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I Forge Iron

Turning a Ford Transmission into a forge


Will Barkley

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Hello, new to this forum and thought I would throw a curve ball. I am starting to piece together a respectable metal working tool collection and I am missing a forge. I don't have the scratch to throw down for a new/used forge. I have a bad ford transmission that I plan on gutting and was wondering if it could be used as the hull of a forge. I was thinking about casing the inside with a fire-brick mortar. That's really as far as I've thought this through. Anybody tried this, heard of trying this or has some constructive criticism to throw at me would be greatly appreciated.

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Obviously you are thinking in using the cast gearbox for a gas forge.

Hum ... will it take the heat without cracking? May be ok. Must be from a large truck. A picture would help, but I think you are making a rod for your own back. Why not using an LPG tank? The gearbox will smoke a lot the first time you fire it up.

Of course a gearbox turned into a forge would be a talking point particularly if you leave the gear stick on at the top. :)

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ALL aluminum alloys lose their tempering at about 400 F; so over a short period of time it will not only become a funky overweight tool; iy will also bevome a weak one. Around its exhhaust openings, where forges with steel shells sometimes turn red, it will already have melted and run like water, since aluminum alloys turn liquid at 1200 F.

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Welcome aboard Will glad to have you. Pull up a chair, grab some snacks and drinks and get ready for some reading. Iforge is organized in sections which contain archived posts that cover probably most any question you can come up with and answers them many times over. I'll hand it to you though, nobody's asked about using a tranny as a forge shell.

I suppose you could use one but I don't think it'd be worth NOT scrapping. Take a look through the gas forge section for any number of designs some excellent some downright daffy.

Frosty The Lucky.

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