Moltas Posted January 22, 2018 Share Posted January 22, 2018 Hey, I have a question about the making of a brake drum forge. I will attach some pictures for you to see! The brake drum is a bit large so we are going to use a piece of metal that we drill holes in as the bottom of the fire pot. But we are not sure about what kind of metal to use as the base. We now have a 6 millimeter thick metal piece as the bottom. Woulld apriciate all the tips and help I can get! The pictures bellow are of the brake drum and the brake drum with the metal piece that we where going to use as the bottom. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daswulf Posted January 22, 2018 Share Posted January 22, 2018 The lip of the drum is going to make it a pain both to put fresh fuel in and to lay the workpiece in the sweet spot of the fire. I don't like drums and prefer a brake rotor. Generally off the rear of a vehicle that had the drum style Ebrake. A decent size is around 8" diameter and 2-3" deep. It will sit in the hole in the table easily because of the rotor lip and it's easier to just take fuel into in from on the table. You can always bank up more fuel on it for a deeper fire and use bricks to adjust the depth as well. Here is what I am using. Hope it helps a bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buzzkill Posted January 22, 2018 Share Posted January 22, 2018 Welcome to the forum. Lots of good stuff here for you if you take the time to research it. Our search function isn't the greatest, so if you want to look for info add "Iforgeiron.com" to your search term when you do a web search to get better results. If you add a general location to your profile there may be someone(s) close enough to you that they can help in person. Even if that's not the case, we can give you better info if we know roughly where you are in the world since the answers to many questions are location dependent. I'm not sure what your question is, but I'll give a couple thoughts here anyway. What you have so far will give you a fire pot significantly larger than you probably need. An inside diameter around 8 inches (give or take a little) is sufficient. Also, the top edge of your drum is higher than the table by a good margin. Assuming you are using coal, fire management is much easier if you can pile the coal around and mound on top of the fire pot. That way you can rake in more coal as needed. It's difficult to do that with your current design. If course you can lay bricks, clay, etc on your table to bring the height up and make it easier to deal with the fuel, but it's probably easier to redesign your forge table at this point. A brake rotor from a passenger size vehicle can get you closer on both of those issues. I also highly recommend checking out this link for a cheap and simple way to get started with your forge: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moltas Posted January 22, 2018 Author Share Posted January 22, 2018 Thanks both for the input! I know that the brake drum is a bit to large for an optimas forge! But think I haft to go with it for the time being. We are going to make sure that we get a rise up so coal manegment will be easier! My main question is that if u look at the hole in the brake drum we need to put a bottom there so the coal have something to sit on. Do you think that a 6 mm thick piece of metal can withstand the heat? If you have a big layer of coal on top? Or should we try using a thicker metal as the bottom piece? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buzzkill Posted January 22, 2018 Share Posted January 22, 2018 15 minutes ago, Moltas said: I know that the brake drum is a bit to large for an optimas forge! But think I haft to go with it for the time being. You, or whoever is welding the table, appear to have fabricating skills such that creating a fire pot is not out of the question at all. Nothing will last forever, but if you have access to 6 to 10 mm plate and the skills to measure, bend, cut, and weld it I think you'd be happier in the long run by going that route than in trying to force that brake drum to work. Having said that, 6mm steel plate should hold up ok for a while, and if you are concerned you can line it with some combination of dirt, clay, and sand to insulate the steel a little bit from the most extreme temperatures. There are too many variables to tell you exactly how well it will hold up. Your fire management skills come into play here in addition to your general use. If you do a lot of forge welding your fire will frequently be at significantly higher temperatures than general forging. Higher temperatures will have more of a negative impact on the longevity of the fire pot material than lower temperatures. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daswulf Posted January 22, 2018 Share Posted January 22, 2018 The 6 mm should last a while, if not years, depending. Don't make a mistake of making a large area of holes in the plate. You want them to be concentrated in the center about a 2" circle. You could use a non galvy pipe cap with the holes in it so clinker and ash will go down around it and be less likely to block your air supply. I would at least suggest cutting slots on either side of the drum lip as a pass through to get the stock in the right area of the fire. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted January 23, 2018 Share Posted January 23, 2018 Welcome aboard Moltas, glad to have you. If you'll put your general location in the header you might be surprised how many of the Iforge gang live within visiting distance. There are a number of serious problems with using a truck brake drum for a fire pot. Unless you intend to do some very heavy forging the fire will be just too big. It'll waste fuel 3x maybe 4x for the same work as a small forge. It's going to be hard to place the work in the right position in the fire and if you're working small stock you'll be losing it frequently if not all the time. 6mm. plate will make a fine fire pot and last several years, longer once you learn good fire management skills. Lots of folk want to make them from heavy steel but it's not necessary, for the most part the hottest part of the fire is above the air grate not really on it. Sure it gets hot and will burn out eventually but not for years. I believe there are a number of good home build fire pot plans available online. I expect someone will post a link any time now. I know those big truck brake drums are tempting, they sure LOOK useful but they really do make crummy fire pots. My personal feelings about them is they're better off at the scrappers once they won't stop trucks. If someone dropped one of a couple off here I'd maybe make an outdoor fire pit from one. Short legs to let air draft up through the holes and a grill. They make almost as good a ground anchor as a wheel rim if buried attached to a chain. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moltas Posted January 26, 2018 Author Share Posted January 26, 2018 Thanks again all for the great tips! We only drilled holes in the midle of the plate and we will try to do some insolation to get the heat up from the bottom plate. Think we will try this one out, even do it´s way to big and just see how it goes. We will for sure make a smaller one aswell! I will post some more images from the progress and let you all know how it goes! Thanks again! // Moltas Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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