Hello smiths,

    As in the title, I am new to smithing, but have been interested in manipulating metal for many years. I grew up on a farm as a kid so finding ways to be handy has become second nature to me. I've been researching around your site for various forge designs, and ways to do things.   I'm planning to start with a small coal forge, and see how I enjoy it. Any input is greatly appreciated, and thank you for having me. 

  North. 

Welcome aboard Northland73. 

Sounds like you have an idea. Next you plan. There are many ways to build a small coal forge. Find what will best work for you and what you plan to make. 

If you are like us at all, once you start you'll be hooked.  

Thank you Daswulf

    Plan is to find a small inexpensive centrifugal blower that can get the job done. I will probably be starting with a drum brake type forge.   I don't have a lot of starting cash, but the wife says I need a hobby haha. 

Most if not all parts to make a forge like that can be sourced cheap if not free. It is a little easier to assemble if you have a welder but can be done without as well without much effort.  Going through the solid fuel forge section and reading the pinned posts and going through the rest should give you a good idea of how simple it can be. 

If there are any smiths in my area willing to "show me the ropes", I'd be on board with that. Although, I haven't heard of anyone in my area that does forging. 

I will surely look through the solid fuel forge section. Thanks again!

Upper Midwest Blacksmith Assoc. Go to the meetings with a pencil and notebook. You can learn more in a day than you can imagine.

 

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Awesome.  Thank you Glenn 

there are a couple of us around central WI... I'm only home every other weekend, but I made a propane forge. not the best, but I've limited funds. already starting to collect stuff for my "next bigger better badder forge" and will get it done... oh, at this rate... next winter XD

 

personal experience: the forge isn't the hard part. ANVIL was what kicked my but trying to find/afford

18 hours ago, Northland73 said:

but the wife says I need a hobby haha.

Now that is a major step in the right direction,

16 hours ago, straycat_74 said:

there are a couple of us around central WI... I'm only home every other weekend, but I made a propane forge. not the best, but I've limited funds. already starting to collect stuff for my "next bigger better badder forge" and will get it done... oh, at this rate... next winter XD

 

personal experience: the forge isn't the hard part. ANVIL was what kicked my but trying to find/afford

I was thinking of building a wood charcoal forge, because I've come to find that coal is hard to get around here. There is a dealer down around portage, but not ready to drive that far just yet. How much propane do you usually go through? As in a BBQ grill size tank. Think they're 20lb

Last Saturday I taught a class from 8:30 in the morning till 5:30 in the evening with an hour off for lunch. We started with a full bottle of propane and were still on the same bottle when we quit.  Depends a lot on the forge, burners and what you are doing.  Billet welding uses more than forging 1/4" sq stock.

1 minute ago, ThomasPowers said:

Last Saturday I taught a class from 8:30 in the morning till 5:30 in the evening with an hour off for lunch. We started with a full bottle of propane and were still on the same bottle when we quit.  Depends a lot on the forge, burners and what you are doing.  Billet welding uses more than forging 1/4" sq stock.

Ok. Thank you very much. 

I should note that I am a maintenance mechanic, and am handy with lathes, mills, plumbing, electrical, and stuff like that. So building a propane style forge wouldn't be difficult for me. I looked up the Frosty T burner, and it seems simple enough. Just wasn't sure if the propane method would be cost effective. 

I'm just in the midst of a propane forge build and here are a couple photos from mine.  Burner design is from book "Make: Fire" "The Art and Science of Working with Propane" by Tim Deagan.  It starts out with the very basics and progresses from there, and I've learned a lot, and feel comfortable with my setup.  Recommended.

The shell I'm using is 14" diameter and will have 3" of ceramic fiber insulation.  The kiln shelf bottom sits on kiln shelf risers, which are hollow and fit over studs I welded to the shell.

Plumbing has an idler circuit, all gas rated valves, and took multiple trips to Menards before I rounded up all the right bits!

-- Dave

Great input. Thank you woodnmetal

Well guys I built a very crude 55 forge, using an old disc brake, blower from a wood stove, and a rock haha.  I used charcoal briquettes to start, then continuously fed burned down firewood coal.  I know there is a lot wrong with the build, this was just to see if I would enjoy this as a continued hobby. I'll say mission successful. I hammered a half inch bolt down to a crude wedge. I plan to build a coffee can forge with a Frosty T Burner.   Was a fun afternoon. 

 

 

Use a much deeper fire and you will find you need less air to get more usable heat.

Dress the hammer face too; it will save you a LOT of time if you ever want to make knives...

I am actually leaning more towards a knife making hobby. What do you mean by dress the hammer face?  Also thanks for the deeper fire tip Glenn. 

He means you need to get rid of any sharp edges and smooth it out to ensure good, solid, full contact blows. This will help in the forging process because you won't have to rework the metal to get rid of the hammer marks on your blades. 

Ah. Thank you. 

So how many threads did you find when you searched on dressing a hammer ?

Hammer control and a smooth faced hammer make a massive difference in the amount of time required on clean up on a blade.

Tried to post this almost 2 hours ago; but it got lost...

I found a large number of posts. I should've searched before posting the response. Spur of the moment I guess. 

On 2/16/2017 at 3:59 PM, Northland73 said:

I was thinking of building a wood charcoal forge, because I've come to find that coal is hard to get around here. There is a dealer down around portage, but not ready to drive that far just yet. How much propane do you usually go through? As in a BBQ grill size tank. Think they're 20lb

my first forge I musta run for 10-12 hours off of a 20lbs propane bottle. I finally ran out the otehr day so I took my 40lbser to Ace Hardware to get it filled. Was cheaper than bottle exchange! swapping bottles (around here anyway) is $22-25 for the 20's, but getting a 40 filled was only $29!

 

I run two 1/2" burners with .025 mig tips around 10-12psi as as long as the stuff I'm working on isn't too thick I can even forgeweld with it

Refills are almost always cheaper, I recently got 2 BBQ grill sized tanks filled for US$28.  I taught an 8:30 am to 5:30 pm class with an hour for lunch and the forged turned up pretty high (open front and several students sticking work in it...) on 1 tank and it had appreciable weight left in it afterwards.  I try to make a "trinket" to sell each time I fire up for "gas money" and so not worry about it.