I was told I should make crash a buddy on a bike  that would be the right dumpster to dive in. 

Horse sculpture would be cool from bike parts as well. 

Skeleton doing a wheelie?

Could put a propane fitting in his head and make him flame up like ghostrider. 

I've seen more scrap horses around here than I really care to mention. I'd like to see somebody do something a little less 'majestic'... like a walrus, or a sloth

 

glad you all liked my garbage can haha

walrus might not be too hard out of a bike frame.  

it's not a garbage can...... it's a resource bin

 

I'm still wondering if anyone knows if that's coal in the picture. 

2 hours ago, mutant said:

I'm still wondering if anyone knows if that's coal in the picture. 

See item #3 in my comment above.

2 hours ago, mutant said:

I'm still wondering if anyone knows if that's coal in the picture. 

I took a bunch of pieces in a bunch of sizes and put them in my fire place last night to see what would happen. They lit up instantly, didn't produce any smoke, and after a minute or so I stabbed at them with the poker. They fell apart a little bit but didn't crumble or break. The best way I can describe it is they were coming apart in layers. I've never used actual coal before but that didn't seem to me like what should happen to coal in a fire.

Sounds like it could be some kind of oil shale. Might be usable to forge, but probably more trouble than it's worth.

1 hour ago, JHCC said:

Might be usable to forge, but probably more trouble than it's worth.

I agree with that. $6 for a 40lb bag of coal at TSC sounds like a pretty fair deal to me anyway, plus there's no shortage of locust on my property and that stuff burns slow and HOT.

There are a couple of threads here on burning TSC anthracite; worth checking out. My own quick advice is this: get a good wood fire burning in the forge first before adding coal, use lots of steady air (go mechanical; a manual blower lets the fire go out between heats), get your coal to a uniform lump size (which is why I personally prefer the rice coal), and clean out the clinker regularly. For the last, I will occasionally build up the fire larger than usual, kill the blast, allow the clinker to harden a bit, and fish it out in as big chunks as possible. With the larger amount of already-burning coal, it's easier to get the fire going quickly again, rather than building it up after losing the thermal mass of the clinker.

Charcoal in a soup can works well too.  Just add the pea sized stuff until the whole this is burning.  I use a mechanical blower. It's tough to get started but I bought it end of heating season at TSC for $4.49 a bag less then pallet qty in Kansas City.  It does produce Very nice clinker that will end your day if not cleaned out.

I forgot about this old thing.. the burners stopped working ages ago and we have been making wood fires on it to cook ever since. We finally decided to replace it so I'll use this instead of the 55gal drum. Much less cutting this way.

 

I have some new questions though. Will that grill grate be able to hold up the rotor and withstand whatever heat it puts off? My uneducated opinion is that if I put it centered and to the left, keeping the weight even on that middle bar it would work. Or should I get rid of that and replace it with a big piece of steel.

I'd say sheet metal would be my opinion. 

Sheet metal and if it's light gauge put it over the grill piece.  This allows you to deal with fuel that escapes the firepot or small pieces, or....

On ‎12‎/‎14‎/‎2016 at 9:27 AM, JHCC said:

and clean out the clinker regularly

hopefully before it gets this big....

 

Alright, more updates and pictures guys. I brought the pieces of the forge to that machine shop by work and showed him what I had planned, I'm not sure if it makes any difference at all but I wanted the pipe coming off the flange at a slight angle to prevent anything from falling/collecting in the intake part of the forge. I left to get lunch and he had it all put together before I got back. I also asked him about some sheet metal and he found a piece of leftover that was just a little too big for my grill, I gave him my measurements and he cut it down for me. He also gave me some leftover steel mesh from the elevator cage he made for our shop. I think if I just use two layers of the mesh it should be enough to keep my coals in the pot, and I'm assuming that since it's so badly rusted it's likely not galvanized but I'm not experienced enough in metal to know for sure.

 

If anybody needs a good machine shop in the Murphy NC area let me know and I'll give you some details, this guy is easy to work with and he prices his work affordably.

1 minute ago, littleblacksmith said:

hopefully before it gets this big....

 

Not too far off, actually:

 

6 minutes ago, JHCC said:

 

After a day of forging without cleaning out the fire, especially if it includes forge welding, the clinker I get is huge! and the borax from the forge welding helps make it a little more solid, and actually kinda cool looking. I've thought about spraying them with some clear coat, and putting them on a nice stand and sell them as "blacksmith meteorites" or something like that. Only thing is that they would brake relatively easy.

                                                                                                                             Littleblacksmith

I use them to fill potholes in my driveway.

Give the chunks away to kids as dragon poop. Or spray paint them gold and put them in a cast iron pot with a rainbow over it.

That mesh is fine, I use it myself and only 1 layer.  It will oxidize away over time so I generally make a couple of tuyere pieces and keep them in my bucket.  With a hand crank blower and not welding I generally get a minimum of 7 or 8 days at the forge per and as I get it at the scrapyard for 20 cents US a pound it's cheap enough to use disposably  

On 2016-12-13 at 3:13 PM, Glenn said:

When using the edge of the anvil in this fashion, you are NOT cutting the stock, but pinching it to make it thin enough to bend and brake by hand.

I did not say that. I said that you can do that if you do not have a hot cut. It works and is obvious to you and me but not necessarily to one who is calling himself a beginner.

I got out of work pretty early today so I brought a couple tools home to work on the forge. I found that I didn't need to cut the bottom out of the grill, it was just a sliding catch pan. The sheet metal has a little curve to it but I'll just drop a bolt through the corners and fasten it down to the grating underneath. Then I found this old 3 speed fan motor I saved and forgot I had so I'll see about rigging up blades to that next, instead of one of the radiator fans I originally planned on.

 

And now, the great thing about your forge, is that its disguised as a grill...neighbors may be confused on what your grilling, especially if you use coal.  when your done, and the fire has cooled, just put the lid on it, and they wont know nothing...

                                                                                                                        Littleblacksmith