Hefty Posted April 8, 2019 Share Posted April 8, 2019 Hi everyone, I joined recently, originally looking for info on gas burners and having stumbled across Frosty's T burner in a google search. Wow, what a eye-opening click that was. I posted in the introduction section today about how awesome I have already found this forum to be and promised I'd post some pictures of my J.A.B.O.D.D.U. (Just a box of dirt Down Under!) I started with a dodgy bottom blast made from half of an old gas bottle But a little reading on here made me think this was not a great design (I may re-purpose the outer bottle section as a fire pot for something bigger in the future) so I started my JABODDU. It's cut up pallet timber and the legs are 4 pieces of packing timber from a delivery to the school where I work as a Design Technology teacher. Here it is half filled. The tuyere is 22mm ID (7/8") held in place by the holes in two half bricks. I drilled the hole in the box frame slightly higher than the holes in the bricks which gives the tuyere a slight down-angle. It is galvanised but I stood 3" of the hot end in vinegar (it was as deep as I could cover. I hope it's enough!) overnight and scrubbed it off. What you can't see is that I put 10-15mm (about 1/2") of dirt in, then put a square of fibre cement sheet that I had from an old project in then added another 10-15mm of dirt before the bottom of the fire bowl/trench, which I moulded around a brick. The tuyere comes in about 25mm (1") above the bottom of the trench. (You can also see my little Record Anvil in the corner of the pic) And here was the first lighting. (I did add more charcoal once it was going!) Then I added a brick to bank against and had an extra one ready because I wasn't sure how I might want to configure things. You can see some tong jaws I had already started shaping in my other forge, at the bottom left of the above photo. I finished them off during the day. They are ugly but they work! This is a pic of me heating them. Oh, and this is my air supply (for now): All in all, a great day was had. I shaped a fire tool, re-worked the jaws of my first set of tongs and drew out the reins a little and then drilled and riveted them (don't have a finished pic yet), practised drawing and made a hook/ring with my 12y.o. son, flattened some 6mm (1/4") rod with my almost 10y.o. daughter and then forged and drew out the bevel on a blank for a knife from a piece cut from an old leaf spring. Oh, I also got adventurous and looked at trying some forge welding...until I held the rod in the wrong part of the fire and burnt the end (the edges were parallel when it went in!) You probably all think I'm weird but I was so excited to hook out my first clinker! (I think it was mostly just vitrified sand) I want to thank Charles R Stevens for this elegantly simple approach that got me forging fast! Cheers, Jono. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted April 8, 2019 Share Posted April 8, 2019 Looks good! If it's burning things, it's definitely plenty hot! (Now, let's do something about that anvil....) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hefty Posted April 8, 2019 Author Share Posted April 8, 2019 Yeah, it was given to me by a friend who wasn't using it so I made use of it. I've recently had another friend offer me some rail road track, but I'm not sure how large a gauge it is or how long a piece so I've got some research to do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irondragon Forge ClayWorks Posted April 8, 2019 Share Posted April 8, 2019 Kinda an interesting way to control the air flow, goes to show there's more than one way to skin a cat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted April 8, 2019 Share Posted April 8, 2019 24 minutes ago, Hefty said: not sure how large a gauge it is or how long a piece so I've got some research to do Make sure to include the threads here about RR track anvils and improvised anvils. Short version: stand it on end. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hefty Posted April 8, 2019 Author Share Posted April 8, 2019 Yep, I've started reading them. My current stump may be too high to mount it in so I'll have to see what I can come up with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hefty Posted June 20, 2019 Author Share Posted June 20, 2019 Hi all, just reporting back. I've had some successes and some struggles with the JABODDU. I've got a bit more of a handle on charcoal size and amount of air and I've been able to make a decent set of flat jaw tongs (instead of the rebar monstrosities I started in the earlier pics) and a longer fire rake so I can stop burning my knuckles. My struggles at the moment are to do with sand. Clearly there's not as much clay in my local dirt as I thought and during a longer session, I'm finding that the edges of my rammed earth fire bowl are crumbling and mixing through the fire when I need to rebuild it. Obviously I'm trying not to dig up the edges too much but it is still happening. This is leading to clinker-like lumps of sand building up in the bottom of the fire. Then, when I try to carefully rake them out, the edges crumble more and the whole situation spirals. My thought is to go to refractory splits like they use in wood stove fireboxes and line them up in a similar pattern to the way Charles has with the JABOD mkIII but with my existing dirt surrounding them, instead of kitty litter. I know a place that is semi-local where I can get them for a good price. Does this sound like a suitable solution or are there other options that might be better? Cheers, Jono. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted June 20, 2019 Share Posted June 20, 2019 Ahh "Down Under" I was afraid that stood for Depleted Uranium---Not a suggested forge building material.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles R. Stevens Posted June 20, 2019 Share Posted June 20, 2019 Just paying it forward. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ohio Posted June 21, 2019 Share Posted June 21, 2019 Hefty, the JABOD is just great---you're learn so much so fast, with the reward of heating up steel and smashing it with a hammer and making it move. Here's a link removed due to language on that site. that explains different kinds of firebrick and what it's for. Right now in my JABOD, I used "splits" I had lying around for replacing busted firebrick in my woodstove. When I go to build my next forge in the Wonder Hut (my metalworking shop), I'll probably used insulating firebrick (IFB) to see if I like that better. My blacksmithing neighbor (who is in the hospital because he set himself on fire while welding and no, I'm not kidding, but he's going to be ok) uses IFBs on his rather neato forge table. He stacks the bricks to shape depending on what he's smithing and uses propane burners as his heat source. This is a clever design as it gives him a lot of flexibility, which he'll need once the skin grafts heal. Honestly, I love the guy but setting yourself on fire should only be done when I am there to 1) put you out and 2) video it so I can put it on Youtube. Hope this helps---if I am wrong, I'm sure someone will be by to correct. Best of luck to you. Charles's generosity is matched only by the simple usefulness of the JABOD. As a measure of my gratitude, I will make him a batch of delicious cookies and then eat them in his honor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted June 21, 2019 Share Posted June 21, 2019 22 hours ago, Hefty said: Does this sound like a suitable solution or are there other options that might be better? Yes to both. Using split bricks as described works just fine. In fact you can see slate and sandstone being used in some of the 3rd world blacksmithing videos. Of COURSE there are options that ARE better, Hefty. New guys. My goodness Ohio, you'd put him out THEN video? You ARE a good neighbor! What you're describing is a brick pile forge. They're very versatile as you say and a good way to experiment with size shape, burner# and arrangement before building a more permanent version. I have a couple boxes of fire brick, maybe 20-25 split 3,000f hard, a full case of K-26 IFB and I don't know how many of the older more expensive lower temp IFB from before Morgan K-26 IFB became available. Darn if they aren't less than 1/2 the price of the old ones to boot. Far better product for less than half as much? Oh I am all over that! Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irondragon Forge ClayWorks Posted June 21, 2019 Share Posted June 21, 2019 We are still using clay because we have hundreds of pounds of different kinds left over from our pottery days. It vitrifies well and can be replaced when a different configuration is wanted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pnut Posted June 21, 2019 Share Posted June 21, 2019 You could use red clay bricks. Dry them in an oven at about three hundred degrees Fahrenheit to make sure there's no residual moisture and you should be in business. Revisit the MARKIII jabod thread. It shows a red brick firepot. You said you'd have to pay for the splts but you can probably find red clay bricks for free. Pnut Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles R. Stevens Posted June 21, 2019 Share Posted June 21, 2019 The bricks in the mark III are realy for continence. The 4 forming the back wall are the most useful, the floor is the next useful. I have a broken pizza stone that would work or a piece of steel would work as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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