Building a New Smithy (picture heavy)

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

I used chicken house curtains on the half wall of our smithy. The bottom is made out of 2X2 lumber and the curtain is stapled to that. The curtains are opaque so they let light in and when I want ventilation I roll the up around the 2X2 and tie it up. When they are down a center latch keeps them from flopping around in the wind. I don't have an outside picture of them but this one shows them from the inside. There is also 1X2 welded wire behind them to keep out all kinds of critters.

[ThomasPowers]

I don't know about your area in TX; but out here we've had half a dozen days the last month with "wind gusts to 50 mph" .  After my first spring out here with sustained 80 mph straight line winds I understood my contractor's brag that "every building he had built was still standing." I sure used a lot of SD/ST screws when I did my shop extension using propanel.

[Bantou]

It’s not quite that bad here. We typically have anywhere from 1-20 mph winds. If a storm rolls in, it’s entirely possible to see 70mph+ gusts though, even without a tornado. We had sustained winds of 40-50 mph with gusts of 60+ one day last week without a storm. We might have 2-3 days like that in a year. 

[ThomasPowers]

My shop is oriented along the general wind path here and it has 3 10'x10' roll up doors in line. I'm looking for a good backpack blower to use one day with strong constant winds to clear the dust out of the shop.

[Bantou]

It’s been my experience that a decent hand blower works as well or better for that. A good gas hand blower is nearly as strong as a backpack and it’s easier to get under and around things. 

[ThomasPowers]

I was thinking of moving things with one hand and holding the nozzle with the other and not having the weight on the hand.  But I'll probably try several types---6 years of living 200 miles from the smithy and a neighbor planting a row of cottonwoods along the property line didn't help!  (It was fun to drop a match on the "carpet" in the smithy and watch the flame fwooosh.  Nice to have a fireproof set up!)

[Bantou]

I got the half walls in, the chimney run, and the ropes in the tarps. I had to get a little creative with the ropes for the tarps down the long wall because they overlap. I still need to flash in the chimney where it goes through the roof and on top of the side draft hood. Even with the chimney just sitting on top of the barrel, it draws well enough that my vape is more likely to smoke up the smithy than the coal is. It is fully functional now and just needs some clean-up from construction and organization.

 

 

I tied both ropes for the tarps together so that both sides come up at the same time. The ropes are run through trailer anchor points because pulleys would have taken up too much space and were too expensive.

 

The air mattress inflator was obnoxiously loud inside the building so I ran the hose under the wall and put the inflator under a bucket. It is still annoying but tolerable now. I’m kicking around some ideas on a more permanent solution. 

 

The last major issue (that I know of) to be conquered was how to prevent water from running through the building (it sits in the watershed from the hill behind it). The solution presented itself when I got ready to put the walls on. The R-panel refused to bend where I wanted it to, to screw the top down to the rail. As a result, I had to bury the bottom 2-3” of the panel on the uphill side of the structure. In theory, this should force the water around my building instead of through it. 

[George N. M.]

Looks good and functional.  The open sides bothered me a bit until I realized that in Central Texas you don't often have to worry about snow blowing through, rain on occasion, but little white stuff.  Now, all you need is a sign saying something like "Bantou's Custom Ironworks."

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

[Bantou]

Barring another “snowpocalyp,” the white stuff is much less a concern than high winds and sideways rain. 

One of my aunts actually used to do graphic design. She is going to work up a “Bantou Forge” logo for me in exchange for smithing work. It’s going to be a minimalist bull skull (something that will make a decent touch mark) as an homage to my moniker’s origins. “Bantou” was my first World of Warcraft character, a Tauren (bovine race) hunter. 

[Frosty]

Try making a wooden box for the blower, something a little heavy like 2 x 6 and turn the blower so the intake is facing away from the shop walls. The impeller blades are what is screaming so loudly so if they're not in line of sight with the tin wall the wall won't act so much like a resonator. 

Or you could wrap the bucket with an old wool blanket and tip it so the opening is facing away from the shop. At least move it so it's not touching the wall.

That's one properly blacksmitherly shop you're putting together for yourself. I could put in some happy time there.

Frosty The Lucky.

[arkie]

Bantou, one of our members used an old large Igloo insulated cooler to house his blower. He drilled an air intake hole in one end and the blower air hose exited through a hole in the other end. He said it reduced the blower noise significantly. I suppose the power cord came in the intake hole. Good way to repurpose old camping or outdoor equipment!

[JHCC]

An earlier version of my coal forge had a vacuum cleaner blower inside a sound-insulating box padded with styrofoam and fiberglass batting. Worked okay, but the ultimate solution was putting the blower on a speed control that brought both the airflow and the decibels down to appropriate levels.

[Bantou]

Somebody on a different platform recommended getting a bathroom vent fan. Apparently it pushes as much air as a hand crank and is much quieter than the air mattress pump. 

 

[Goods]

I used a combustion air fan from a natural gas furnace, very quiet but needed a speed controller. (A waste gate would probably be better…) Sound like they get tossed all the time with system upgrades, if you have a friend in the industry, hit them up.

David

[Bantou]

Unfortunately, I don’t know anyone who does HVAC. I wonder how well an HVAC in-line blower would do. Amazon has some cheap that push plenty of CFM but I haven’t found info on PSI yet. 

[arkie]

8 hours ago, Bantou said:

Somebody on a different platform recommended getting a bathroom vent fan. Apparently it pushes as much air as a hand crank and is much quieter than the air mattress pump. 

Bantou, I used a bathroom vent fan for bathrooms for a few years, but the pressure wasn't quite enough to get enough air through a pile of coal.  If you use charcoal (lump, not briquets) they will put enough air through since the char doesn't need quite as much air as coal.

Goods had a better suggestion on using a furnace fan.  I changed over to a used one about two years ago, and never looked back.  Works great.  I control the air with a blast gate.  Check with your HVAC folks, there's bound to be one somewhere nearby, and see if you can get one off of a replaced gas/propane heater.  I think new ones run in the $60-$70 range, but I've slept since I priced any new ones.

The used one I have is the Dayton 1TDP5 blower.  The model numbers are: Old 2C610  (New #= 1TDP5,  131CFM)

[Frosty]

Try asking an outfit that repairs HVAC if you can have a discard. They throw them out and I've never met a guy who works on furnaces who wasn't into fire and are happy to talk about it. Our furnace guys get right into talking about forge burners and HOT fires on our scale. The local HVAC supply up the street pretty much gives me free range of old parts and trimmings. 

GTTS (Go To The Source) works. 

Frosty The Lucky.