August 4, 20205 yr 4 hours ago, TheWanderingLlama said: Be careful if you go this route - you don’t want to hook the shop vac up directly to your tuyere or it will blow the charcoal right out of the forge (which needless to say is dangerous.). I should be more explicit in what I write. I did this with the shop vac outlet anchored and pointing in the direction of the tuyere with a large gap. Then moved it a little closer and so forth. An unregulated shop vac would be a disaster as we all can agree. I struggled and was greatly discouraged initially thinking it was the forge shape, tuyere size, charcoal size, etc. simply because the blower I was using seemed to be oversized from the impression I got. As a debugging step with a rational approach, the shop vac allowed me to determine what the issue was and allowed me to progress.
August 4, 20205 yr 3 hours ago, Chelonian said: Box bellows are also a very good option for charcoal forges The good old hand cranked blowers like Champion or Buffalo will do the job without having to fuss with them. Need air turn the handle, need more air turn faster. Stop turning and the air stops within several rotations as the blower stops which saves fuel.
August 9, 20205 yr Author I honestly mostly frustrated about not knowing what I needed to do to get a good heat in the metal. after reading everything I believe i have deduced what my problem is. the amount of fuel I have on the first is not enough. best heat i every got was in the whole i had dug. which I had a lot of wood on. my daughter picked up the hammer! cold steel but safer that way!
August 9, 20205 yr Scooter: Be careful beating cold steel it can work harden and chip if it has much carbon content. PPE is even more important. Frosty The Lucky.
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