Thanks arkie! I did have some problems with burning my work.  Probably just need some more practice on fire management and placement.  A foot pedal is going to be a must.  

I was able to heat a 2x2x5 very quickly.

Now I just need tools, tomorrow will be a tong making day. 

After two straight days of forging the I've figured out what works for me.  I've had to shrink up this pot all the way around. I was burning to much fuel and steel.   It's working well now.

I've found that I enjoy charcoal out of my outdoor Woodstove over coal. Once I develop a way to transport enough of it I'll stop using coal. Couple reasons, 1 it's semi free, 2 I don't burn as much iron. 3 it's alot cleaner.  

Gotta cut way down on air to use charcoal compared to coal.   In some ways its like gasoline and diesel; both can work well but you *really* need the engine designed for the fuel!

I built a shovel to move coals from a wood fire to the forge.  Made it from gravel shaker screen allowing me to get rid of the ash and too small pieces: scoop from the fire, shake it over the fire and dump the clean coals in the forge.

On a stroke of luck, the 6" horticultural blower I'm using on a vf drive will adjust across a wide range.  

I spent some spare moments today considering the what nots, on sorting the char out of my boiler.  What I came up with is a couple 30 gal drums with sealed lids for snuffing out the char. after collecting it with screen like your description.

I'll run my boiler over loaded to pile up carbon. I will run a heavy hard maple/ ash mix. Both make great piles of carbon.      I can make enough to fuel my forge non stop and stockpile for the summer.

I'm thinking a fork like the horse farmers use to clean Sawdust.  Lots of tines 1' apart. Maybe    

I'll save my good coal for super clean Welding heat when I get to that point. 

My boiler can make a 55 gal drum of great charcoal a day if I run it accordingly. (Packed full with little energy consumption from the house) great carbon factory. Just have to figure out storage and transportation    

I'm new as well, I just started this weekend. Bare essentials don't even describe what I have currently, as my "forge" is a half of a 55 gallon drum chiseled in half with a blow dryer hooked to a pipe running into the bottom of the side of it for forced air. I haven't lined it with any refractory, and my anvil is just a 65-70 pound railroad anvil from an antiques store. A single pair of what look like some iron needle nose tongs (also from the antiques store) and some old, 4 pound hammers of my grandfather's. I'm only 17, but I fell in love with smithing in the past month, with a video of a blacksmith turning a hunk of steel into a beautiful war axe on YouTube striking my first spark. I would love any advice, suggestions, or criticism from anyone on here. Thank you!

 Miller57, advice? I would suggest, putting Grandpa's 4lb. hammers on the shelf for safe keeping and start with a well dressed 2lb. hammer for now. Also, keep your thumb off the top of the hammer handle.....     Enjoy the craft       Life is Good        Dave

Sounds like you have a great start! Dave gave you sound advice.  In relation to my project, I thought that there was something romantic about a coal forge and spent way to much time making it "perfect"  wasted to much time building it and not enough time hammering iron.  

Get some smaller hammers as Dave said and start on small projects first. Make sure hooks n such. Whatever you do,,,, ,...... Don't attempt that axe for a long wile lol .  

One more thing, read read read. Get the free books you can download.  The links are all over if. 

Shop is coming together, my daughter and I unloaded and set the welding bench today.  We also swept and cleaned the shop.   Good day!! 

Looking good! ...although I do think 115 rpm is a little on the fast side for blower cranking. I do like the sign idea though for newbies.

The forging part of my shop has a sand/clay floor and no matter how often I sweep it it continues to be dusty, sigh...

Thanks C-1 that sign came with the "new to me" pole barn.  It's wedged in quite solid and I haven't bothered to remove it.   

It's funny, my son cranks it 115 and my daughter cranks it 15rpm! Think I'm in trouble! 

Sand/clay is best! It doesn't need sweeping and keeps the taxes low! 

 

I still have to plumb that blower in.  Figure it will be something for the kids to help with. I'll use my daughter for small work and son for welding lol 

Well I don't have to worry much about moisture out here and it is nicer on the joints and back than a concrete floor.  Cheap too.

Did I mention I absolutely love my forge?  The deep pot and the insert I made to make it shallow  made a 2 inch drop to the clinker breaker. It's a strange pot but it works awesome!! 

Hood works great as well and I'm getting good to fire management.

Been mixing tractor supply coal with charcoal as fuel.  Works great.  20 gal of hard maple charcoal I pulled from my boiler this am.  

Starting to amass my mandatory tools. Feels good to have only started with a few hammers and one set of usable tongs.  

Cut up some semi trailer Spring with the band saw for some more punches drifts and chisels.  The one I cut to shape will be a stone chisel of some sort... 

Wow look at how far she has come!! 

Feb 19 

June 26

Will post some pics of some small changes to the forge.   Fire pot was to large! I made a insert and built a grate to keep the coal up out of the inlet.  Works like a champ! 

Great that you have lots of room and can get inside in cold weather!

if only I had a shop that big.......very nice shop.

                                                                                                                    Littleblacksmith

I like that you're starting to get some more lighting in there.  Those two ceiling spots alone looked pretty grim to work by.  Seems like your shadow would often be on the work. I'm slowly converting my fluorescent fixtures to use the new 4 foot LED bulbs that look just like fluorescent tubes, but are brighter, and work great even when it's so cold the fluorescent ones fail to light.  -- Dave

I have a couple of fiberglass panels in the roof and generally use free natural daylight.  They diffuse it well.

I like it fairly dark wile forging.   Unfortunately ive been doing more tool restoration than hammering on hot iron as of late.  Still have quite a few hammers to handle before I can get back to work.  

Nothing wrong with work station lighting where you need it. A switch can turn them off when not needed.