Okay so, recently a while back I saw a forge that had a vertically sliding forge door activated by a lever. I cannot for the life of me find the picture of it or of one In general. I'm kinda tossing the idea around of building one because I love the design, but I would like to see a picture of one and see how the lever system would work. I have  an idea in my head on how to go about this regardless. I just think it would help to see a picture.

Anybody seen/know what I'm talking about? I saw the picture on instagram but after an hour of searching I came up with nothing. I saw another video on YouTube a year or so ago of one. Any help would be appreciated!

I considered doing somthing like that but wound up just making the vertical opening ajustable with two old bolts welded to the verticaly sliding door that lead through a shelf welded to the top of my forge. I eaither ajust it before lighting or to ajust it hot use  a deepwell socket to spin the nuts by hand .

i figure i can add a lever system later someday using the bolts as both guides / attachment points

Years ago i worked at a company that made tillage tools.  All the furnaces had a foot opperated vertical door.  Maybe look for some photos of commercial furnaces and just scale down.

One thing to remember is that if you are using NA burners there has to be an opening in the forge for the exhaust to exit or the back pressure will interfere with the burner.  Many large commercial systems use a blown burner that has a lot less issue with this.  

Hey, I've been meaning to get the pics and post them for you. I take classes and rent space at Pratt Fine Arts Center in Seattle, WA and haven't gone since you asked. These are some pics of their larger forge with a vertical sliding door. Please excuse the quality, its back lit and the forge was on, so  I couldn't always get the shots I wanted.

The door is cast refractory and has seen better days. Lot's of students knocking work against it while hot and a fair share of novice forge welding with way too much flux have passed through this door.

I will be there again next weekend if you want close ups of any other parts of it. Its a simple lever with a weight on it so balance the door a but, with a couple of pulleys and a wire. Door is in a simple track made of angle iron, C channel and some flat stock. I can't tell you how they case the door, it was done quite a few years ago and I haven't really looked that closely.