Shovelhead666 Posted January 27, 2017 Share Posted January 27, 2017 Hey everyone. New to the site, and new to the forging world. I've been doing my best with the information I can get, and with not knowing a single person around me that blacksmiths, I am limited on some very important advice. Long story short I built a forge out of what I could get a hold of. I have some pictures below. I started with a 2 inch area with hole drilled for airflow, but the area of hot coal was to small. I cut that wide open as you can see, to use the plate I fabbed up with 3/4" legs to make space for air flow from the 2" hole underneath. I run the furnace blower I have with the ash clean out all the way open, and I'm still burning around 15 lbs of coal in far too short of time. About 40 mins. Which even as a new guy, seems far too high. Also cannot achieve welding heat. I'm looking for tips on how to move forward. Is the airfeed too wide of an area? Not deep enough? Too much air flow cooling my temperatures? Better to bolt a brake drum over the hole and throw out the plate addition? Anything will help. I can't follow through with my first project with out welding heat. Thanks in advance, and apologies for anything extremely obvious that I missed, very green to this whole process. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tubalcain2 Posted January 27, 2017 Share Posted January 27, 2017 the trick to coal is firemass. to be effective, you will want a deeper firepot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted January 27, 2017 Share Posted January 27, 2017 If I was using that set up I would stack firebricks flat on the sides of your plate with the holes about 3 bricks high and full the trough between them with coal till it was higher than the edges of the forge! How are you dealing with that blower? Looks to be putting out way more air than you need and I don't see a speed control or an intake control or an exhaust control or even a place to waste the air. Have you thought about providing your general location? There may be smiths within walking distance of you that you don't know that could show you what works *fast*. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daswulf Posted January 27, 2017 Share Posted January 27, 2017 Welcome aboard Shovelhead. What you have going on there is too flat of a area with trying to put air to too much of that area. You want basically a fire "ball" in basically a bowl. With the setup as it is you can't concentrate the heat in one spot. It's too shallow and too spread out. Try reading through the solid fuel forge section to learn more of what will work. If it were mine, I would get a brake Rotor roughly 2"deep x 8" diameter inner opening. Cut a hole in the table and trim the tuyere pipe to meet the opening in the rotor. The rotor will sit in the table with the outer ring holding it on the table. Then weld the tuyere pipe or use a flange to attach the tuyere pipe to the rotor. Hope that is some help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daswulf Posted January 27, 2017 Share Posted January 27, 2017 Thomas has a good point, Also what He mentioned with the blower. Here is a good place to start. The pinned post. http://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/30887-forges-and-fires/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shovelhead666 Posted January 27, 2017 Author Share Posted January 27, 2017 Thanks for the replies. And Thanks for the new leads Daswulf and ThomasPowers. That was fast. Can't beat a forum. But I have been using the clean out wide open as an air flow reducer. Didn't reduce it enough. But being an electrician, a simple vari speed pot, dimmer or rheostat, will hinder the life of the motor, and a cheap freq drive just doesn't really exist. So I'm going to install the brake drum as my next step, and then put a slide in the air intake to use as a door valve to resist air flow to a better speed. I appreciate all the help. Thanks guys. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn Posted January 27, 2017 Share Posted January 27, 2017 Get a piece of dryer vent pipe and connect it to the tweyre. Let the other end go to the ground. Put your blower so it has a gap between the blower and the pipe of 3-4 inches or more. Aim the blower toward the pipe for more air, not so much toward the pipe for less air. Simple and infinite air control. (grin) Vent or waste any excess air. Try the brick suggestion by Thomas. For solid fuels you want a fire ball about the size of a large melon or larger, then more coal on top of that. Fuel does not make the fire hot, air makes the fire hot. Do a site search for the 55 Forge, particularly the side blast version. You have a good start, just needs some adjustments. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted January 28, 2017 Share Posted January 28, 2017 What the others have said is excellent. I have nothing to add, other than that an air-diffusing grill like that is good for a hair dryer, but not for a forge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shovelhead666 Posted January 28, 2017 Author Share Posted January 28, 2017 So much help. Really, thank you all! I'll post updates soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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