G'day folks,

So i already made myself a little basic forge last year out of some scrap steel and a couple of car rims and while it was "ok" and let me heat up n bash some steel to get an idea of working the iron and seeing if i enjoyed it(loved it by the way).

I've decided i'm going to make up something a little more permanent and able to heat to higher temps for forge welding and hopefully making damascus style steel for myself. My basic idea is i want to have it built into a bench top style of thing with a side drafting flue burning charcoal. 

Now for my firebox i was looking at using 1/2inch steel plate and making a trapezoid shaped box 4" deep. 6" square at the bottom and 12" square at the top with a 2inch bottom feed air pipe.The top of the firebox being level with the "bench" top

is this going to be deep enough and large enough to get a good hot burn in from charcoal or would i need to go deeper to get the top of the box lined up for the sweet spot ?will the 1/2 inch put up with the heat ok or should i go thicker/line it with something ? 

 

thanks in advance

 

Yes and Yes. You should be fine.

welcome to IFI

a lot of questions depend on location for a good answer so it is a good idea to add it to your profile ( as vague or precise as you like ).

the forges I make are for coke and the sides are 3mm ( about 1/8" thick ) but with coke the fire never gets to the sides

oh ok 3mm. wow seems like i might be over engineering a touch

If you've got the 1/2", go for it. No smithing equipment ever suffered from being too robust. 

no so far i just have the plans drawn up. i still the okay from the supreme overlord of finances(wife) so if i can make it for less will be more chance of getting the go ahead

would it be worth looking at lining the firepot with a clay/ash mix ?

 

If you want a good functional forge at minimal cost, it's hard to beat the JABOD.  More money for fuel and tools. 

fuel isn't too much of an issue i have a way of getting wood pretty cheap and have a charcoal kiln/retort 90% built. i'm looking at making something a bit more advanced then current forge and semi permanent in the shed

sizes all sound good, my charcoal wood forge is made out of a hodgepodge of different thickness metal off cuts welded together to make the pot, mostly around the 3/8 mark. Size and depth is probably similar to yours, sides are higher than front and back and angle iron so it just drops in to my cutoff table frame. My air comes in from the bottom, but plenty of people say from the side is best for charcoal, I dunno, bottom works for me.

I have a couple of other 1/2 inch plates I keep handy that can go over the top (sitting on those higher sides toward the back of the pot in the photo) to partially enclose it when I want some serious heat (not that there is any trouble making heat with it as it is, steel burns like a kids sparkler when you accidentally get it hot enough

PS, I dont bother making charcoal anymore, just burn hard wood, seems to work just as well without the effort and mess involved in processing the wood into charcoal.

 

Check out Charles R. Stevens's original "just a box of dirt" post and my own new JABOD forge post. Charles burns charcoal and I burn anthracite, but the construction is practically identical.

If you're making your own charcoal, even better: more money for tools and materials.

The total cost for building my JABOD forge was about $2.50 in drywall screws. The pallet wood, tuyere pipe, and parts for the blower attachment were all scavenged, and the sheet metal and sheet metal screws came off an old oven that we had to replace. I could have built the whole thing for nothing, if I hadn't already used the nails from the pallets for another project. The head of the Office of Management and Budget My wife was very happy with how little it took from the Hobbies category of the budget, leaving more for her china collecting.

Honestly take time to look at what others have done, repurposed mower decks, 5 gallon buckets, wooden boxes, 55 gallon drums, a hole dug in the yard, old sinks...

lots of ways to scrounge up the parts to get started, then if you want somthing fancier, you now have a tool to make the tools and parts you need. 

yeah this was last years start up forge. like i said i'm looking at making something a bit more permanent for in the shed and can get the iron hotter and more consistant but this bad boy got me started up and most expensive part was the hair dryer

Note you need hot coals on top of your work piece as well as below it.

yeah this worked well to learn about bashing iron a bit and make some really dodgey looking tongs up but i want something a bit more advanced now. am going to order the steel for it next week