pnut Posted September 2, 2020 Share Posted September 2, 2020 On 9/2/2020 at 2:55 PM, arkie said: might I suggest seeing if you can find one of the blowers they are using in the high efficiency gas furnaces Grainger sells a suitable one for about $45 Pnut Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted September 2, 2020 Share Posted September 2, 2020 They were often mounted in the rafters to save floor space; but as mine was part of a travelling forge for demos I couldn't get away with that! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red Shed Forge Posted September 2, 2020 Author Share Posted September 2, 2020 Thomas, I have seen that too! pnut, thanks. Less than I expected. Another thought on the fan I currently have: Would it be a bad idea, or just superfluous, to use it as an exhaust draw fan at the end of the flue when I eventually get the forge into the shed? I have the part that mounts to the outside of a building and attaches to the fan, as well. I wonder if it would just do what a good side draft would do anyway... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pnut Posted September 2, 2020 Share Posted September 2, 2020 I don't know why I didn't mention it before. Walmart has an ac mattress pump for about nine dollars that I used for my forge until I got a Buffco blower. I used a ball valve as a way to control the airflow. I've seen you have a cooling fan. I haven't tried using one so I'm out of my element in that regard. Pnut Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jealdi Posted September 2, 2020 Share Posted September 2, 2020 I had the battery operated mattress pump from Walmart. It would overheat. I'm now using a super tiny little shop vac instead. Ball valve works wonders for the airflow. Think I maybe spent... $20 or $25 on the shop vac. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red Shed Forge Posted September 2, 2020 Author Share Posted September 2, 2020 Ha! I've got one of those mattress pumps too... worth looking into, but my first thought is that it would be about the same as the hairdryer I have. Hmm. Cooling fan. That makes more sense than exhaust. But I still wonder... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irondragon Forge ClayWorks Posted September 2, 2020 Share Posted September 2, 2020 Charles has posted in the JABOD forum many times about the hand pump, sold in sports goods stores and even walmart. I'll try and find one for ya. Here it is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted September 2, 2020 Share Posted September 2, 2020 When I lived in Ohio and had electricity near the shop I used an old "handy vac" small vacuum---old enough that the body was made from aluminium instead of plastic! Got it cheap at the fleamarket as the cloth bag had disintegrated and only the Al tube was coming out the back...US$3 IIRC. I used a ribbed piece of radiator hose to run the air to the forge and as the vacuum had a universal motor, (brushes), I could control it with a simple rheostat . Fun thing was that the air through the ribbed tubing would sound a note like an organ pipe and it was controllable a bit with the rheostat as well. I'm a big fan of foot switches for electric blowers as they save a lot of stock and a lot of fuel! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red Shed Forge Posted September 2, 2020 Author Share Posted September 2, 2020 Irondragon, I've got one of those too! lol. But my forge will be a bottom blast and my fire pot a bit larger than what I am seeing in that picture. Makes me wonder if it would cut it. So many possibilities! haha. But truth be told, I am after something that I will want to keep until it quits on me or I break it haha. So either invest time to build it, get something great for free, or buy a good one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arkie Posted September 3, 2020 Share Posted September 3, 2020 Red, as requested, here are some photos of the blower/air gate arrangement I use. The air gate was made by cutting a slot on two sides of a 2" black pipe coupler and made the gate from some scrap sheet metal to fit the slot snugly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goods Posted September 3, 2020 Share Posted September 3, 2020 Nice clean work on that gate! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red Shed Forge Posted September 3, 2020 Author Share Posted September 3, 2020 Nice work for sure! Thanks for the pictures. I have some 2" black pipe that I will use too. I used it as a tuyure on my first coal forge, but it's currently bolted to the top of a keg-chimnea I made for the back porch. Has a cool steampunk look to it but I think its time to put it back to work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arkie Posted September 3, 2020 Share Posted September 3, 2020 Thanks, Red and Goods! Since the gate doesn't have a seal, you lose a little air around it, but the blower makes up for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red Shed Forge Posted September 8, 2020 Author Share Posted September 8, 2020 Still on a budget. This weekend I finally got the body of the forge cut up and welded together. No pictures yet as it still still needs touching up. I also forged some feet for the front 2 legs; the back 2 I am thinking will be wheels. Like these legs, the frame will be built from rebar... 30' for less than 12 bucks. I have enough of the structural tubing to cut out pieces for a frame, but cutting free-hand with an angle grinder for hours on end has proven to not only be tiresome, but sloppy. A new concern I have: Before I have the ability to get the forge installed in the smithy with a nice side draft and chimney system, how should I have it built to operate outside? It will be a 3.5' (left to right) x 2' (front to back) steel table with 2" high border. I will primarily be using my homemade charcoal as fuel. So I wonder: when outside of the smithy, should I still have a hood and short chimney installed? Or does said chimney still need to be 10'+ high in order to be effective? In which case I might as well just bite the bullet and install it in the smithy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red Shed Forge Posted September 8, 2020 Author Share Posted September 8, 2020 I am late to the editing time, sorry admins. I think I found my answer: It should be fine with no chimney or a short stack chimney should be fine while outside, as long as it is a minimum of 10" in diameter. Sometimes I need to keep my endless concerns to myself lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red Shed Forge Posted September 14, 2020 Author Share Posted September 14, 2020 My wife told me that my In-laws will be visiting us this weekend with many gifts in-tow. The most exciting gift being the oxy/acy tanks and torches! Since I will have them much sooner than I thought, I am putting off building the hood and chimney until this weekend so it will all be much easier to cut and assemble with the tanks. So, this weekend I forged an ash dump instead. I really just wanted to try my hand at a decorative ball-end for the handle -- it did not go as planned. I was unable to make it round before my propane ran out (I was near the last of it when I began) and it developed a pretty big crack so I just did a rough squaring and left it as is. The twist also got away from me; I should have just twisted half the bar, not all of it. Not a proud moment, but it will work once I get the hinge fabricated and attached. I forged it from a pry bar I got cheap at a flea market a while back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted September 14, 2020 Share Posted September 14, 2020 Pry bars, crow bars, rock breakers are generally NOT mild steel: harder to forge, more issues with forging temps, NO QUENCHING---even contact quenching. NOT a good idea to use MC to HC alloys when NOT needed! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red Shed Forge Posted September 14, 2020 Author Share Posted September 14, 2020 I did not quench. I felt a little guilty for using good tool steel for that project, but I didn't have a big enough piece of mild steel for it. Is it a bad idea to use it simply because its composition can serve a better purpose? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted September 14, 2020 Share Posted September 14, 2020 No, it's a bad idea because it's a lot more difficult to forge and much more prone to cracking if not worked at the correct temperatures. It's your steel you can do what you want with it; but you might have been able to finish it without flaws before the propane ran out if you had been working a true mild steel... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red Shed Forge Posted September 14, 2020 Author Share Posted September 14, 2020 Oh gotcha. Understood. Yeah, it cracked around the time I was only able to achieve a dull red heat. Should have quit sooner. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted September 17, 2020 Share Posted September 17, 2020 Ayup, one more step up the learning curve. Been there done that. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red Shed Forge Posted September 17, 2020 Author Share Posted September 17, 2020 Check it off the list! Haha Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted September 17, 2020 Share Posted September 17, 2020 I tell my students that learning to stop *before* you make an irrecoverable mistake is one of the blacksmiths hardest lessons! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted September 17, 2020 Share Posted September 17, 2020 Keeping hydrated is important. Dehydration can sneak up on you and impair your judgment before you realize what's happening. Take frequent water breaks! On 9/2/2020 at 5:23 PM, ThomasPowers said: I'm a big fan of foot switches for electric blowers as they save a lot of stock and a lot of fuel! Me too. I have my coal forge's blower (a modified vacuum cleaner, free from some else's trash) plugged into a variable speed control that is plugged into a deadman foot switch. When I step away from the forge, it kills the blower. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red Shed Forge Posted September 17, 2020 Author Share Posted September 17, 2020 Indeed! It gets hot in there when using the gas forge! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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