My First Forge: Critiques needed

[DallasRector]

Oooh good idea

[David Thomas]

Thought I'd post a link to a video I made of the construction of my solid fuel forge from a gas grill. More of a 'What I did' than a "How to'.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBLp4Ma9ngA

I've burned lump charcoal, coal and corn. Currently corn is my cheapest fuel and therefore my goto fuel. Check out the companion video if your curious about corn fires.

[Frosty]

I hate to break it to you Dave but the web's flooded with how I did it videos. Most are of so little value we rarely look anymore. As an example I have a long time dear friend and I haven't opened a post from him in years because of his dinner photos. 

A series of pics of steps in your forge build are plenty. Videos take up a LOT of bandwidth for too little info.

I'd like to see pics of your forge, especially in action. Just pics.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Daswulf]

I think its a fine build. Saying the back and sides are removable answered my question about how you are fitting long stock. 

I think it's a bit complex for some to make but if someone can cut and weld metal, it's doable. 

I wouldn't say it's a bad design so vs. all the bad designed forge builds people post on youtube, I think its a good and more helpful video. 

Before I built a forgeand was looking for how to, I saw a lot of brake drums used which are too deep and not user friendly or efficient. I ended up using a rear rotor like you did and it has served me well for around 5 years and going strong. 

It is one method of many but it works. Also good job on the ash dump. So much easier than a screw cap. 

The corn fuel video was interesting. Never would have thought about using it, tho I do have a cheap source for coal locally. I felt watching it that the air could have been cut down a good bit. Haven't used corn for fuel yet tho. so I couldnt say if it needs that much blast to cook it down. 

[David Thomas]

Daswulf, too right on the air flow. I should have lowered it much sooner than I did. 

Thanks.

 

[David Thomas]

8 hours ago, Frosty said:

...

A series of pics of steps in your forge build are plenty. Videos take up a LOT of bandwidth for too little info.

I'd like to see pics of your forge, especially in action. Just pics.

Frosty The Lucky.

Without fuel retention sides in place.

Burning corn as fuel.

[Frosty]

Looks good, I wouldn't put the blower that close to the fire though, unburned gasses that make forges pop would be flowing through the blower every time you shut it off. How do you like corn? I gave it a try years ago but I'm a propane forge guy and didn't use it again. we had a couple sacks of feed corn mold on us, I burned one and caught the riot act from Deb, she returned the other for a good one. We don't have livestock anymore and it's pretty expensive here.

We feed out dogs Victor. Small world eh?

Frosty The Lucky.

[David Thomas]

I've not had any issues with the blower (mounted on the forge as the forge is portable) probably because I never shut the blower off during a session. I just turn the dimmer switch down or up as needed. I have toyed with the idea of moving it to the back side of the forge mainly to give me cleaner access to the ash dump.

I do like corn as a forge fuel. It has its own set of pros and cons to be sure, no better or worse than coal or charcoal. The biggest pro in my mind is the cost. Even burning twice as fast as coal, my fuel cost is less than $10 for an eight hour day, lower than coal by 25-50%. 

Small world and it gets smaller every day.