TwistedCustoms Posted May 22, 2016 Share Posted May 22, 2016 After three years of forging in a break drum I decided to upgrade my shop. Prices have gone way up on forges and I like a project so.... My local steel mill only sells 20' lengths of each dimension they produce so my material selection was done on the fly in the sales office. I wanted 2.5" square with 3/16" wall thickness for the duct. I never would have used tubing that heavy for the frame or legs but I had to buy 20'. I wanted 3/8" x 6" for the fire pot, not something I would have selected for the top but again, I had to get 20'. The end result is a quite sturdy little forge which has all the features I've wished for over the years of break drum forging. I took the fan from my old setup and added a dimmer switch for air control. The fan was a five dollar flea market find which refuses to die so it went into the new build. I made a clinker breaker, something I've never had at my home shop. I'm happy to say that it worked well on my first fire this evening. I also built a gravity controlled flapper for the ash dump, no more bending over to unscrew a cap.....priceless. Tomorrow I'll make tong holders to hang on the sides but other than that I think I'm done. Sometimes it's hard for me to know when I'm at the end of a project but I'm happy with the way it turned out. All in this setup ran $200.00 USD counting the welding wire. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Ling Posted May 23, 2016 Share Posted May 23, 2016 The scrap yard I go to also requires me to buy it in 20 ft lengths. They do cut them into what ever length you want for transporting, but you have to get allof the pieces. It used to be we're you didn't have to get the hole thing, but I guess they got tired of having a bunch of smaller left overs. And with larger pieces I typically don't need all twenty feet, only like 5. Littleblacksmith Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TwistedCustoms Posted May 23, 2016 Author Share Posted May 23, 2016 I don't have a "good" scrap yard in my area. The one closest to me is usually way over priced and several others I've been to no longer sell to the public due to contracts with recycling plants. The steel plant no longer sells tail ends for the same reason but they do have good prices even on small orders. I like having a variety of stuff on hand so I don't mind having leftover steel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arkie Posted May 23, 2016 Share Posted May 23, 2016 If you can gain access to some farmers in your area, maybe drop in for a visit, explain you are a relatively new blacksmith and are looking for some scrap. They always have a pretty good scrap pile around. Take a couple of bottle openers, a plant hanger,... maybe something useful you can forge up to give in appreciation for their time. You might strike gold. If you live in a city, it still may be worth a road trip out in the country on a nice day to explore for some farm scrap. For one old farmer near me, it's more of a hassle and lots of trouble for him to round up his scrap and haul it to town to sell. You might be able to lighten a farmer's load of a problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TwistedCustoms Posted May 23, 2016 Author Share Posted May 23, 2016 @arkie I live in a rural area, Central Mississippi and farmers are a good source! Forging metal has never been hard to find, it's usually the need for structural steel that sends me to the mill. I have a friend who owns a garage that does all the work for one of our cities police dept. They get new suspension on squad cars yearly so I have a mountain of coil springs and shocks. The shafts from the shocks are 4140 ish? Whatever they actually are they are water hardening and the springs are 5160 ish. I get lots of tractor discs too but most anyone with angle or c-channel etc hangs onto it for their own future projects. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted May 23, 2016 Share Posted May 23, 2016 One thing I do is to ask the steel dealers *if* they have any "damaged" or rusty stock or short pieces as I am willing to buy it for a discount. Recently I picked up something like 90' of my most commonly used stock for a 60' price by clearing out their "shorts" which were a lot easier to transport anyway! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TwistedCustoms Posted May 23, 2016 Author Share Posted May 23, 2016 I used to have the same deal with my steel supplier but they are now under contract with a recycling plant and won't sell "shorts" to the general public. Sad. I never need a large enough quantity of anything to justify a road trip. Now I'm stuck buying 20' even if I only need 6' but the upside is my reserve pile will grow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigb Posted May 23, 2016 Share Posted May 23, 2016 I like it. Did you use any kind of grate in the bottom of the fire pit? Did you use flux core or solid wire? I am looking at coal forge builds as I am planning to rebuild my home made coal forge which I discovered has an old fire pot and tuyre under it up inside the barrel they used to house it. It has a gravity weighted ash dump as well and a clinker breaker shaft going thru it with no clinker breaker left on it. Pretty sure someone salvaged an old forge and put it all together in a 55 gal drum using clay as the bed. I am leaning toward your design which is a lot like member DSW's if I am not mistaken. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Ling Posted May 23, 2016 Share Posted May 23, 2016 10 hours ago, ThomasPowers said: 90' of my most commonly used stock So what is your most commonly used stock? Littleblacksmith Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles R. Stevens Posted May 23, 2016 Share Posted May 23, 2016 3/4x5/16... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted May 23, 2016 Share Posted May 23, 2016 For teaching it's 1/4" sq stock. Small enough that the new smithlets can accomplish something in a reasonable amount of time and still enough mass that they can't mess it up beyond correction if I keep a close eye on them. My usual class starts out with every person getting a 2' length with the ends marked so they don't confuse them. Long enough that they can hold the steel in a bare hand for the first part of the project. After they have forged an S hook we usually do a couple of nails if I'm teaching at the College and they have the rest for "personal use". (Many people abandon it after class and I use the short pieces as my demo piece when instructing) I prefer using larger stock with 3/8" sq and 1/2" sq more typical for hand smithing; but I have a tendency to design for what I have to hand as I'm cheap. I also tend to stock up when I run across a good deal---like 200 24" pieces of 1/2" sq stock for US$10 Been doing a lot of tent stakes and heavy duty ornate S hooks lately... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TwistedCustoms Posted May 23, 2016 Author Share Posted May 23, 2016 13 hours ago, bigb said: I like it. Did you use any kind of grate in the bottom of the fire pit? Did you use flux core or solid wire? I am looking at coal forge builds as I am planning to rebuild my home made coal forge which I discovered has an old fire pot and tuyre under it up inside the barrel they used to house it. It has a gravity weighted ash dump as well and a clinker breaker shaft going thru it with no clinker breaker left on it. Pretty sure someone salvaged an old forge and put it all together in a 55 gal drum using clay as the bed. I am leaning toward your design which is a lot like member DSW's if I am not mistaken. Flux core wire, no shielding gas. No grate, I left about a 3/8" gap on both sides of the clinker breaker which works great with the coke I burn. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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