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simple coal forge help


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I think everybody who's made a plumbing pipe tuyere has tried a cap for an ash dump. The second time I tried dumping it I hit the scrap bin at the heavy duty shop for exhaust pipe. The replacement is about 10-12" of 3" exhaust pipe with 2" welded about 3" from the air grate flange as the air supply. 

I use hole saws to match the curves and make the flange to screw to the bottom of the forge table.  You don't need to weld either, a little hack saw work and cut some tabs that can be folded out and screwed or pop riveted to connect the tuyere sections. Nothing about connecting the air supply to the vertical needs air tight, a little leakage has no effect until it starts blowing ash at you which says, , , "DUMP ME:o"

I dug my first flap cap out of the scrap bin too. I LOVED being able to scrounge the vehicle and fab shop scrap bins. 

Frosty The Lucky.

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If you want simple, place a bucket of water under the pipe with just enough water to cover the threads. When you turn on the blower and the water bubbles, add a bit more water, just enough to keep the air in the pipe. Anything hot will fall down the pipe and into the water.  Too much water and you will create a clog in the system as the hot stuff can not go down and out.

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A JABOD works a treat. Your problems getting heat out of the fire is just a matter of learning how to make it work for you. Normal normal, nobody is born knowing how to do this stuff, everybody has to learn.  

Relax and have a good time, this stuff is fun, HONEST. ;)

Frosty The Lucky.

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Hello everyone, sorry again for yet another post. I sorta outgrew the rim as I found it was a little awkward to heat the middle of pieces, and the hearth was to small. I ended making this though after trying to modify the rim as much as I could, any ways to improve this one would help greatly. 

For the rest of the month I just plan on using dirt/what I have as I'm getting a rivet forge around the 30th or going to a metal Fab shop and getting them to build a forge table.

Also it's kinda fun building forges out of 'mud'

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Build more forges out of mud. Make the holes different sizes and different configurations, that is round, square, rectangular, different angles on the side slopes, etc. Use them enough to see which you like best.  You can speed this up by looking at the ash when you finished forging.  Make the forge to that shape and size the next time.

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This is a brake rotor to hold the fire. You can see the way the fire likes the angle from the twyere to the top of the rotor, and then from the top of the rotor to the edge of the fire. The bricks are there to make the fire deeper for the project I was working on.

One thing that helps is to design the forge so the sweet spot of the fire ball is at the top of the forge table. That way when you put the metal on the top of the table, it automatically hits the sweet spot of the fire. 

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Looks good to me but I think the proof of the pudding etc. How's it work? You may want to add a brick to either side to make a deeper fire. Charcoal likes a trench with sloped sides. Coal on the other hand does fine in either round or trench shaped firepot.

Try changing one thing at a time until you find what works best for you. Then you can think about building something more "permanent" , but remember a clay forge is a real forge. I don't plan on switching to a metal fab firepot anytime soon.                                       When you get your rivet forge you can line it with clay and build up a mound on either side of the tuyere or make a ducks nest. You could Skip the mounds and just use red bricks to make the fire deeper also.  I'm getting ready to make another side blast from the pan from an outdoor fireplace. It looks like a rivet forge without the hole in the bottom.                                            Good luck and once you've started making forges you'll start seeing unlimited possibilities and forges everywhere you look.

Pnut

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
41 minutes ago, royalpaste said:

I'm back for the last time with my "permanent forge"

HEY this better NOT be your last post! :angry: 

That's a good looking JABOD and looks to be hot, stack is drawing beautifully. If the sweet spot is too small, scoop the trench in line with the tuyere pipe a little longer. That's a minor tweak, nothing you can't fix with spoon. 

Sweet forge, you're off and forging.

Frosty The Lucky.

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Nah this is an addiction now, I can't leave. But my last forge post until I get my shop/buddy to weld me a forge table.

Didnt take any pictures when I failed to start to the fire, but a new paper on fire in the stack is enough to start a strong enough draft to suck away the smoke. Was kinda blown away the pipe has that good of a draft.

 

 

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Okay then, if you're going to stick around we won't have to send someone down there. 

I like corrugated cardboard for starting coal and charcoal forge fires. I roll a strip an inch or two wide into a tight coil then let it open slightly so the blast can blow through it. A wooden match in the center to light it and it makes a flame like a blow torch. I've never had it fail to light a fire.

A side draft hood has a surprisingly strong draft, better than an overhead hood or any I've been around anyway.

Frosty The Lucky.

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A side blast forge saves you all the headach of plumming a bottom blast. Kiss my friends. Brake drum forges haveoky been around sence the model T! Give them a rest. The side blast is fast and easy to build, effecent for either coal or charcoal and adaptable. 

 

Paste move the stack 90 to your left. Tools and project prices to your right, stock goes in strait ahead. Better work flow ad lefties can work from the other side (or you can and place other tools on that side like swage blocks or power/treadle hammers.

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