Started New Forge

[ronwend523]

I fired my newly built small forge for the first time, today. I have never done  that before. I used some Kingsford because I have not made any charcoal yet. I'm just getting into this stuff. I put a piece of steel in the fire and she got close to white. I had an issue with the blower I had put on it as it didn't put out much air. I put my hair dryer in it and away it went. I have to revamp that part. The forge is an old camper sink(stainless) and I made some refractory and lined it behind some fire brick. I have to make a grate for the bottom draft hole yet.  

[ThomasPowers]

Remember you should be able to put the workpiece horizontally into/through the hot spot

[Daswulf]

What Thomas said, and you may want to extend the ash dump. I would be a little concerned having the plastic pipe right at the T connector. A little further back isn't a concern since that doesn't get hot there but Hot ashes find their way on the inner ledge of the T connector. 

If im seeing it right I like the butterfly valve in the pipe idea. 

[ronwend523]

Thank you for the tips guys. Daswulf I saw that too and took the plastic off. I will extend that with a 6" nipple then the plastic. I'm going to go with a hair dryer as my fan for now and see how that goes. I'm not going to be forging as much as you guys would. I'm thinking with I may need to raise the bottom of my burn area up to get a hot spot higher for mid piece heats. Making the refractory  stuff was easy so that would work. I may need to extend an area all around the hot box for additional fuel to rake in.  I enjoy any feed back guys.