My Brake Drum Forge

[Dcav]

Started off a a stock removal knife maker.  Been wanting to get into true blacksmithing and forge work.  Been working in the automotive repair field and came across a scrap large brake drum and got inspired to build my first forge.  

Welded a piece of scrap diamond plate over the hub hole and lugnut studs holes.

Used a hole saw to cut out the opening to weld the floor flange in.

 

 

Materials used 18" brake drum.

18" -1" threaded pipe

1" floor flange

12"-1" pipe to forced air suppply

1" pipe plug 

1/2" angle iron for legs and braces.

1" angle iron welded to bottom of legs and bolted to a 1x10" piece of scrap lumber-which I buried 2 feet into the dirt.

Shop vac setup as a blower-using a rheostat for air flow control aka light dimmer, may swap that out for  a ball valve for the rheostat. As the rheostat gets hot!

Lined base of drum with refractory cement 3/4" thick.

 

Total cost in materials less than  $100.00

Hav'nt had a chance to do alot of forging yet, but hope to get her roaring tomorrow and get some work finished up.  Got a couple RR spike tomahawks in process.

 

[Daswulf]

Dcav, Welcome aboard. What do you do in Auto repair?

I do autobody/ collision repair. Working in Auto repair you could practically make a forge from free scrap car parts  and being able to weld you are almost limitless in ability to make one.

A couple thoughts, a larger diameter tuyere would probably be better, and a simple thicker grate over it, and raise up your inlet pipe for room at the bottom for an ash collection and dump. (Ash likes to accumulate in the bottom of the air inlet eventually blocking the air supply.) a weighted flap at the bottom makes for easy ash dumping. (I fiddled with a screw on cap way longer than I should have.)

Also the refractory cement is not needed at all with this style design so it's just wasted money.

Another help is to build it into a sheetmetal table to hold extra fuel, workpiece, tongs, whatever.

I like brake rotors that use the internal E-brake ( around 8"diameter by roughly 2-3" deep) because it's easy to cut a hole in the table for the rotor to sit in without mounting it permanently so you can change it out or clean it once in a while.

There is a ton of info on here so sit back and start reading and researching. 

 

[Dcav]

I run the shop for a large Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram dealer.  Get a good bit of scrap picking from the repairs as well, have a few axles and springs to tool around with.  I do have a grate over the air flow pipe, and the clean out plug is annoying but will work for now.  Already had the refractory cement, figured it would keep the drum from cracking.  I didnt want a table style setup since I have everything outdoors, mostly so I don't burn the barn down lol.  Definitely alot of good info on here so far.

[Frosty]

Welcome aboard Dcav, glad to have you.

Like Das says your air supply is upside down you only need a close nipple between the T and the air pipe, you really want the depth below the T as an ash/clinker trap. As you have it now the air has to blow up through anything that drops through the air grate and once it settles out will be up to and blocking the air supply quickly. I made mine out of exhaust pipe, it's only controlling air at a low static pressure, less than the exhaust on a hot rod.

While my coal forge is a duck's nest the tuyere connects just like it would in a drum or rotor fire pot. Using some of my MANY hole saws I simply cut a disk of 14 ga. larger than the bolt hole pattern by 1 1/2" dia, Then I drilled the opening for the air inlet just a hair larger than the hub. Using an old bottle jack I pressed it in position and took a hand drill to it through 3 ONLY THREE lug holes. Drop a carriage bolt down through the drum/rotor and the flange is done.

The air grate I made at first was an over designed piece of 1/4" plate with a slug of holes drilled in it. If I ever start burning coal I'm changing it out for a simple bar grate. Nothing but rd steel bar with about 3/8" - 1/2" gaps. Bar grates are EASY to clean with a coal rake, just slide the point along the gap and stuck on crud gets unstuck and drops into the tuyere.

I made the tuyere with exhaust pipe, 3" semi size for the vertical part and 2" for the horizontal air pipe. Once again I used my 2" hole saw on the 3" pipe about 2" from the bolt flange and mig welded the horizontal pipe in.

Lastly was the ash dump, I salvaged a 3" flap cap as you see on semi exhaust stacks. The counter weight keeps it closed unless you reach under with something and flip it open and clear the ash trap. However, there's another advantage occasionally coal gases can accumulate in the tuyere and as soon as you give it a little air becomes a flammable mixture and any spark will light it. POP up to an impressive hot cinder throwing BANG. If there's a flap cap on the ash trap the pressure just pops it open and cleans out the ash. Just keep a steel bucket under the ash dump and you're golden.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Dcav]

Appreciate the tips, gonna move up the air supply as suggested and see what I can make for a ash dump. Was going to weld a bent piece of rebar to the drum to support longer pieces during heats.  So might as well do the mods then.

 

Again thanks for the tips.

[Daswulf]

we only want you to succeed. not just putting down what you've made. Glad you are finding the Info here useful. It is. it's helped me so much.  there are many ways to make a functional forge. we are only trying to make your experience better with something more functional.

Yup, Leaf spring, coil spring and a thousand other car parts are great free material.  

[Dcav]

Version 1.1-moved up the forced air supply, and added a ball valve to control air flow (using a shop vac for air supply-on blower mode)

 

Still need to work on the ashgate idea.  Definetly gets alot hotter quicker with the air supply 18" closer.

 

 

[ThomasPowers]

Remember that the work piece is supposed to be inserted horizontally into the hot spot and so you use less air and fuel to heat it up.  What that forge needs is a fence to allow you to pile the fuel higher than the rim and stick the work piece in through it.

I used some 16 gauge steel I had to hand  that I bent around to fit inside the wall of the brake drum and extend about 4" to 6" above the top of the drum.  I cut it a bit short of the circumference leaving a slot between the two ends to put stock through and then opposite that slot I took a cold chisel and cut a "mousehole" just above the rim of the brake drum  to allow long pieces to go out the other side.  Worked a treat and I even ended up using it as my main billet welding forge for several years.

[Dcav]

Good tips,  i like the fence idea, will be my next project.  I was actually using the leaf spring to melt wax to make a few dozen egg carton fire starters, kept my melt can from tipping over or melting.

[Dcav]

On a secondary note, i had my first burning metal happen while heating multiple pieces.  Was yelling at our pitbull puppy for eating pecans in the back yard (im in the back pasture outside the barn) and check my rr spikes i was working in tomahawks and melted the dang heads off of them.  So the new setup gets hotter much faster!!!