Farm Auction Forge- Central KS

[Clay K]

Hello All, 

This is my first post on the site so please bear with me while I work my way through this. I went to a farm auction last weekend to see if i could get my hands on a solid fuel forge. The forge below is what i snagged. This post will be fairly picture heavy so I resized the pictures, but i'm unsure if I got them small enough. 14" firepot, 31.25" across. No identifying features were easily visible. I'm looking for practical advice on how to begin using this forge (really any information possible). I'm not sure what to call the ring that the tuyere would attach to, but i believe it goes with the forge unlike the complex tuyere pictured. Should i use that ring and fabricate a clinker breaker like i believe goes in the indentions in the firepot or should use the sacrificial and very experimental t-type tuyere made of oilfield pipe and broken farm implement disc? Clay or no clay in the firepot?

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

Definitely clay the firepot and forge table. It's cast iron and the clay will prevent it from cracking. If that tuyere can be mounted, that is the one I would use.

[Frosty]

Welcome aboard Clay, glad to have you. Nice score on the forge. Clay it as suggested, nothing special, garden or ditch clay is fine just damp enough you can ram it pretty hard is perfect. You only need an inch or so on most of the pan and a little thicker in the fire pot. 

If it fits I'd use the tuyere you got with it, the larger dish on the bottom side connected to the lever is the ash dump and the smaller one is the clinker breaker. Once you have it centered with the levers convenient from the position you'll be standing, clay it in.

If you use a tuyere made from pipe like you have laid out you want the horizontal air supply closer to the air grate, say within 3"-4" with the longer part below the air supply. This allows room for clinker, ash and coals to settle without being picked up by the air blast and blown back up, maybe clogging things and well just causing general mischief. Clamp a truck exhaust flap cap upside down on the bottom of the tuyere for the ash dump. Position the counter weight so you can reach it with tongs, hammer, piece of stock, stick, whatever's handy so you can open the flap and dump the ash. I put a galvy bucket under it with a few inches of water to put burning debris out.

I don't know what some of the attachment structures under the forge are for but my guess is they're part of the air blast system. The main air would be produced with an impeller blower, see Champion 400 for an example. How it was driven is many and varied. Maybe a crank, maybe pump handle with ratchet drive, maybe belts, maybe pully and belts, maybe . . . ?

Nice score, enjoy the addiction. . . We'll help. 

Frosty The Lucky.