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Hello folks! I am new to this forum and decided to make my post here rather than the "Introduce Yourself" subforum. It's straight to business.

I wanted to post here mainly to ask about three things, but also receive any critiques any of you experienced folks may conjure up.

1) Tuyere diameter/length. I have a 2' length of steel pipe with a diameter of 1.5". Is this too large for a charcoal-fed JABOD forge? Also, is this length long enough to dissipate the heat before reaching the fan? (I plan on using an old air mattress inflation fan)

2) The fire pit configuration--I have 6 bricks with dimensions of 9"x5"x2.5". In the configuration pictured in my link below, this leaves about a 4.5" wide pit. Will this be wide enough? I plan on using this forge for small pieces since I am just learning--hooks, tongs eventually, etc.

3) Forge height. Currently. the top of the box sits at about 31", putting it around navel level. It is set on a stainless steel cart with wheels, so adjusting the height would be easy enough. What is the standard for forge height? Would it be better to be higher up, maybe at chest-ish level? In the beginning I may just leave it as it is, and adjust based on any feedback my back may give me the next day...

For fuel I plan on using charcoal filtered from the leftover ash in our wood stove. I made a strainer using some 1/4 inch (I think) chicken wire over a wood frame, and have been collecting a surprising amount of nut-to-egg-sized charcoal! Hopefully this will be good enough, and when the summer rolls around I will have to re-think my fuel situation.

Anyway, appreciate all of you who have taken time to read this, and I look forward to hearing any feedback anyone might have!

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Experience and the historical record show a 3/4-1” ID tuyere work best with charcoal. If you can drill a 1” hole in a brick it will work with the larger pipe
4-5” below the hearth for the top of the ID of the tuyere and an inch under the ID with a with of 4” has worked best for me. 
if one can slope the floor so as to form a trench 10-12” long it makes cleaning out the fire easier, but at any rate 8” is a minimum  length. 
Trench walls 4” high above the hearth help as well. 
the hearth hight is ideal at the same hight as the anvil. 
I have burnt threw the floor with only 2” of brick under the fire at welding heat. 
your blower will produce more air than needed (or wanted) so som kind of control is needed. 
 

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Thank you for the tips! I've seen a post of yours where you've drilled out the fire bricks to fit the tuyere, I plan on doing the same. You say that a 10-12" trench is ideal, is this typically sloped for the entire length, or should it bottom out at some point and continue flat until hitting the wall with the tuyere?

Thanks again!

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I have built a steel one out of a 12” square cut diagonally and then 4” plates made the 90 degree “V” wile I welded a 1” flange. Around the open rectangle. A 1” hole centered 1-1/2” up from the bottom corner with a 3/4” schedule 40 pipe at about a 5 degree angle.

A good plan would be to build a wall on one side with the tuyere, then it would be easy enough to dig your fire bowl or to build another wall and simply use clay to form the slopes.  

 

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Really cheap kitty litter tends to be clay. 

BTW are you doing a side blast or a bottom blast---I don't recall you telling us?  I've used a similar sized pipe for a bottom blast trench forge for heating a long length of plate for box folding.  (Cooking firebox for the Santa Maria replica in Columbus Ohio, probably rusted out and discarded by now.)

Height: I suggest you take a piece of stock and hold it horizontally with your arm extended down.  This is how you will be generally working it in the forge.  Make the forge so that it's easy to use at that height!

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I am doing a side blast. I just carved tuyere hole (ended up using 3/4" ID black pipe) into the firebrick this afternoon. The project is slow-going, between work and two youngins, but as long as steady progress is made I'm happy.

Thanks for your suggestions about the height, luckily it sits naturally in the way you describe. I just need to figure out a way to secure the box to the cart, which shouldn't be hard.

Next steps for the build are drilling a hole out the side of the box, filling the forge with some material (which I still haven't decided on... the ground is pretty frozen now), and setting up the blower then lighting her up!

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Got a little more work done today! Drilled out the tuyere hole in the back of the box and added a little offset flange to pin the pipe into place. The hole in the box is slightly higher up than the one in the firebricks to (hopefully) avoid ash falling towards the blower.

I also very jankily attached the blower to the tuyere with some wire, but honestly I have to think of something better. Not sure what I was thinking there... I'm also aware that the blower will probably be too strong when directly attached to the pipe, so I'm trying to devise some sort of adjustable baffle system. Will post progress if something comes of it.

Still no movement on the substrate front! I'm hesitant to use the kitty litter mixture because honestly I'm too lazy to do all that mixing (with ash/water/etc), so still thinking of getting going with some plain old dirt. One question I had here actually, do any of you treat the wood somehow? I'm wondering if there is some kind of oil or something I should apply to the box to slow rot.

Anyway, thanks for reading! To any winter bound folks, stay warm!

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The whole album can be viewed here: https://imgur.com/a/kHkLc54

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