My $25 Champion 401 Rivet Forge

[simmonds]

Picked this guy up yesterday for $25! Was browsing marketplace when it just popped up as newly listed. Drove 2 hours and she still had it when I arrived.  Anyway, never really wanted a small rivet forge but the price was right and I couldn’t pass it up.

Question is, is the pan supposed to be lined with something and should I before I use it? 

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

That price wasn't only right, it was a down right steal. Yes a cast iron pan should be clayed before lighting a fire in it to prevent it from cracking, if the pan is steel it's not a critical to clay it but should be to form a fire pot.

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

 

[Daswulf]

Awesome price. How is the blower?

[George N. M.]

$25 is what I paid for my first forge, a cast iron pan Lancaster rivet/farm forge, in 1978.  $25 was cheap then, in 2024 is amounts to Grand Theft Forge.  Great score.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

[simmonds]

6 hours ago, Irondragon Forge ClayWorks said:

That price wasn't only right, it was a down right steal. Yes a cast iron pan should be clayed before lighting a fire in it to prevent it from cracking, if the pan is steel it's not a critical to clay it but should be to form a fire pot.

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

 

Yeah, that’s what I was thinking. It has a steel pan, but it has a substantially risen air grate which in essence will make the entire 18” pan a giant fire pot. Would probably make a huge fire. I’m assuming when these were new and sold to industry as a rivet forge, they probably used them as is without a clay lining. 

1 hour ago, Daswulf said:

Awesome price. How is the blower?

The blower puts out great volume and rotates a couple turns after releasing the handle, but it’s a little noisy compared to my other No. 400 blower. 

1 hour ago, George N. M. said:

$25 is what I paid for my first forge, a cast iron pan Lancaster rivet/farm forge, in 1978.  $25 was cheap then, in 2024 is amounts to Grand Theft Forge.  Great score.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Thanks! I was really shocked when I saw the ad. They told me they wouldn’t hold the item, would be first come first served. I jumped in my car immediately and drove the 2 1/2 hours down to Grants Pass and luckily she still had it when I arrived. I won’t even say how fast I was driving…

[Frosty]

The high air grate isn't to turn the whole forge into a giant fire pot. It's a "duck's nest" forge. You tamp sandy clay being ideal, soil to maybe 1" max higher than the grate, making it a rounded crater shape works but flat to the depression around the grate works better. The depression is the "duck's nest" and a few fire bricks surrounding it defines the size and shape of the fire. IF you want a large fire move the bricks farther out, smaller move them in. 

Double check, the previous owner or someone prepping it for sale might have turned the grate upside down. It'll work either way but raised like that makes larger fires, lower than the pan means you can make much smaller fires. I've never owned a firepot forge though I did convert one to a duck's nest. You can even alter the blast with my ever present fire bricks to a side blast into a trough which makes nice long fires without eating your fuel like a starving ogre. 

That is a SWEET DEAL you found and it'd be very simple to make a clip on side draft forge hood to get the smoke up and away from you.

Frosty The Lucky.

[chester5731]

I have one just like it. The research I did, I found it was called a tool forge.  Not sure what the difference it.  The cast grate was missing on mine.