Jay.bro Posted March 23, 2019 Share Posted March 23, 2019 Hey guys I just wanted to show y'all my newest forge I just built and tested. It works pretty good but still needs a few things before it's finished. I built it from a piece of tube iron I cut one side off of and I'm gonna put 2 slits in that side so I can slide it down on one end to keep the fuel source in and will make it adjustable for smaller projects. I may add a spot on top of one of the sides to hold the charcoal before it goes into the fire. I still gotta add legs too and I am gonna add a bleeder valve to make the air flow adjustable with a hole in the side of the tuyere that I can put a slide pipe on to make it more adjustable for my hair dryer. But this really worked well when I tested it. Let me know what you guys think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lou L Posted March 23, 2019 Share Posted March 23, 2019 I’d worry about the width of the burn pot. Charcoal fires spread with very little air and you will have a 14” long fire in no time. That can be extremely useful in some situation but, in most, it is just a waste of fuel. If you can manage to adjust the width of that trough you would have a very customizable fire pot. Some steel walls dropped into small brackets at various intervals (at an angle like 45 degrees) would make it really flexible. Now you have to set it into a table of some sort. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laynne Posted March 23, 2019 Share Posted March 23, 2019 Jay.bro, you are on your way. It looks like you have some warping going on already. Some angle iron along the top will help with that and will work to support it when you get it set in a table. Like Lou said, and I think you are working to that end, control the length. If you are heat treating a Bowie knife or doing long scrolls you are set. Most of the time you won't need that much. Keep us posted on changes and performance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay.bro Posted March 23, 2019 Author Share Posted March 23, 2019 Well I have some clay bricks I plan on cutting at a 45 for the adjusting the fire pot size to accompany the drop down piece that will create a wall on one of the openings I did notice the way it was starting to warp I just used it to forge weld some band saw blades for a project I have so I do plan on addressing that I really fought with this one since I didn't have the right drill bit to cut the tuyere hole so I ended up cold chiseling a lot of it and then forcing the pipe through at the end but it's really solid without even welding it. I really liked my jabod forge and recently built a jabod foundry that is still being modified but I find the designs I used to limit my projects a lot. Oh and I did notice it was very fuel hungry I even considered trying to get some coal for this forge to see if it worked better. Progress on it has slowed due to a dislocated thumb and rain though but I will keep this updated I just never found a thread with a forge like this on here so I figured it might give new members another good direction they could go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles R. Stevens Posted March 23, 2019 Share Posted March 23, 2019 I melt bricks, even fire bricks with my side blast. As you have a welder, why not duplicate my steel side blast fire pot? Esentualy it’s a 7” square cut in the diagonal to form two triangles, connected boy two 7x6” plates to form the sloped sides. I then welded a flange on it and cut a hole in one vertical side for the tuyere. It is 3 1/2” to the top of the ID and at a down work angle. As I said it melts bricks so I will be cutting some angle to replace the bricks. 4” wide would be more fuel effecent for most work but I wanted grown up forge, lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay.bro Posted March 23, 2019 Author Share Posted March 23, 2019 I actually don't have a welder I have to have ppl I know help me with that and I've considered this kind of forge too I just had this tube iron and just tried this idea and no other use for it. I actually still have 2 foot of this tube iron left I figured this could be used for bigger projects and I can always modify it as I need to with simple adjustable things or even add some dirt to it if nothing else but this was to test this design possibility but I have seen your design and do really want to try it out too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles R. Stevens Posted March 23, 2019 Share Posted March 23, 2019 My design started with a box of dirt.:. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay.bro Posted March 23, 2019 Author Share Posted March 23, 2019 I know I have one I built I just wanted something a little more portable my box of dirt is so heavy and I had this tube iron and I just had the idea I do want to try to build a few other forges but this was just a new thing I came up with I hadn't seen before Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles R. Stevens Posted March 23, 2019 Share Posted March 23, 2019 You mis my point. Use the box of dirt to experiment with different shapes. I used the JABOD project to see if I understood what I had scrounged up about side blast forges, and then experimented with them. 3 iderations and several modifications later... mid you take the cut off side and bend it 90 and have a friend weld it in to your trench you will have a much better working set up. The slope helps in clean out and moving fuel down, wile limiting the amount of fuel they is on fire (charcoal is relitivly expensive and unlike coal all of your fuel will be on fire not just the stuff closest to the heat. To deal with portability the JABOD mk III uses dry cat litter as a fill. Sherman’s troops during his march to the see packed their anvils, tools and bellows and left their forge, using cribs (stacks of sticks like Lincoln logs) and packing crates filled with local soil as forges, wile 20’th century military portable forges were metal boxes that held blower, anvil and tools. They were opened up, assembled and filled with local soil. Lots of ways to skin this cat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay.bro Posted March 23, 2019 Author Share Posted March 23, 2019 Oh okay I think I see what you are saying now out of curiosity would it work if I just welded it at an angle from just in front of the tuyere to the side opposite the tuyere instead of bending it since the pipe is pretty solid already and I suspect it would need to be moved for this modification. I do like that idea and I planned on something similar with the other half but instead of the cutting 1 side off I just am gonna cut down one corner of it and open it up to where the top is straight up and down and the bottom maintains the 90° but that was another project for another time Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles R. Stevens Posted March 24, 2019 Share Posted March 24, 2019 Well a little mud will help you figure it out, and then a bit of heat will bend the piece you cut out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay.bro Posted March 24, 2019 Author Share Posted March 24, 2019 Okay thanks I'm gonna do some more modifications and testing to it as soon as my thumb heals up and this rain goes away Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles R. Stevens Posted March 24, 2019 Share Posted March 24, 2019 What did you do to your thumb? rain create rain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay.bro Posted March 24, 2019 Author Share Posted March 24, 2019 Dislocated it throwing a pallet down but it won't be long before it's better Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted March 24, 2019 Share Posted March 24, 2019 Jay: If you experiment with a box of dirt till you figure out what you like you won't have so many welded together pieces of . . . stuff collecting dust or making trip hazards in the grass out back. Honest, you're trying to figure out what's going to work best for you before you try it. Dirt, piece of pipe, blower. Mix, match and give it a try, get a box later. Seriously a pile of damp dirt on an old table makes a fine forge, give it at least 4" of dirt before the table top and the missus will never know. Over thinking these things is an easy corner to get yourself into. Hang around here a while you'll see it every day. Bummer about the thumb Jay, I stopped throwing them anywhere because they hurt me I just let them fall over after I roll them where I want. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay.bro Posted March 24, 2019 Author Share Posted March 24, 2019 I work for a company that makes pallets so I throw them all day and I've been working with my box of dirt for a couple of years now just small projects, hooks, tools, etc, but I recently got asked to make something for someone at work and I tried forge welding in my box of dirt but it didn't quite hold up to the task and I had tried a trench before and it worked very well. That's the main reason I tried this set up. I actually disassembled my big bottom blast forge that burned out to make room for a cabinet. I never used it so it wasn't a big deal. I had considered a pile of bricks but I just had been needing a bit more of an open fire pot and I threw this together cause it was the best way for me to learn I actually wanna experiment with coal and I figured this design would be a good design for fuel diversity. There's a guy here that sells it for 20 USD for 50 lbs and I figured I could afford to try it out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles R. Stevens Posted March 25, 2019 Share Posted March 25, 2019 Dang, that’s near as expensive as charcoal... As to over thinking (insert expletive) Jerry and I are poster children. To keep myself out of trouble I keep graph pads around and have learned to do low cost mock ups. Jerry has Deb, tho he protests the use of the shock collar. I use brick on the table (tho I may need to switch to angle iron) to creat a trench or wall as needed. The thing is we still need the debth of fuel underneath the stock, so the trench or fire pot above the table is only 1/2 the picture. I look forward to seeing what you learn. i broke my thumb a decade ago. I could trim but for sure couldn’t shoe (it was my right hand). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted March 25, 2019 Share Posted March 25, 2019 The question is: is it good smithing coal? Firstly is it Bituminous? Secondly what do the other smiths say about it? I know a fellow who was offered several tons of coal for free---he ended up using it to fill holes in his driveway because it wasn't worth smithing with...Very disappointing after the labour involved to fetch it... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay.bro Posted March 26, 2019 Author Share Posted March 26, 2019 22 hours ago, ThomasPowers said: The question is: is it good smithing coal? Firstly is it Bituminous? Secondly what do the other smiths say about it? I'm not sure if it's bituminous or anthricite the guy that has it buys it in a big truck load about 3 hours away and brings it here to his little shop and I only found out about it from a guy I work with that I just found out does smithing and a little foundry work. 23 hours ago, Charles R. Stevens said: Dang, that’s near as expensive as charcoal... To keep myself out of trouble I keep graph pads around and have learned to do low cost mock ups. I know the cost of a bag of Royal oak that's 16 lbs was 14 dollars the last time I bought it and with the season where everyone does BBQ and grills coming up I expect that to inflate a bit. I have actually been drawing designs for stuff I wanna try on a sketch pad and in my graph book I have a waste oil burner plan that's similar to one from vegoilguy on YouTube channel but it's still in the design and learn and research phase. I tend to plan much more than I did before building this newest forge but it did get the job I needed it to do done. I did burn through a whole bag of charcoal doing it and tinkering with crucible equipment I've been building. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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