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I Forge Iron

cast iron bathtub forge?


Chris P

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I did a search but didn't find anything. Has anyone ever used an old cast iron claw foot bathtub for a forge? I don't know if the coating on the metal would need to be removed, or if it could just be covered with clay/firebrick.

If anyone has ever done it or has reasons why it shouldn't be done I'd love to hear about it. Thanks.

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Chris
The old clawfoot tubs have a baked on enamel finish on them. I wouldn't want to hazard too much of a guess as to what the ingredients were that were used back in the day but I would be Leary of them.
May be some good old Lead, Arsenic, Chrome...:o
I would be careful. Also I am kind of wondering just how BIG a Forge it is you need in the first place?:D

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WAY too big a space; when I need a long forge I just dig a trench forge out in the yard and use that. Even swordmaking there is only a tiny ammount of time when you need the whole piece hot at the same time and that's heat treating. Heating more than you can work is a bad thing in blademaking as it causes grain growth, decarburization and scale losses.

Now if it's not for blademaking there are a couple of use cases for a long heat but in general it's not done as a series of short heats will do it safer and easier.

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Yeah, I know it was big, I was more or less hoping to take up some of the space with either clay or fire brick, and maybe section it off so that I'm not using the entire thing. I really don't need that much, but its sitting in my back yard and drum brakes just seem too small. I've been thinking about a charcoal forge that was posted on here not too long ago, but I'm not sure if thats going to give enough heat and I'm a little concerned about the galvanized container the instructions call for.

Anyway, thanks for the feed back. And TASMITH, you are probably right about the toxins.

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Size your forge to only heat what you can forge in the time it takes the metal to cool enough to need to go back in the fire, unless you are setting up for a special type of forging. A 7'' square firepot for me is large enough, I used a much larger one this weekend and found I couldn't hardly stand near enough to it to place / retrieve my work piece, I had to go get some much longer tongs.

A fire that is too large will cause you to use WAY more fuel and accomplish very little more unless you are heating a very large piece. The pot on my forge is about 3'' deep and is just great for keeping enough fire for small things and I can heap up 2-3'' more on top if I need a large fire.

Charcoal works great for forging fuel and has been discussed to death hear and elsewhere, the main draw back for me is the sparks it puts off and the rate of fuel consumption. If you was to use a firepot even 1/4 the size of that tub you would need a truckload of fuel per day and It would likely require a leaf blower to get enough air to it. Once you got it burning it would put off enough sparks to light the neighborhoods houses and be hot enough you would need 6-8' tongs to place your work. Once placed your work must be retrieved before it begins to melt, if the fire pot is too large it becomes very hard to find your work epically if it falls below the top layer of coal which is usually where you actually want it. The lower in the fire the hotter it gets and the faster your steel will melt, at a certain point you have trouble getting your metal out between the hot enough stage and the too hot stage.

I do understand the concept of wanting to use what you have on hand however, the side draft hood of my coal forge is a hot water tank with the bottom and the inside tube cut out and made into a hammer stand. Perhaps you could take the tub to a scrap iron place and sell/buy or exchange it for the right parts. Do you have a welder? If not try the wash tub forge which is shown on here and is very easy to build and configure for a large or small fire and should cost only a few $ for parts.

Please don't think I am talking down to you or any thing like that, when I ask questions I like to get straight answers, and so I try to return the same.

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My first forge was made from a kitchen "dry sink" not very deep but rectangular. I contoured it with creek clay and made an adjustable length tuyere---pipe with lots of holes and a ramrod to control how much was being used. made my own charcoal for it too.

Bathtub is too low as well.

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go with what you think is best if you are working large peices say a HUGE anvil a bathtub could work well personaly i am not makeing anvils or huge archetural peices so i go with a modifyied washtub forge

if you want to make a forge out of it ok but is i infer from your second post you want to make a bigger forge. the washtub forge is big and can be restricted to use less fuel when it is not needed the ramrod idea it a amasing idea and will make changeing the fire size relitively easy

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Chris P, that's a big forge you're planning!
Cast iron bath tubs are really heavy.
It might be tricky getting it raised and set up at a comfortable working height safely.
No reason you couldn't just use one end of it I suppose.

I once had one I made charcoal in........covered the top with a big piece of sheet metal.
But one day I wanted to put the fire out quickly and dowsed the fire with a bucket of water...I forgot it was cast iron.....it cracked from end to end.

I also remember that when the baked-on enamel got hot, tiny shards of glass like material popped off the tub in all directions. Safety glasses are a must!!

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