New blacksmith, homemade brake drum forge

[Mars]

Hey guys I'm new to this forum (like 3 hours ago new) and I'm just starting to set up a place to do some blacksmithing and would like comments , ideas, warnings, ect

[Charles R. Stevens]

Mount your forge and anvil at closed fist hight. Something solid is in order. You will find some kind of metal table best, even an upside down lawnmower deck for the forge. A wooden stup or built up block  of dementinal lumber is classic for the anvil. From there you can improve your kit.

 Next order of buisness is to forge your fire management tools and some tongs. Learning how to forge your basic tools will keep you out of trouble for a wile. 

 

 

[Ridgewayforge]

Welcome to the forum There is a lot of great stuff here. Have you looked around? 

It would pay to spend a few hours looking on here, doing research, using the "search" function on the site, and then, and only after you have read a lot, then I'll bet you can give yourself some pointers! A lot of questions have already been answered, but if you have specifics, we'd be more than happy to help. 

[Glenn]

4 hours ago, Ridgewayforge said:

It would pay to spend a few hours looking on IFI, doing research,

Pack a lunch and a cold drink (grin).

First, Put your location into your profile. It will get you better answers to your questions.

Fuel does not make the fire hot, air hakes the fire hot. You have little or no fuel in your forge. Build some type table to go around the forge and then FILL the forge with fuel. The fire ball should be about the size of a melon or 5-6 inches in diameter for small stock(s). There should be another 3-4 inches of fuel on top of the fire ball.

Raise the anvil to knuckle or the break of the wrist height. Much easier to work on that way.

 

[Frosty]

Welcome aboard Mars, glad to have you. If you'll put your general location in the header you might be surprised how many of the Iforge gang live within visiting distance.

Do you know what you'd like to make once you've become proficient or is this learning kit for now? There are a number of good anvil stands around, a block of tree trunk makes a fine stand, if you're a wood cutter it's called a round or block, lots of guys using them for anvil stands call them "stumps." I've always thought of a stump as being the thing with roots, left in the ground after you cut a tree down but popular terms work okay. Personally I much prefer my steel tripod anvil stand, it has more foot room even under it, is VERY solid and stable. Tripods will stand stably on most any stable surface without rocking. Lastly it quieted my anvils down from make your ears ring through muffs AND plugs to I can miss a blow and not suffer ear pain without ear protection.

Reading the sections that pertain or just interest you has several benefits. Sure there's a lot of good info but more importantly for a beginner you get to learn what the heck we're talking about. The language of the blacksmith, craft jargon in other words is important to any craft. It saves us having to explain what we mean when we say something like, "I Upset it first," Without knowing what "Upset" means a person would have to explain it and directions and plain old coffee shop conversations would be much clunkier. Heck were we working together on a project and I needed you to "reverse scroll" something or maybe put a "Pineaple twist" handle on a thing and you didn't k now what these things are we might as well shut down while I explain it to you.

Having a good working handle on the jargon will allow you to ask good questions and understand the answers. While you read you'll see a newcomer ask a question only to have several people ask what they mean or tell them it's too vague a question to answer. Unfortunately we lose new guys way too commonly because they don't like how they're told to learn the language or that what they wanted to know isn't what they asked.

I'd really REALLY like to avoid driving folk away and even more so answering the same darned question a few hundred times a month.

This is a life long learning curve, enjoy the ride.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Mars]

1 hour ago, Glenn said:

Pack a lunch and a cold drink (grin).

First, Put your location into your profile. It will get you better answers to your questions.

Fuel does not make the fire hot, air hakes the fire hot. You have little or no fuel in your forge. Build some type table to go around the forge and then FILL the forge with fuel. The fire ball should be about the size of a melon or 5-6 inches in diameter for small stock(s). There should be another 3-4 inches of fuel on top of the fire ball.

Raise the anvil to knuckle or the break of the wrist height. Much easier to work on that way.

 

Thank you I probably should of mentioned that what was in the forge was just testing the blower and hardening the cement a bit. Such an amazing forum I'm glad I found it 

[Glenn]

Cement?? 

As in the stuff that spalls and throws pieces everywhere when heated?

[Frosty]

Portland Cement? Here's a perfect example of why you should have spent some time reading before making a dangerous mistake. Getting Portland cement much hotter than 212f and the water will start cooking out. NO it doesn't dry, it sets who entirely different things. Set concrete has locked the water into the chemical structure, bonds, etc. Anyway, get it hot and stream explosions will start throwing chips (spalling) at high enough speeds to stick in you, cut you and oh yes, poke an eye out. did I mention the chips are HOT?

Chip that cement out, unless it's furnace cement, then sit down and do some reading so the next thing you build won't be more work correcting than it was to make.

Frosty The Lucky.

[arkie]

You don't need to line a brake drum forge.  The cast iron drum is all you need.

[Mars]

11 hours ago, Frosty said:

Welcome aboard Mars, glad to have you. If you'll put your general location in the header you might be surprised how many of the Iforge gang live within visiting distance.

Do you know what you'd like to make once you've become proficient or is this learning kit for now? There are a number of good anvil stands around, a block of tree trunk makes a fine stand, if you're a wood cutter it's called a round or block, lots of guys using them for anvil stands call them "stumps." I've always thought of a stump as being the thing with roots, left in the ground after you cut a tree down but popular terms work okay. Personally I much prefer my steel tripod anvil stand, it has more foot room even under it, is VERY solid and stable. Tripods will stand stably on most any stable surface without rocking. Lastly it quieted my anvils down from make your ears ring through muffs AND plugs to I can miss a blow and not suffer ear pain without ear protection.

Reading the sections that pertain or just interest you has several benefits. Sure there's a lot of good info but more importantly for a beginner you get to learn what the heck we're talking about. The language of the blacksmith, craft jargon in other words is important to any craft. It saves us having to explain what we mean when we say something like, "I Upset it first," Without knowing what "Upset" means a person would have to explain it and directions and plain old coffee shop conversations would be much clunkier. Heck were we working together on a project and I needed you to "reverse scroll" something or maybe put a "Pineaple twist" handle on a thing and you didn't k now what these things are we might as well shut down while I explain it to you.

Having a good working handle on the jargon will allow you to ask good questions and understand the answers. While you read you'll see a newcomer ask a question only to have several people ask what they mean or tell them it's too vague a question to answer. Unfortunately we lose new guys way too commonly because they don't like how they're told to learn the language or that what they wanted to know isn't what they asked.

I'd really REALLY like to avoid driving folk away and even more so answering the same darned question a few hundred times a month.

This is a life long learning curve, enjoy the ride.

Frosty The Lucky.

I'd like to make some stuff from railroad spikes and horseshoes and a few tongs... For starters anyway currently waiting to go pick up some coke . Also I set my forge up in a different spot and am waiting also to pick up a larger anvil and get a log to go under it. Here's a pic of how it's setup now (upside down brake drum is just a cover)

8 hours ago, Glenn said:

Cement?? 

As in the stuff that spalls and throws pieces everywhere when heated?

 

5 hours ago, Frosty said:

Portland Cement? Here's a perfect example of why you should have spent some time reading before making a dangerous mistake. Getting Portland cement much hotter than 212f and the water will start cooking out. NO it doesn't dry, it sets who entirely different things. Set concrete has locked the water into the chemical structure, bonds, etc. Anyway, get it hot and stream explosions will start throwing chips (spalling) at high enough speeds to stick in you, cut you and oh yes, poke an eye out. did I mention the chips are HOT?

Chip that cement out, unless it's furnace cement, then sit down and do some reading so the next thing you build won't be more work correcting than it was to make.

Frosty The Lucky.

 

4 hours ago, arkie said:

You don't need to line a brake drum forge.  The cast iron drum is all you need.

I'm sorry in my brain I call a mix of stuff "cement" hahahaa it is just sand and plaster of Paris. Also I mostly put it there to make my forge a little shallower. 

[Frosty]

Oooh, Sand and Plaster of Paris! At least it isn't as dangerous as concrete, just as crappy  a refractory just not QUITE as dangerous. If you do a search for plaster of Paris on Iforge you'll get a feeling for our opinion of the stuff in forges.

Using cement as an adjective is correct just confusing especially as a forge lining. Lots of folk use Portland cement and suffer poor performance and occasionally physical injury for it so it's sort of a hot button around here.

Lose the Plaster of Paris you don't really need it. If you need to shape the fire pot just dig some adobe hard pan, mix in about 2 parts sand and moisten it just enough it'll hammer hard and . . . hammer it in place.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Glenn]

With use, ash will make its own filler material in the fire pot.

Raise the fire pot to about the same height as the anvil face, about knuckle or brake of the wrist high to start with, or maybe a bit higher. Adjust to what YOU are comfortable with using. You want to be able to stand straight when at the forge.

For coal you want a fire ball in the forge about the size of a melon, or 6 inches in diameter, which will fill and then some a 3-4 inch brake drum. You will want another 3-4 inches of coal on top of the fire ball to insulate and hold the heat down into the fire ball.

For charcoal you want the fire even deeper. The metal goes into the fire ball about half to two thirds of the way up.