7 minutes ago, Frosty said:

. I love his blower.

The Mudfallo forge company Mudfallo New York

Pnut

I think I've a "little time on my hands", Frosty.  Might take some time to get lost in his videos. (as if I haven't already watched 10,000 hours of Youtube videos these past 4 weeks!)

A bellows from of what was on site Thomas? Except for the camera the most modern thing he uses is a pair of shorts. How would you go about making bellows? I'm into this kind of thing so I'm always interested in how to make things out of nothing special.

The blower is made from mud and sticks. I'd be looking for a longer axle stick to  make a turbine fan and have turbocharged fires. 

He spends a lot of time, I'd have to read his blog again but I believe his heated hut took a couple summers to build but holy moly he had to excavate, mix/wedge form dry and fire a few hundred bricks and tiles. The things he does are over the top, well beyond survival skills but he'd be stylin in a post apocalypse world. 

We're typing at the same time Chris. considerate of you to submit yours before I did. While you're being entertained you can stay off your feet and heal up. I call that a win win.

Frosty The Lucky.

"stay off my feet"?????????????  Heck, Frosty I'm roofing the pump house with galvanized panels today.  Just got'em all cut up and etched with vinegar so I can paint'em with Rustoleum.  Yain't gonna keep a good man down.

Well, I just climbed down off the ladder and for the first time in about a week, I think I've put the "cabin fever blues" at bay!  I feel a sense of accomplishment, which is what I thrive on in life.  I roofed my pump house with barn roofing material.  Not a huge chore, but something that needed doing that I finally got off my lazy backside and took care of.  I'm a happy camper, at least for today.

No Frosty; he would be DEAD in a post apocalypse world. Too much time wasted on being fancy, not enough time spent making food! 

As for bellows: brain tanned skins from food beasts?  Or how about a variation on the chicken feather tube bellows used in places like Indonesia and Malaysia? Ought to be able to make a set of those in a day and still have time to forage a bit. Hmmm Hollow log chinese box (tubular in this case) bellows with bark flap valves?

 

I think I have my mind set on the African double mound charcoal forge. I didn't get time to build today but maybe tommorow. Anyway, if you guys dont mind, a coulpe more q's. First off, it does rain here in ND. Will that damage/destroy the forge? If so is there a way to prevent that? Secondly, I have clay, play sand, and pea gravel at my disposal. Should I try to make some kind of adobe? Or should I stick to good old dirt? Remeber this is an outdoor forge, and though I wont be using it forever, I definitely will be until I can build a movable JABOD (few months).

Thanks all!

I would suggest coming up with a cover of some kind if your leaving it outside of plan on making repairs. 

A good adobe mix will make for a more durable structure, especially the addition of fresh dried horse or cow manure. 

Sadly I dont have any manure on hand, but thanks for the suggestion. I am sure it works great. What is a basic adobe recipe? 

30% clay, 50% sand. The remainder can be sand or silt. So do a jar test to see what you have to add. 

If you add dead grass or straw (about 1-1/2” long) it is best to let it Age a few days before you use it. 

The addition of wood ash will stabilize the clay (keep it from turning back to mud) and seems to help to keep coal Slag from sticking if you use coal at some point. 

 

Thanks, I might give that a try. I might end up using dirt because of ease, but adobe sounds good too. Thanks for the advice.

If you put the available subsoil in a jar (about a 1/4 full) and add water (about 2/3full) and give it a shake, you can see what proportion of clay, sand and wilt you have in the dirt. The sand will be on the bottom, the silt in the middle and the clay on the bottom. From there you can decide if you need to add anything to make better mud pies 

Daniel; can you scrounge an old propane grill and build it into the grill so you can close the lid when done for the day and protect it from rain?  For a large grill you don't need all that full with dirt, any light non-flammable fill can take up some of the extra space.

I've used a grill "cart" for my propane forge for a number of years gradually replacing the wheels and axle and putting in cross bracing on it.  Someday I'll break down and start all over again....

I dont happen to have one now, but that is a great suggestion. Clean up week is coming up, I'll see what I can find. I might also try to find an old couch to make some bellows

Been there; done that, have the bellows.  I used oak veneered plywood for the boards---it had been a printer cabinet from an office back in the old line printer/daisy wheel days. Found it on cleanup days too.    I used a staple gun to fasten the Nauga to the edges of the boards and then covered that with a strip of pallet strapping that was nailed on---made it look a lot better and was stronger.

On 3/31/2020 at 5:24 PM, ThomasPowers said:

No Frosty; he would be DEAD in a post apocalypse world. Too much time wasted on being fancy, not enough time spent making food! 

The primitive tech guy would probably be just fine, he's messing around with the videos, not serious survival he talks about it in the blog. IIRC he demonstrates his farm in another string of videos. I have a friend who's subscribed and links me now and then. I don't follow but it's fun to see what he comes up with. 

Tanning hides is kind of far into the survival process isn't it? Still a viable option, you wouldn't need to tan a cow hide, salting the neighbor's annoying dog's hide would be plenty. The feather tube bellows works well enough with a tuft of grass too. It's the tube that's the challenge. The hardest thing to come up with is the air pipe,  the pump is easy, paper bag,  pillow case,  piece of most any fabric hole or not. 

Valves are easy too, a leaf and dab of pitch works well enough for a day or two until the leaf dries out. 

If I were a prepper I'd have a Connex full of duct tape and baling wire.  I'd be king. 

Frosty The Lucky.

7 minutes ago, Frosty said:

duct tape and baling wire

Can't live without those two items, Frosty.

Duct tape, the handyman's secret weapon!, Red Green.

I need coffee too but if I have duct tape I can trade for it. 

Frosty The Lucky.

Actually, I prefer the Black gaffer's (or photographer's) tape.  It his almost impossible to tear across and sticks like bubble gum does to your sneakers on a hot day.  It just doesn't let go.

What I'd need is a windmill to pump water.  Luckily the Windmill repair and installation company is about 2 miles from my house!  Hole is already dug between my house and the next one. Put up a tank and we'd even have flush toilets! Have to build a summer kitchen though.  I even have a hand crank drillpress and a bunch of drill bits to repair horse drawn farm equipment. We'd have to move a younger family in with us and talk with our neighbor with the goats, chickens, ducts, turkeys, and Great Pyrenees....

Hi all, 

After roughly a week or two I was able to build the African double mound forge. Pictures below.

I dug a trench roughly 4" by 5", and have a few 2 by 4 scraps in the hole so it doesnt collapse. 

Then, I mixed up some adobe. This is my first time, so I just tried to make a good consistency. In the 12 gallon plastic bin I put a lot of dirt and clay. I mixed in a few scoops of wood ash, a gallon or two of sand, and a good amout of dried plant matter (was from a flower stems, similar to straw). I mixed until it was nice and smooth. It had roughly the consistency of concrete (without as many lumps). It had no problem being molded.

As for building the mounds, I simply put some bricks next to the hole and covered them in a good layer of adobe (roughly 2 to 4 inches deep).

I think it will work well (it is really just a hole in the ground), but am a little concerned because the adobe cracked pretty badly. Right now (4 hours since application) it is hard and is all together, I just dont know what to do about the cracks. Is there a way to repair it?

Any how, there is a detailed analysis. Thanks for all the help guys. For all you Christians out there, have a happy Easter!  

 

I'd probably try to fill the cracks with clay as well as possible and put a layer of clay over the whole thing. Is that a PVC pipe? 

Also it cracked because the Adobe was too wet. 

Pnut

Lol. No, I should have metioned that. The pipe is a steel pipe with a little white paint on it. About the clay... I dont have pure clay, but the dirt about 1 foot down has a high-ish clay content (the dirt is moldable). Would that still work? 

Yep. I used worm castings to fix small cracks in my forge. I think we forgot to tell you one important thing about mixing adobe. The best way to tell if it is the right consistency is to squeeze a glob in your fist and then see if you can break it cleanly. It shouldn't leave any mud on your hands or crumble. Mud on your hands means too wet. If it crumbles it's too dry. If it breaks cleanly it's good. 

Pnut

That would make a lot of sense. My adobe was too wet then. I'll put that in the back of my mind for the future. Thanks pnut.