How's it goin' everybody?  My first post.  Just wanted to say hello.  I'm in the process of putting a forge together, so all the knowledge I'm picking up here is helping tremendously.  I'm drafting everything out right now.  No iPad or CAD program.  Just some paper,a pencil, and a ruler.  Oh, and a ton of erasers.  Draw.  Erase.  Revise.  Repeat.  Anyway.  I'll keep it short this time.   But thanks to all who pass the knowledge along.  It really helps.

Going well here though it's darn warm, almost 80 AGAIN! Welcome aboard, glad to have you.

Don't get too carried away drafting forge plans, keep it fluid to start, there's plenty of slack to play with and you're NOT going to build your forever forge. Especially not the first one.

What kind of fuel you planning on burning? What kind of smithing would you like to take up?

Frosty The Lucky.

Hey Frosty.  Hot.  Whew!  We had a heat index of 100° today.  You got a.c. up there?  

I'm building a solid and gas forge simultaneously.   See I built a monster pedestal for my wife 3-4 years ago for the washer and dryer.  It's, lol, easily a couple hundred pounds.  Well it's sat outside for that long too.  I never finished it.  So I'm reclaiming it as the table for the "forges".  I want to put a side blast coke forge next to a gas forge on the same table.  It's dimensions are 30"x58".  I've already made the tuyere.  I want to make a second one. It's probably going to sound like a stupid idea.  I've been wanting to ask everyone's opinion, but didn't want to get laughed off the stage.

I woke up at 3 am today with torrential rain pouring down, it sounded like a freight train. Yesterday in the shop was good; humidity at 50%. I installed blocking between the rafters to limit the outside air, so I can run an a/c or dehumidifier to keep stuff from rusting so quickly. 80 F or more is usual, with 70 to 90% humidity, so every bit helps. Good luck with the forge; as Frosty said, there is a lot of range in what can be functional, depending on what work is done. 

Hey thanks Steve!  When I get it done I'll be sure to show it to everyone.  It's my 1st forge, so I anticipate some constructive criticism, which ofcourse I'm looking forward to.  

Yeah, 100 f. heat index in Dayton is pretty hot . . . (feeling?) But 81 f. on Vine Road, just across the street from Wasilla City limits is pretty inhuman. I may have to take my parka off! We could sure some rain though.

On 7/22/2019 at 11:49 AM, Szakallas1 said:

I anticipate some constructive criticism, which ofcourse I'm looking forward to.  

Trying to take all the fun out of harassing new guys? <SHEESH!>

Frosty The Lucky.

Ha! There's day's I seem to live in a dunk tank. Take your best shot. 

But since your here.  Since I've been reading through the Forging101 and Burners101 I've scrapped my whole idea for the forge I wanted to build.  What I considered to be practical....well.... would not have received any gold stars around here.  

I'm a structural steel fabricator/welder subcontractor for Wright Patt AFB.  The government typically has the mindset to spend lots of money on either the best materials available and over engineering everything.  So it was was only natural for me to follow suit.  

I'm going to build the coke side blast forge first to get some experience in just the elementary skills of the heating and forging before I move into a gas forge build.  I'm fully capable of building either.  I'm just now aware that there's much more to fully understand before starting the gas forge.  I can continue to learn and maybe build a small one first in that time. 

 

 

Yes sir!!  Jabods are great learning tools. Find out what you need with a jabod for next to nothing, then over engineer a "permanent" forge ;-). Jabods are easily modified so you can find out what works best for you and are practically free. I think the only things I actually paid for were the hand and electric pump, everything else was readily available for free and making mud pies is still fun. I know you didn't say you were going to build a jabod but that would be my advice to you and after you have a working dirt forge fabricate something similar in steel. You may even find that a jabod serves your needs and decide to use it instead of a fabricated forge unless fabricating a forge from steel is a priority.  Keep us posted and good luck and have fun.

Pnut

Edited July 24, 20196 yr by pnut

I have a few pictures that I have of the 2 tuyere's I made and the steel platform I was planning on using for the forge.  Where should I post them at?  

Solid fuel forge section. Are you planning on using a water cooled tuyere for the side blast coke forge?

Pnut

Water

I've got access to all the steel I could practically want.  A Jabod forge would be fun to do with my kids.  I know my 5 yr. old son would be stoked helping me put that together.  But this first one will be steel. 

Sz; you do realize that one of the greatest blacksmithing groups in the world is just north of you in Troy Ohio, SOFA Southern Ohio Forge and Anvil, they have their own building on the Miami County Fairgrounds. If you are not attending meetings there you are really dropping anvils on your feet!  

I used to drive out from Columbus Ohio for meetings and then when I moved 1500 miles away I still try to attend their yearly conference every couple of years. I built my first 2 gas forges at Saturday workshops they ran: 1 saturday = 1 forge.

Yes Sir I do.  I took my first blacksmith class there a few weeks ago.  A bunch of great guys. 

Good grief, this thread is moving too fast to make a decently current wise crack and I was working up something about living in a dunk tank. <sigh> 

I get working in close tolerance environment and how hard it can be to switch to a mark one eyeball craft. My Father did a lot of aerospace work and I was steeped in crazy precision work. I took up blacksmithing as a way to decompress over Dad's protests that I should learn a paying trade. He never got blacksmithing as a hobby.  I learned from his younger brother Dad sharpened plow shears on a 50lb. Little Giant when he was too small to do man's work during the Depression. I was surprised Uncle Fred not only knew what a Little Giant is he was very familiar, ran more than one in his day. 

Anyway, a gas forge isn't a precision instrument, it's an insulated box to hold a fire, the rules of thumb work a treat, very few guys have found an improvement building to tight tolerances or calculations. Of course completely winging it can have worse issues. 

Anyway, try to avoid trying to build the last forge you'll ever need, isn't going to happen, I've been building the things for a long time and am usually thinking of improvements before I light the first fire in the latest model. 

Frosty The Lucky.

Hey while cleaning up to pack more stuff in my study I found my "Worn Shilling"; not as old as I would like; but George V will do.

(In the early steam days; one of the inventors was complaining that the blacksmiths worked to the tolerance of "the thickness of a worn shilling" for the cylinders and so considerable pressure loss. I had to get a worn shilling so I could keep in tolerance.  Still looking for an early 1800's one.)

 I've got several in my coin collection, but none that old

English water cooled side blast forges don't have a firepot. They're just filled with ash and clinker and shape the firepot when they lay the fire in the morning.  They seem unnecessarily complicated unless you're going to be forging ten hours a day. That being said if I had room I'd like to build one just because they're cool. I like water cooled tues. A little non toxic antifreeze helps in the winter if it's not going to be in a heated space. I'm not too far away from wright Pat and it was cold enough last Winter to have froze  ten or fifteen gallons of water  with no trouble. I'm right on the other side of the Ohio River in northern KY. 

Make sure you keep us posted on the progress and everyone loves pics.

Pnut

 

Cool man!  I posted a potentially ridiculous idea in "Solid Fuels" in the blacksmithing section.