My scrap JABOD (Just a barrel…)

[SlimW]

finally, my own solid fuel forge. It’s certainly better than a barbecue chimney full of charcoal.

feedback will be very welcome. This forge is made from a 55 gallon drum and a 22 inch charcoal grill as the forge bottom. I started filling it with a mixture of kitty litter and sand but it was dry and didn’t mold well so I decided to mix local clay and sand instead, and that worked a lot better. I had some old fire bricks that were laying around in my garage for a couple years, so those became part of the build.

It survived its first firing and I even managed to hammer an old lawnmower blade flat. my high-tech Harbor freight prybar served as a fire rake but I really need a set of decent tongs, vice grips aren’t gonna cut it.

 

I used lump charcoal for the first firing. It was somewhat vac as the air source although it’s way too powerful and so I will need something smaller. I managed by directing air at the tuyere but not directly connecting the shop vac.

 

The tuyere is angled down into the fuel and is a scrap piece of tubing, fairly thin-walled. it seems to have survived the first use without much issue.

[SlimW]

Now that Thanksgiving is over, I had some time to try out this thing for real. Today, I bought corn, and anthracite (nut) coal, so I could compare them to each other and charcoal in this forge.

I bought a cheap hairdryer with two speeds, and a "cool" button, which I taped down so I didn't blow hot with the hairdryer. This I attached to the tuyere with a section of dryer hose and that aluminum tape you use on furnace ducts.

I tested it with a 1/2" rod of mild steel, and a couple sections of old leaf spring.

Charcoal was the most expensive, $22 bucks for a 20lb bag of Cowboy lump charcoal. It was the easiest to light, and needed the least amount of air in general. It did spit lots of little sparklers everywhere, and I couldn't use the hairdryer on high as it tended to blow the smaller pieces of charcoal out. Charcoal did bring even larger sections of metal (leaf spring) up to temp pretty fast, and was pretty easy to manage, though it does burn fast. One other negative was that I had to sit and break up lots of bigger chunks so they were usable in this forge, which was dirty and tedious.

Corn was the least expensive, $11 for a 50lb bag. Since I already had a charcoal fire going, I waited until it burnt down a ways, then raked a bunch of corn on. Corn made a lots of tall flames. I couldn't use the high air setting because that blew lots of little flaming bits of corn everywhere. It was not nearly as hot as charcoal, and it made a lot of smoke when coking up. I had to keep raking corn in, as it burns off pretty fast. Even at the low air setting, it tended to blow out burning corn, and it took a very long time to get my leaf spring sections up to temp, relative to charcoal. It was pretty easy to manage, but it had the strongest smell of any of the fuels. Between that and the smoke, I don't think it's fancy neighbor friendly.

I figured I'd give coal a try, and used anthracite since I do have neighbors that might think they're too fancy for billowing coal smoke. The local place up the road was closed today, but Tractor Supply had it, at $12 for 40lb. I didn't have any trouble getting it started since I already had a lot of hot coals. It did take a while to get burning, and it certainly likes lots of air. I could run the hairdryer at high speed without any issues of coal blowing around. Coal was clearly the hottest, and took the least amount of fire management. I had no trouble bringing metal up to temp, and in fact I overcooked one piece of metal when I walked into the garage to get my soapstone marker. Once the bed was up to temp, I could use the low air setting for smaller pieces of metal and they still came up to temp very quickly. Anthracite coal gave off little or no smoke at all, and very little smell (at least relative to corn). I also didn't use nearly as much coal as I did charcoal, and far less than corn.

In the end, I had two sections of more-or-less flat pieces of leaf spring I can now use for practice knives, one piece of mild steel that's taking the shape of tongs (slowly), and three semi-finished knife blades that got heat treated. A successful day, I think.

Here’s a couple pics, i was pretty busy and didnt get a lot.

I would welcome any critique or suggestions people might have.

[wirerabbit]

I like how you're trying everything, figuring things out. That is going to be the best learning experience for you.

I suggest that you convert your hairdryer to dc power with a controller. The motor should be a dc motor that you can run off of a 12 or 18v battery pack . You will get much better control of your air. You might even find that running the hairdryer at less than "low" will get that charcoal to work great for you. With the controlled dc motor and an appropriate battery pack, you'd still have all the power to keep that coal working for you.

If you want to try the mod,  I can talk you through what I did with my dc blower, nee hairdryer. I'm currently using the 18v battery pack from my power grinder. Found a very inexpensive controller in the interwebs.

[SlimW]

Yeah, I'd be interested in that mod. I assume it involves cutting off a bunch of the rectifying diodes from the blower motor and removing the heating coils, which is just fine by me.

I really think I need to find a local smithing class so I can have someone experience correct my hammer technique. I don't think I'm moving metal nearly as efficiently as I could be, and I know I'm creating "fish lips" near the ends of my work, among other things.

I was pretty happy with the coal. I burned for a few hours and only had a couple small pieces of clinker, and one small rock that found its way in somehow. I wonder if coal is happier with bottom blast rather than side blast. I also wonder if my bed is a little too deep.

[SlimW]

After doing some reading of various pinned threads, I think my forge is much too deep, and I don't think I have my work placed correctly in the coals - I do get a lot of scale. Also, because it's so deep, it's hard to heat the middle of a piece of work without really heaping on the coal. I think I'm going to re-shape the bed, maybe in a "V" shape. The good thing here is, the forge is just bricks and dirt/sand, so I haven't really lost anything but a little time.

[swedefiddle]

Good Morning Slim,

To stop 'Fish Lips' do a short taper on your bar, FIRST. When you are Forging, the outer layer/skin of your material stretches more than the core. This is from the penetration of your Hammer Blows is not through to the center, completely. A Hydraulic Press is different, it starts at the center, this causes an 'Outie' rather than an 'Innie'(Fish Lips).

The quirks of moving metal different ways.

Neil

[Daswulf]

Also fish lips can happen from just heating it where the outside is showing hot but the inside is not up to temp or not as hot. 

The yang to the yin it getting the whole thing so hot that it burns up. 

The balance comes from experience and getting things just right. As you adjust your forge and continue working you will get to the "Ah Hah" moments where it works out right. 

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

4 hours ago, SlimW said:

$22 bucks for a 20lb bag of Cowboy lump charcoal.

Wow... the last time I bought some it was $9.95 a 20 lb bag on sale at the end of BBQ season.

I can't control the wind, all I can do is adjust my sail’s.
Semper Paratus

 

[SlimW]

I tore apart my brick layout and built up a new fire pot that is much more shallow. Lucky for me, more dirt fits in my budget. spike for scale.

I figure I can set another brick on the opposite side of the tuyere with a little dirt under either end to make a proper trench.

 

[Frosty]

This should work okay. These things are very subjective what works a treat for you may be a nightmare for me. Normal normal. I liked your first set up better but that's a matter of taste, an opinion from some guy on the internet who hasn't used it or the fuel you're burning. 

My preference for coal is a "duck's nest", a shallow depression around the air grate or end of the tuyere with bricks around it to shape it as I need at the time. I typically use something very much like what you have now, dirt and all. 

Calyey sandy soil is a good thing, I have a couple 1/2 buckets of it for setting up at demos and such. Lightening my rivet forge to move is a good thing. One cast iron forge, blower, two buckets 1/2 full of sandy clay . . . stuff and maybe 6-7 firebricks. Nothing very heavy and only the forge is a little unwieldy but not too bad. 1/2 buckets of moist soil are heavy enough, I'm getting too old to be power lifting things I don't have to.

Frosty The Lucky.

[SlimW]

Honestly, clay dirt really is the best. I'm in SW Pennsylvania, so we have no shortage of it. I should not have even bothered with the cat litter. Oh well, I have a cat, so it won't go to waste. The bricks are nice as a table so you don't rake too much dirt into your fire.

All I had to do to rebuild the thing was to get a little more dirt, and add some water to the broken-up original dirt.

I was showing the forge off to my kids and my nephew when I got done forging the other day, they were "oo-ing and ahh-ing" over the red-hot glowing brick on the side, they didn't know you could make a brick glow.

[Frosty]

Next time MELT a fire brick for them. An incandescent yellow, bubbling drippy fire brick is a really neat thing.

Frosty The Lucky.

[wirerabbit]

Slim, let us know how that alteration works and how it compares to what you did last.

I can not speak to sideblast coal forging, but I do use charcoal in my small sideblast. I noticed that your tuyere is right down at the bottom of your bricked firepot. Do you know what series bricks you are using? If they are 3 inch, that might get the heart of the fire (with charcoal) just about where you need it. Be sure to notice that bit of information next time you use charcoal. For me, my bricked fire pot is 4.5 inches deep. I first has the tuyere just about a half inch from the bottom and I could forge things okay. I did have to dive a bit to really find the heart, but I made all my first tools and tongs no problem. Now I have moved the tuyere up maybe 2 inches and have much better access to the heart of the fire. Remember my forge is for charcoal.  My suspicion is that coal will not like a side draft firepot that is optimized for charcoal, but I certainly could be wrong.

Looking forward to reading more about your experiments in both coal and charcoal. I'd love to know how the charcoal and coal fires differ with the same set up. Would be instructive.

If I get some time to run to goodwill tomorrow I'll pick up another cheap hairdryer and post the simple mod for a forge blower.

[SlimW]

I made the bed more shallow because I did indeed have problems reaching the heart of the fire. I usually ended up way to high on the pile where oxygen scaled up the metal pretty bad. The only way to fix this was to make a huge heaping mound of fuel, which then burned up quickly, which wasn't efficient at all. I think this is why corn didn't work well for me.

I actually have already changed the latest picture since I can't leave well enough alone. the straight walls of the firepot make it hard to scoop out ash, so I cut one of my bricks in half with a chisel (ran a line the whole way around, it broke pretty evenly), and have angled the sides. Of course my changes mean I need more dirt since I'm using fewer bricks now, and it's dark and snowy right now so it will wait till later to finish. my fingers were freezing up. I also need to lower the whole bed half an inch or so, I have it built up too high and my fuel will just slide off the edges.

 

Edited November 28, 2023 by Mod30
Remove excessive quote.