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I Forge Iron

Budget Coal Forge Build


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The tray for my coal forge was a WWII Jig Borer door. So under 1/8" thick. It had 2 sides bent up a couple of inches and a hole in the middle where part of the mechanism went through.  Found it discarded in a ditch.  Welded short lengths of pipe to the corners to hold pipe legs and sized the hole to fit a fire pot made from a 30's banjo rear end axle cover.  I had parallel pieces of sq stock welded several places down the bent sizes so I could drop pieces of steel to control the coal on the forge bed---or lift them up to run a long piece through the hot spot.  Except for welding consumables and $3 for 2 jackstands made from banjo rear ends; it pretty much was free.  Been using it since around the early 90's.  I still have the other jackstand to use when the first one wears out...

It's about time to design another one that will break down easier for road trips.  I'm not as burly as I once was and I never want to have to rely on other people to load and unload my smithing gear!

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Great find, Thomas! What a cool way to add to its history. 

1 hour ago, ThomasPowers said:

I had parallel pieces of sq stock welded several places down the bent sizes so I could drop pieces of steel to control the coal on the forge bed---or lift them up to run a long piece through the hot spot. 

Like angle iron on a hinge or a loose bolt pin? I think that is a great idea and I was going to do the same because I believe I remember you mentioning this elsewhere. I will probably make this one portable too, the coal forge station is at the Red Shed haha; will want to wheel it in at night. 

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I don't have the option to edit my last comment, even in the ellipsis in the top corner. Anyway, obviously you said square stock, not angle iron. I guess I am having trouble with the image you are giving here, Thomas. I imagine 2 pieces of movable/removable steel, parallel to each other on each side of the fire pot, allowing me to open for longer stock and close for coal containment. 

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14 minutes ago, Red Shed Forge said:

I don't have the option to edit my last comment, even in the ellipsis in the top corner

You get a thirty minute window from the time you first post the comment to make any changes.

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OK the bed is rather like a shallow rectangular trough: flat bottomed with the two long sides bent up about 3".  At 8 locations along the bent up sections, (4 places with the opposing side done as well), two pieces of 3/8" sq stock spaced slightly apart have been welded vertically to the bent up side making a slot that a piece of strap stock can be dropped into making a "fence" going across the bed of the forge.  The placement is both ends and then framing the firepot to allow for a deeper fuel stack and not as much fuel spilling on the ground.

As these are just drop in "fences" I can use taller or fatter pieces as I like.  They also remove to make moving it a bit lighter as this is my travel set up for solid fuel---except for the times when the travel set up is a couple of buckets of adobe mix and two single action bellows for Y1K demo's.

This was "designed to be built from scrap on hand"  The pipe legs are held in place by nuts welded over a cross drilled hole and christmas tree stand bolts run through the nuts to grab the pipe legs.  The nesting tubes have a washer welded across the top to keep the legs from protruding up and I forged tool racks that the ends drop into the holes in the washer and bow out to hold tongs and hammers off the ends of the forge.  

I'll try to get a better picture of it this weekend.

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Got a few pictures and found out I didn't remember everything correctly.  I'll blame it on the cranio-concrete bounce tests; as usual.

My archaic flip phone doesn't do great pictures especially in a dim shop.  I take them anyway to punish all my friends who used to bug me about not posting any pictures here...

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Haha thanks for the closer pictures! Makes a lot more sense now that I see it close up. I'm usually slow to comprehend simple explanation haha. I will see if I can do something like that myself; I think I eventually want to add a hood and chimney as well.

I was upset to hear about that bounce test the other day... Hope you are feeling better and safely back in the shop.

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That was just passing out and having convulsions; the cranio-concrete bounce tests ended with me in the hospital with concussions. (And medical bills!)

As you hopefully can see; it was designed to be able to take apart to make it easier to travel with.  Turns out it worked so well I use it as my primary solid fuel forge.  You can see my high tech chimney---just a 10' section of 10" spiral seamed duct work with a skirt that raises and lowers.  Goes out through a hole in the wall that came with the used propanel Used to be for a house chimney before that roof was hail damaged.

The two nuts visible on the tray go to a U bolt that  holds the air pipe to the underside of the bed.  I'm kind of sorry that the little dragon head on the ash dump doesn't show up better.

I have a new forge to use in the shop and will be rebuilding that one to be even easier to travel with.  I want to make the firepot demountable so everything fits in a reasonable size box.

Just put up a 248# PW on craigslist: one nibble, one scammer so far.

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Oh, I see. Your're scaring me, man! Don't need another one of those, that's for sure!

Yes, very high-tech! I like it though; it does what it's meant to, I'm sure. I am thinking of just using that corrugated sheet steel that was previously on the recently-scrapped coal forge. Wrap it around a piece of duct like you did and fashion a little hood for it. I will be looking into a side draft too. 

Good luck with the PW! I know I wish I could take it off your hands.

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Re: anvil sale on CraigsList: I really liked the person asking me if I was the original owner of an old PW anvil...  Also the ones asking me if that was my final price---I've been telling them that: no, I'd be happy to increase it by a dollar a pound to get closer to current prices locally...

Feels funny to be in a "place" where I feel like getting rid of an anvil is a good thing.  When it sells I pull the trigger on getting power to the shop and any money left over goes into the "buy parts for the 25# Little Giant" fund.  The most fun is telling folks I'm selling it because I don't need another "small" anvil in the shop...(the two over 400# suits me just fine, the two 165# anvils get most of the work and the 100#-ish ones are the travel anvils for teaching.)

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I have hammers that old too!

My Soderfors has the date, "1926," stamped in the side usually facing the audience at demos I rub it with soap stone so it's clearly legible. I've had ADULTS read it and ask, "when was your anvil made?" . . . "It's stamped on the side facing you." . . . "It says 1926 on the side but when was it made?" . . . Depending on the looks from other people in the audience I'll sometime respond, "That only looks like a nine, it's how they wrote threes in the 15th century." That's when I give the rest of the audience THE LOOK and smile. 

Frosty The Lucky.

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Red, while you are awaiting a hand crank blower (am I right?), might I suggest seeing if you can find one of the blowers they are using in the high efficiency gas furnaces these days.  A heating/furnace/AC company might have one that was removed from a furnace repair/replacement.  They put out plenty of air and usually have an exhaust opening of about 3" which can be easily adapted to any air plumbing on the forge.  I mounted mine to 2" black pipe with a floor flange adapter.  For air control, I use a sliding homemade air gate.  I think mine is a Dayton blower.

 

 

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Arkie, that's a good idea! 

I currently work full time at a CPA firm and we have a client that owns an HVAC company... maybe I will see if they have any they are looking to get rid of. Great tip! Also, thank you for a look at your sliding air gate; If I can't get/build a hand crank, I will want an air gate too. Do you have another picture of it from another angle? 

The fan I currently have was an exhaust fan for an old AC/Heating unit that was mounted to the inside wall of my garage when I moved in. The unit does not work, the fan is fine, but I think I would have to turn the blades for the appropriate blow (or scrap it if it's not gonna be right for the project). I have yet to test the electrical on it, but because it is wired, I might find a way to make it an electric blower instead. 

Although I would prefer a hand-crank, I am not totally against using an electric blower. A very good friend works for an industrial garage door installation company and is going to give me some sprockets and chain that were once used on a chain hoist. No gears, unfortunately. I would build the housing out of the same steel I used for the fire pot and forge the handle of the crank. I am torn among which to pursue: hand-crank build, electrical blower build, buy an old Champion, or ask the HVAC guys. 

Here is the fan I have: 

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Having owned a number of handcranks these last 39 years of forging I can say it would be difficult to replicate the amount of gearing they involve. You will note that the shape of the fanblades and their set up is different that typical electric fans as well.

It is far simpler to to build a good double lunged bellows if you want to go all by hand.  And when you realize that they don't need to be made using leather they can be made quite inexpensively. 

If I was going electric I would look into the exhaust assist blowers from high efficiency home furnaces. If I was going non-electric I would either find a *GOOD* hand crank or build a bellows---I've done/used both over the years.  I preferred my bellows but it took up too much room when travelling and so I gave it on after about 20 years and went back to a good handcrank. Do not "settle" for a small handcrank that has to be continuously/vigorously cranked to get a decent fire!

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Mine was built using 2 4x8' sheets of plywood; so each "board" came out of a 4'x4' piece and the last 4'x4' piece made the two "horse shoe" pieces that went between the full boards.  Of course there then needed to be a framework to hold it and the pumphandle.  I made it to fit in the back of my small imported pickup with the tailgate closed so that would provide an outline of it.  The rest of the forge and tools could be packed around/under the bellows frame.

I also made and still have a set of two single bellows mounted side by side and MUCH smaller.  However to properly use them requires a bellows thrall and they are so hard to source and train nowadays---I use them for Y1K demo's when I can get a minion to help.    (My first single lung bellows prototype I built for under US$1 and worked well; so I never replaced it but built the "upscale" version to go with it.)

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I see. I guess that's not HUGE. Definitely not throwing the idea out the window. It's just that storage and operating space is an issue of mine too... The 'ol Red Shed fills up pretty quick. I forge in the yard for now, but it can't stay out there. I really do want to keep it stationed in the shed, just not a pertinent priority with other pressing projects :) 

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