So I have spent a lot of time in my life working with metal, welding, cutting, bending, etc. also I have spent the majority of my life working with wood and different projects. So I finally decided that it was high time to build a smithy and start doing what makes me happy and that's working with my hands and creating things. 

This thread will be a live record of my smithy build from start to finish. My goal was to build a basic setup to suit my taste and wants for as little money as possible. I will post pictures and commentary as I go and I would love to know what you guys all think about it! Your input is much appreciated!

My first project basically chose itself because it was something that I already felt I had the materials for laying around my house. 

The Anvil block: 

Note: all the wood in this was farmed from my own scrap pile at the back of my property. 

However, when I started hogging out the hole for my anvil to recess down into, I quickly noticed the critical downfall to my design. The 8" lag bolts I used to suck it all together intersected at the middle and prevented me from going down any further than 1 1/2" and I needed to go down 4". So a little brainstorming, and a little frustration resulted in me repurposing my "anvil block" and making it a "Vice block" as I do not currently possess a work bench to mount a vice to

Edited August 8, 20178 yr by Mod34
Moved to proper section

cool. if you have the jaws of your vise at the same height as the face of your anvil, you can use the vise to hold your stock while you're hot-slitting or punching. better that holding it between your legs.  just a thought.  

But not nearly as exciting when the metal cools.

That is a good idea. I need to measure jaw height and compare it to my plans for my new anvil setup. May have to put a spacer to raise the vice. 

That vice is an old Columbia that my great grand father bought and passed to my grandfather, then to my dad, and now to me. It's marked NO 504. Don't think a lot of monetary value but priceless to me considering it's one of just a small handful of things that my family has passed down through 4 generations. 

1 hour ago, ThomasPowers said:

But not nearly as exciting when the metal cools.

yup. that can turn into quite the rodeo. 

I thought it was a valuable technique to teach the student to work the metal HOT as they tend to want to work it way cold and so waste time and energy

Just a thought, but those gaps in your base might trap hot cinders if you are not careful. If you build another I would avoid those gaps. Fire is a real issue when working with hot metal.

Yeah, based on the feed back I got in another post about my block, I've decided to actually cut those outside boards flush with the next layer in to alleviate that partially closed off gap. I originally put those 4 gaps in on purpose to use as accessory holes but I can definitely see the design flaw there. 

***Update***

Progress has been a little slow due to some unforeseen work stuff but I am coming along for sure! 

Forge is coming together nicely. The firepot is 13x13x6 making it 4 1/2 inch deep. It is constructed of 5/16" plate steel. The forge table is a combination of 1" square tube and angle iron with a top of 10 gauge sheet metal. The tuyere and air pipe are cuts from a oil drill pipe. I harvested all of the metal from my local steel yard's drop pile. In total I have spent about 80 dollars in metal and I still have enough of everything to build a nice work table and a tool rack. I will be adding 2 inch skirts all the way around the forge to keep the coal in. 

 

Did a little test fire with some wood scrap just to make sure everything was on the right track. 

Managed to get a good looking burn going. Slid a piece of angle iron in it and managed to get a good 4" spot glowing red. 

IMG_1603.MOV

very cool

Thank you! I'm hoping to get the sides on it this weekend so that I can crank up the heat and see what happens. I bought a couple bags of anthracite from the TSC near me. Hopefully it burns okay. The hairdryer seems to be putting out plenty of air. 

You should be able to bring 4" to welding heat with that monster

Think it's too big or no? I suppose I could downsize it...

All depends on what you are doing with it. If it proves to big for the class of work you are doing you can always swap the dispersion plate for a bullet grate (a large pipe cap with a 3/4" hole in it) this would raise the hot spot on a smaller fire to table hight, wile shedding the slag to the sides, like a donut. Coal fires does not spred like charcoal

I got some anthracite to hold me over until my SaltFork Membership comes through and then I can buy the bituminous they have

Depending on the size of fire you need you may have more than one, 3" from the rim, 4" from the rim etc.  one 3/4", three 1/2" ext. to get the fire you need for 1"stock, 2" etc. 

Andricite cracles and breaks down like charcoal, it does not clump when it cokes like bitimuth. It also goes out in les than 5 min. So bellows and hand cranked blowers do not work. 

Fill the pot and mound it up and let her rip, worst that can happen is you burn more fuel than you need. After you know how she behaves what modifications you need to effencently heat the size stock you are working will become clearer.  

You will need a good wood fire and air to get that stuff lit. 

I got me a little $10 hair dryer from Walmart to start with. That's what was blowing the fire in the video, also have a leaf blower and a shop vac that could be repurposed if needed. Hopefully soon I'll be able to get out to Douglas where Salt Fork sells their coal and pick up some of that and then maybe look at switching over to a hand crank. 

I wanted to get your input on my ash dump. I had an idea to use magnets across the bottom of the pipe. They are about 4" long and 1.5" wide and I use 2 to cover the pipe completely. I can split them a little or a lot to dampen the air flow to the fire pot. Seems decent but didn't know if there was any reason NOT to use magnets?

What I like for an ash dump is a clamp on semi exhaust flap cap. Clamp it upside down on the end of your vertical pipe and the counter weight will keep it closed. You can reach under the forge with tongs, coal rake, hammer . . . whatever and flip the weight up to dump the ash. It's easy, fast and works really well. As another little bit of goodness for the flap cap ash dump comes if you build up enough flammable gas in the tuyere for it to pop. Big pops have been known to blow coals out of the fire or just open the flap cap and dump your ash.

Frosty The Lucky.

Last I herd there was a coal pile in Norman. 

I'll check into the semi stack cap. Any idea where to pick up one other than internet?

 

Charles, I had heard there was a coal pile in Norman but I haven't been able to locate it

Auto parts store like Napa. You will have to add a counterweight (vice grip will work in a"pinch")

http://www.saltforkcraftsmen.org/Newsletters/2017August.pdf page 45 club coal. 

Okay awesome. I'll check it out!

Tractor supply has flapper caps. Other feed/ farm store might carry them as well. 

Oh that's awesome. TSC is where I got the anthracite. They had it on sale for 40# @ $4.49  I'll go back and snag a flapper. Thanks!