June 19, 20214 yr I'm wanting to build a blacksmith shop i already drew out the plans but one thing I'm wondering is can the walls be made out of wood the building not the forge. Stone is way to expensive and so is doing the walls out of concrete (I'm doing the floor out of concrete) I'm just wondering thank all of you for your time
June 19, 20214 yr Yeah, no problem, depending on some factors. There are ways to mitigate spark or possible burn damage to wood too.
June 19, 20214 yr I have some sheet metal on the wall directly behind my propane forge. This is more to protect the wall from scorching. What kind of forge are you planning to use?
June 19, 20214 yr What kind of forge, how close to the wall, how big of a shop...? Details Really help when looking for suggestions. Can you upload a picture of your plans?
June 19, 20214 yr We can play 2000 questions all day every day and we are Great (or atleast have fun) at speculating or giving advise on OUR experiences with Our forges and shops but what You are planning is what you are asking about so the details (as much as you can add), Help us help You.
June 19, 20214 yr Author the plans are still in the works with fine details did the picture come through? 2 minutes ago, Daswulf said: We can play 2000 questions all day every day and we are Great (or atleast have fun) at speculating or giving advise on OUR experiences with Our forges and shops but what You are planning is what you are asking about so the details (as much as you can add), Help us help You. lol i get it i should of posted it to begin with
June 19, 20214 yr Looks like the plans came through. But in planning, where will the forge be, the anvil, the post vise, the work bench?.....
June 19, 20214 yr Author the forge will be in the back left hand corner the anvil near the forge and so is the power hammer workbench im thinking will be in the left hand side near the forge and the lathe in the front right with another workbench near it
June 19, 20214 yr There are a number of good discussions about minimizing fire risk in the “Designing, Building a Shop “ section.
June 19, 20214 yr Author oh awesome thank you so much Edited June 19, 20214 yr by Mod34 Removed unnecessary quote
June 19, 20214 yr One of the links on the Read This First tab (at the top of each page) is to the forum Table of Contents. Good to familiarize yourself with that, so it’s easier to find the info you need.
June 19, 20214 yr Good Morning 4 Major, Better ventilation is in the Breezeway. Before you design a purpose built Blacksmith Shop, maybe spend some time doing some Blacksmith work. As they say, 'The Proof is in the Pudding'. By understanding how a Blacksmith Shop works, you will know how best to lay it out. Every person has different wants and desires. How I set up my Blacksmith Shop, may be completely awkward to you or someone else. For Forging, you need as little body motion as possible, a small triangle. If you want a layout table, the universe is too small for the options. Some people layout on paper, some people start fires with paper. There is no such thing as perfect layout Gud Luk, Neil
June 19, 20214 yr As most blacksmiths shops in the USA for the last 200 years have been made of wood; the answer is yes! Now shop fires are often well known in the history of such smithies and methods of preventing them can be simple enough as to apply a saturated borax wash or armouring the surfaces around the forge with corrugated steel, etc. As I live in a dry area with many fire bans; half my shop is an all steel building. The other half is all steel except for 4 telephone poles that support the roof. (I also have 2 fiberglass panels in the roof for light in each section. Total shop size is 20'x60'---currently) As you haven't gone into details as what you plan to do in the shop; I have some questions: How will you heat up the middle of a 20' stick of steel using that set up? How large a power hammer will you be using and is it already purchased? Have you used a bellows with a coke forge? (Better be a double lunged one to keep the air flowing while you are hammering. Now a bellows for a nice bituminous coal forge can be very nice indeed. I used one I built for over 15 years in my previous smithy.) How is the power set up for your forge? A powerhammer will pull some amps! (Working on getting 200 amp service in my current smithy so I can run all my toys!)
June 19, 20214 yr Welcome aboard major, glad to have you. Perhaps a little less general a location will be helpful? You could live in N. Wa and still be a couple thousand miles from me. We don't want your street address but close is helpful. The thing that jumps out at me are the stairs, where do they lead? A structure fire with a staircase to run up is a catastrophe in waiting. The guys will help you get a handle on what you need to be thinking about. I'll jump in if someone doesn't think of something I think is worth consideration. Frosty The Lucky.
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