Shutting down your forge for the day

[LITTLEJOHN]

Since I am new to the art my question is what is the best way to put out my fire at the end of the day after I am done forging.Sounds like a crazy question since most of the time we are interested in starting the fire.I have a small forge with a champion blower and want to save as much of the coke and coal as I can since good coal in Illiois is hard to find.Thank for any advice!

[matt87]

My smithery is located outdoors, so this may affect my reply. I tend to start tiding up during the last heats of the day; putting tools and materials away I know I won't need gain today. If I need to anneal something I'll put it in the fire and get it hot, cover in coals and remove blower and tidy everything away. If I'm not annealling I tend to shovel the burning coals into the slack tub; I use charcoal not mineral coal and this not only saves fuel (I am a poor student ) but also makes sure it's well soaked for the next forgin session. Only my anvil and forge pot stay outside over night.

[steveh]

after im done,i just pull my fire apart and out of the fire pot.it goes out real quick and its there waiting for your next fire.

[LITTLEJOHN]

Thanks for the advice!

[Glenn]

I pull the fire out of the forge and put ALL the used coal, coke, ash etc into a 5 gallon bucket of water. This cleans the fire pot for the next forge session, but more importantly, kills any fire and any hot embers. (I have had the fire still burning in the forge for 4-5 hours after the air was shut off and the forge closed down.)

The coke and coal can easily be separated from the water, leaving the ash and clinker behind. Just dry it out on a table or tarp outside in the sun.

I sleep very well at night knowing everything that was hot is under 2 inches of water.

[ThomasPowers]

I pull the good coke/coal over to the flat table of the forge and let it go out---big chunks sometimes need subdividing. Small stuff I dump out of the ash dump into a metal bucket of water. The coal forge is outside.

For the propane forge I usually just turn off the tank. If I am doing an annealing run I will let the piece come up to temp, turn off the tank and close off the door with hot firebrick.

[irnsrgn]

I just pulled the main part of the fire out of the pot to the sides and used my sprinkler can to finish it off.

[roy_tate]

Notice that several reply so far mentions raking out coals and dropping them in water, and not dumping cold water on your hot fire pot. This would crack the pot sooner or later.

[imagedude]

Coke will extinguish quickly one the air is turned off, coal may burn for a while if the the fire isn't broken up and damped down. I've made a lid that covers my forge to reduce the chances of stray sparks escaping after I've left the building. This is important if you burn charcoal which, as you probably know, makes lots of sparks.

[Thomas Dean]

I pull my fire apart and quench with water also. I made my firpot out of 3/8" Inconel 600 plate. Will not crack and will never burn out! If I have a demo in the future I will save the coke and use that to start my fire for the demo, doesn't run off the folks quite so bad.;)

[Hoary]

Not to sound too clueless, but I'm not quite understanding "pulling the fire from the pot?" I know not to put out the fire with water b/c of something of creating acid from the ash and water to eat at the pot... I just usually let it run it's course and die since I'm outside working, but as Glenn mentioned that runs great risk of something happening while being unattended.

[steveh]

just use something to rake the fire out of the fire pot.i have an older buffalo forge table so theres lots of room to spread the coals out.the acid is sulphuric i believe.

[Glenn]

Pulling the fire out of the pot means just that... pulling it apart and out onto the forging table. With good coal it usually dies out rather quickly. This is not OUT-OUT. Clinker or some of the pieces can still be hot enough to re-ignite with a little air.

Pull the fire apart, lay it onto a table to cool, and clean the fire pot Remember those HOT coals in the ash bucket under the ash tube? What about the hot embers in the ASH TUBE? They are just waiting to cause trouble the minute you forget about them. All this goes into a 5 gallon bucket of water.

You REALLY WANT to take a chance to prove your method of shutting down a forge is always right?

I would rather explain why I have a bucket full of muck
and 2 inches of water over top anything that used to be hot.

[Hoary]

not taking a chance to prove my method is right, just trying to find the best way to preserve what little I've got and to exstinguish any threats to everything the right way. That's all. :)

[Steve Sells]

coal/coke do not hold water well,

When you are ready to re start your forge, get the coal/coke out of the water (1 cm mesh or window screen makes a great strainer) while its dripping off the last few drops of water, get your forge and metal ready. Use the left over from the day-before forging, with in a few minutes. what little water is left clinging to the chunks will evapoprate quickly from the heat of what is already burning. water will not ruin your coke.

[chainsaw]

I pull mine apart and quench with water from my sprinkling can. I then hose down the dirt floor, wipe off the anvil and grab a cool beverage..After 20 minutes or so I do a quick check and call it a day. This works for me,but then again I'm pretty paranoid since I caught myself on fire in a steel mill about 30 years ago by having some hot slag ignite the bottom of my pants. When I hose down the shop I also quench anything hot at the bottom of my trousers etc ( kind of a two for one, wet shop floor and wet pant legs). Probably not the best solution if you live in snow country, but I don't..

[Glenn]

Chainsaw
Go to the top of the forum page and click on user CP
click on edit profile
go to the bottom of the page, enter your location and save.

We would like to know where in the world your located.

[Rick Barter]

Currently, I'm still forging outside. So, as another member said, your mileage may vary. But, I don't do much. I just turn the air off and walk away. The fire dies out and because you leave it all together it goes out slowly creating more coke in the process. I don't clean it out until I'm ready to start another fire in it.

If you use coal there isn't much danger with stray sparks. Coal isn't like wood. It doesn't really send sparks showering out of the firepot. You have more danger of starting a fire when forge welding as the molten slag and flux squirt out.

My $0.02.

[rlarkin]

When I sense that I am getting close to the end of a session I will quit replenishing the fire, and just clean up around the fire pot.
When I do finish for the day, I turn off the blower, wait for a few minutes, and put a scoop of green coal on the pile. I have found that without the blower on, it helps to extinguish it quicker, starts real easy the nest session.

[GVR-4579]

I have an old chicken waterer top and just set that right down on the fire and bank up around it. The fire is suffocated in about 1 min. Then wile i am waiting i sweep the whole shop and put everything away.