muffler body forge

[FlatLiner]

I have a large muffler from a full size pickup. It's outer dimensions are roughly 6 inches by 12 inches by 24 inches long. My plans where to cut the ends off, cut it in half, and make a forge that would be 6" x 12" x 12" but when I cut the ends off I found three inner baffle walls spaced at random intervals and tack welded to the outer shell. My question is does anybody know of an effective way of removing them with minimum shop tools? Or does anybody have any good ideas to remove them? Or should I just abandon the idea?

[Daswulf]

Probably more trouble than it's worth in my opinion. 

[Buzzkill]

I agree with Das.  You can accomplish the same thing with a bit of sheet metal which you can roll into the shape you want.  The outer shell just needs to hold the blanket and refractory in place.  A lot of people weld or fasten their burner mounts to the outer shell, but that can be accomplished with some supports that are separate from the shell and close to it.

[Steve Sells]

if you used 1 inch insulation, that leaves less than 3 inches of forge space after coating  the inswool

[JHCC]

Which I suppose would be fine if you're only working on pieces with small cross-sections, like knives or nails.

[Frosty]

You can cut those welds with a small SHARP cold chisel. I agree with previous opinions though, it's more trouble than it's worth, there are plenty of options for better size and less work.

Frosty The Lucky.

[FlatLiner]

I was also leaning towards it being to much trouble.

[Mikey98118]

Well,  maybe getting up in the morning is too much trouble, some days. Same deal here; if you have a purpose for the forge, it ain't so much trouble after all

One of the cheapest and most useful power tools around is a hand held rotary tool. You can even buy them used on eBay for twenty bucks. What makes rotary tools so useful is the explosion of cheap high quality rotary files, sanding drums, and cutoff disks you can also buy for a couple of bucks for them...

[FlatLiner]

I just remeasured it. It's actually 9" x 12" I might hang onto it and try it out as a future project.

[Mikey98118]

Half-muffler forges are mostly of interest to knife makers who also want to make hatchets; they would also be handy for making scrolls, baskets, and other ornaments for wrought iron, while keeping fuel bills down.