults staring at each other in mortification. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ubba Bloodaxe Posted April 8, 2016 Author Share Posted April 8, 2016 Hey, thanks for the input. I was afraid the forge was going to be a bust. I got tired of thinking about it and had to get my hands on something. The clay is mixed with vermiculite and will be covered with 1" fire brick I liberated from the stress reliving pile at work. A couple weeks from now I'm getting a welder and will put together a proper forge with sheet metal and fire brick and a layer of furnace cement. I'm not really good at just reading and saying, oh that's how I'm going to do it.... I like to exhaust time and money with hands on failures. Not by choice though. It's an inability to stay static when the bug hits. I feel 100% move advanced than I did yesterday because, I moved forward. Well, backwards really. Good stories to share with my future apprentice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn Posted April 9, 2016 Share Posted April 9, 2016 You are overthinking simple. You may want to look at the side blast 55 Forge. No need for anything but air and fuel to make it work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ubba Bloodaxe Posted April 9, 2016 Author Share Posted April 9, 2016 Guilty. I over complicate just about everything. As Frosty pointed out, I'm tossing and turning at night redesigning the wheel. Wow.... I kinda scared to see how bad I destroy some innocent steel. Lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn Posted April 9, 2016 Share Posted April 9, 2016 You can use what you have, just add an air pipe. You will find that you may need higher walls depending on your choice of solid fuels. Look up some blacksmithing groups and organizations in your area and attend the meetings. You will learn more in a day than you can ever imagine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ubba Bloodaxe Posted April 9, 2016 Author Share Posted April 9, 2016 I was thinking about building a wall with the fire bricks. I've been looking for local groups. If I was into crawfish farming I'd have 20 to attend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted April 9, 2016 Share Posted April 9, 2016 I know what you mean, I'm always thinking of things, designing things, redesigning other things, on and on. The thing is deciding what you really want. If you just want to tinker with things then go for it. Hit junk yards, yard sales and pick up stuff and tinker on. Not a thing wrong with it. On the other hand if you want to try blacksmithing do you want to spend all your time redesigning what really amounts to a hole in the ground on legs or beat hot steel? Seriously solid fuel forges are just holes in the ground at a more comfortable height. Sure folk get fancy and make the holes out of steel, cast iron, brick or stone masonry, field stone and mud, adobe or whatever but at heart it's just a fire place. All it does is hold a fire and allow you to direct a controlled volume of air into the fuel. The pic below is me untweaking and repointing a log tong I bent using with a back hoe on a birch tree. The air is being blown with a 12v Coleman Inflate All, the yellow thing behind me to the left through a short length of pipe. I didn't even bother with a hole. Here's a challenge for you. How simple a device can you make that will do the job well? Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ubba Bloodaxe Posted April 9, 2016 Author Share Posted April 9, 2016 Excellent way to put it...... Challenge accepted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted April 9, 2016 Share Posted April 9, 2016 Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ubba Bloodaxe Posted April 20, 2016 Author Share Posted April 20, 2016 On 4/9/2016 at 0:39 AM, Frosty said: I know what you mean, I'm always thinking of things, designing things, redesigning other things, on and on. The thing is deciding what you really want. If you just want to tinker with things then go for it. Hit junk yards, yard sales and pick up stuff and tinker on. Not a thing wrong with it. On the other hand if you want to try blacksmithing do you want to spend all your time redesigning what really amounts to a hole in the ground on legs or beat hot steel? Seriously solid fuel forges are just holes in the ground at a more comfortable height. Sure folk get fancy and make the holes out of steel, cast iron, brick or stone masonry, field stone and mud, adobe or whatever but at heart it's just a fire place. All it does is hold a fire and allow you to direct a controlled volume of air into the fuel. The pic below is me untweaking and repointing a log tong I bent using with a back hoe on a birch tree. The air is being blown with a 12v Coleman Inflate All, the yellow thing behind me to the left through a short length of pipe. I didn't even bother with a hole. Here's a challenge for you. How simple a device can you make that will do the job well? Frosty The Lucky. I took your challenge and I think I completed it as simple as I could. I quit trying to develop new ways and stuck with proven technology. Thanks again for setting me back on the right path. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Latticino Posted April 20, 2016 Share Posted April 20, 2016 There you go. Hot steel=success! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted April 20, 2016 Share Posted April 20, 2016 NICE forge! I found a small cast iron fry pan packed in a clay table made a really nice coal forge but I like a duck's nest better than a fire pot. Then we ran out of the good coal and the guy who knew where to dig it clammed up and . . . <sigh> I run gas forges now. Get any sparking hot yet? You might want to just burn up a piece of scrap so you get a handle on the signs so you don't destroy more of your projects than you have to. That fire WILL burn steel, she's rocking Well done. It's an honor to be of help. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seldom (dick renker) Posted April 22, 2016 Share Posted April 22, 2016 looks like chuck norris in the woods Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted April 22, 2016 Share Posted April 22, 2016 5 minutes ago, seldom (dick renker) said: looks like chuck norris in the woods I was actually toasting lunch on the fire, I just gave the steel the LOOK to heat it. I used to hear that pretty often even got asked for autographs. You would've loved the looks people's faces when they read MY name. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seldom (dick renker) Posted April 22, 2016 Share Posted April 22, 2016 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted April 22, 2016 Share Posted April 22, 2016 Just now, seldom (dick renker) said: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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