Dealing with dust

[JD Forge]

Hey everyone! A new iforgeiron member here. Just have a question about dust control from a coal forge. I understand that the coal dust from my coal supply can be watered down to make a slurry and added to the fire that way, but what I'm am having problems with is dust that blows out of the fire itself. Especially after the fire has been sitting a while and I come back and turn the blower on this cloud of fine dust blows out. Now my chimney is not drawing well and so I have smoke problems as well. But once I fix that and have a proper chimney will that help take care of any of that fine dust, or do I need a air filtering machine or ventilation fan or something? Curious to know how you all take care of dust in your shops? And ideas, advice, will be much appreciated!! 

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

Hi and welcome... If you go to your profile and add your location you might be surprised how many of the gang are near you and some questions are location dependent.

Are you sure it's coal dust or is it ash? In my experience the coal dust burns very rapidly turning into ash. A flue (chimney) that draws well takes care of the problem. Fixing the draw problem would be my first move.

Some information on your forge & blower set up will help with answers. How much air, what type of air control? Pictures will also help.

[JD Forge]

Actually I think your right, it is ash.

Thanks! good to know that a well drawing flue will take care of it, as well as the smoke.

I have an old electric forge blower. I'm not sure what make, but it does have the name Hastings Foundry, (I think) on it . Interestingly that foundry used to be in a town about an hour from where I live. I have a fairly makeshift air gate to control the air.

I think sometimes the problem is to much air and not enough coal on the fire and so I get stuff flying out. I just have to be less stingy with my coal.

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

Sounds like your fire is too shallow. Here is a good thread about fires, if yours doesn't look like the illustration then yes build a deeper fire.

 

[arkie]

Sounds like ash to me.  Do you stir your fire and empty the ash dump after the fire has been sitting for a while?  If not, you are just blowing it up out of the fire pot and not dumping the ashes.

[Glenn]

What color is the dust?

Black it may be from coal but I doubt it as it would most likely coke up with the rest of the fire.

Gray indicates ash. That is the stuff that is left over from burning of the fuel. Dump the ash from the fire pot and most of the ash should be eliminated. Start the air slowly and let the fire catch before adding more air. Slow air and a fire should reduce the ash blown into the air.

I put the coal dust in a bucket and add water. 

 

You just reach into the water and grab a hand full of black mud, squeeze out any excess water, and put it on the fire.  A little air and it catches fire, cokes up, and burns.

A good and working chimney will collect smoke from the fire and get it out of the work area. If you look inside the chimney any ash that is drawn into the chimney settles out onto the smoke shelf or onto the bottom of the chimney and needs to be removed from time to time.

[Charles R. Stevens]

The air blast blows out ash constantly, if the blast is out, then the ash collects. Shaking the forge and poking the fire will move some down to the ash dump. But if it's still a cloud you may have to much air. If your building a new fire, just a bit of water will settle the ash. 

[JD Forge]

Thanks guys for the tips! I guess I can still work on paying better attention to my fire.

I think it depends what work I'm doing as to how well I manage the fire. If I'm doing pattern welding the fire has to be nice and deep or else I'll have problems. But if I'm doing general forging especially with smaller pieces I tend to be a little more sloppy with fire management. 

 

[The World's Biggest Frog]

The "dust" you are seeing flying out of your forge isn't dust at all, it's coal ash.  You need to jiggle the coal fire and move the coal to knock the dust down to the bottom of your fire pot, then jiggle the ash pot door to get the ash to fall into the ash pot before cranking up your forge blower. This won't eliminate all of the dust, but it will eliminate most of it. You need a good chimney system with a fan, or a good size hood to get the ashes and smoke to vent out of your shop.

If you are getting large amounts of coal dust, by all means, get a dust filtration system in your shop. Coal dust even in small quantities is very explosive and you could end up blowing up your shop, your home <if you are home based> your family, and yourself. If you get fresh coal, always take the coal and sift out the dust and granules before using the coal. Coal factories actually pulverize some of their coal into a dust, then mix the dust with a small amount of water. Then when the mixture is the right consistency, will form the powdered coal into cakes and briquettes for coal fired stoves and furnaces. This is accomplished by very high amounts of pressure that generates just enough heat to fuse the dust together for making coal briquettes. The heat generated also allows for moisture to evaporate as the briquettes cool. Failure to remove all of the moisture from a coal briquette can cause it to rupture, pop and explode.

If your coal has large amounts of dust, just be careful how you deal with it. There are plenty of other hazards with coal dust besides fire, including lung damage that can lead to "Black-lung Disease," especially if you are breathing in large quantities of both coal ash and coal dust. Black Lung was very common in the early days of coal mining. You can develop upper reparatory problems and serious sinus problems from breathing the dust and the ash, and it also contains certain carcinogens that can cause cancer. To clarify, Coal Dust is unburnt coal particles. Coal ash is coal that has already been burned, and all of the combustibles are mostly gone. These are the sparks and dust particles that you see flying out of your coal fire when you crank up the blower. Coal ash still resembles coal dust however, but is not as combustible as coal dust. It will burn, but at much higher temperatures than coal and its dust. Excellent question. Please be safe. I envy that you are able to use a coal fire to do your forgings...