I am looking to get into blade smithing and I was wondering if it would be safe to have a propane forge in my Garage. I could probably fit 4 cars in it. There is two garage doors and one would be about 8-10 yards from the garage door. A window would also be nearby. I will definitely be getting a CO monitor to put near the forge if this can be done safely. Thank you!

Welcome Beaudozer, Mount your forge on a trolley and roll it into the open doorway to use, plenty ventilation then, most vids Iv'e seen use the forge in an open doorway.

Add a location to your profile, there may be others local to you who would be wiling to help you.

As long as you have the door cracked and the window open, you should be fine.  A fan would certainly help move the air and keep any pesky gas buildup at bay.  My "shop" is just a garage and I've never had a problem -- but I'm also real careful with the air circulation even when it's freezing cold outside.  With the forge running it's plenty warm enough to keep the winter chill at bay.

If you are going to forge in your garage, get any gasoline out of there and put it outside somewhere.

Thank everyone! I really appreciate it. 

Welcome aboard, glad to have you. The guys have already touched the main safety concerns I only have one to add. You don't have a basement attached to the garage do you? Propane is heavier than air and tends to accumulate in low spots. Enough to reach a flammable ratio and a spark can be a nasty surprise.

Just be careful, maybe store your propane tank outside when not in use.

Frosty The Lucky.

No it is not attached to the house.

Better still! If you'll put your general location in the header you might be surprised how many of the Iforge gang live within visiting distance.

Frosty The Lucky.

I'm located in Helena MT so not exactly the most populated part of the world but worth a shot. 

I put my propane forge on the carcass of a gas grill dumping the grill and bolting a sheet of steel across the gap where the grill was..  It holds the tank and has wheels.  Over time I've beefed it up a bit too.    Whether or not your door/window system is sufficient is something the CO meter will tell.  Me I have a 20'x30' shop with 10' walls and open gables (rain and snow are not common out here in the desert) and use 2 10'x10' roll up doors as I hope to see my great grandkids someday and am in no hurry!

I think most of us work out of a garage. Just remember that doing so means that following ALL the other safety precautions that much more important. Do you have a working fire extinguisher handy; a carbon monoxide monitor? Do you do pressure test for leaks? Is your propane tank kept outdoors at all times?

One thing that wasn't mentioned---garage roof height.  Every once in a while I see one that would barely pass for a "garage" with a low finished ceiling height.  I know this doesn't come out too often but It got me curious.  I currently don't have a gas forge but was wondering what people would call the minimum clearance height to be.  Has anyone ever measured what temp their ceiling in a finished garage ran over the forge?

I worked in one place in the Portland OR hilltops that was a 50's era fairly expensive house where, weirdly, the ceilings in the garage ran less than 7 feet...  With the doors open you probably had only about 6 feet minus under that area.  I'm no giant and had to duck through the garage door opening.  Putting the forge under an open (tilt up wooden) door would have likely been trouble.  This one example wasn't a "shack" and sold for over $ 450K but that was at the peak of housing prices.

At a demo the forge was set up outside the building and under a sloped roof. Irnsrgn was doing the demo and broke the lights when he raised his hammer. Glass rained down over the forge, anvil, and him. There are reasons not to have a low ceiling or roof.

Minimum height depends a lot on what you are doing---bladesmithing only takes a few inches above your raised hammer; building a gate might profit from a 12-15' ceiling if you needed to swing long bars around.

I open the big door a foot or more, prop open the man door, and put a fan on the floor pointing into the garage to draw in fresh air, I would like to get another fan to put at the other door though. 

On 7/25/2016 at 2:49 PM, Kozzy said:

Has anyone ever measured what temp their ceiling in a finished garage ran over the forge?

I have an 8ft ceiling in a 2 car, the ambient temp usually only goes up about 5degC after a couple hours of solid running. Granted my forge is a propane torch coffee can at the moment. 

I've run a torch powered forge in my basement before---of course it was a 100+ year old house with a fieldstone basement and a *lot* of airflow...   My "regular forge" has much much more ventilation in my 20'x30' shop with 10' walls and open gables and 10'x10' roll up doors on opposite walls...