Forge hood problem

[Asa Simons]

Hi all,

I recently built a brake rotor coal forge, and despite all the controversy about them, it works great. I work in the main area of a barn, and when I use the coal forge, I have to throw open the big doors to let the smoke out. I get smokey every time I use it. The forge is completely portable, so there is no good way to mount a hood on it. Do y’all have any ideas on a semi portable coal forge hood? It would have to go out one of the big doors, because I cannot put a hole through the ceiling. 

The first photo is when the doors have been opened up, and the second is the outside wall of the building. 
 

Thanks for the input!

Asa

[Ridgeway Forge Studio]

Asa, I would say make it so that the hood and stack are one piece- the hood has legs that sit on the forge and the stack has a hook or hooks that clip to the roof, like you would use to hang Christmas lights.

[Asa Simons]

Do you think it has to get all the way up and over the roof? The wind usually blows against that side of the barn. Do I need real chimney pipe, it’s quite expensive.

[swedefiddle]

What can you use, to make a Forge Hood. Cut down a Hot Water tank, it was leaking anyway. Make one with salvage SheetMetal.  Find someone near you that does building Demolition. They will probably be happy to let you take a couple things (if you tell them what it is for). Remember, NOTHING IS FREE. A case of Beer?, HomeMade Cookies??, Fresh Work Socks?? Be Creative.....

Why is it better with a Hood?  It moves a lot of the smoke away from where you are breathing.

How high does the pipe from the Forge Hood have to be?  High enough to create a 'Draw' and move the smoke outside of your Barn. Preferably to above the edge of the Roof. No you don't have to put a Cap on it, although you could put a Stetson on it. LOL

Sometimes, you have to be Creative, to be THRIFTY!!  Some of the smaller Coal, Rivet Forges, were meant to work beside the Steel Hulk they were heating Rivets for. Think about the Riveter and the Bucker, who had no Hearing Protection on (unless they had cotton rolled up, into their Ears)

Neil

[Asa Simons]

Love the ideas guys! We have a great scrap yard near us that is bound to have something like a hot water tank. You bet I’ll have my eye out for usable things!

[BillyBones]

Not sure what you mean by real chimney pipe? Single wall metal pipe is not too costly. That is what i use except for my roof penetration that is the way more than i want to pay triple wall. And if i had 18" of nonflammables near it i could have just used single wall entirely. 

If you can find an old piece or 2 of grain conveyor pipe that also works quite well. 

Can you do a wall penetration? a straight run through the wall horizontally to the outside then a 90° vertical up the side of the barn would also work. IIRC it was Hoffi who had all the forges in his school set up like that.   

Basically you just need a metal pipe 10" in dia. 8" will work, kind of. Long enough to go to the height you need. Again IIRC Thomas Powers just had a section of old grain conveyor pipe set next to his forge at a bit of an angle and that was it. 

I assume you have read through the forge hoods and chimney section of the forum, right? 

Before you build anything though look up local code for chimney pipe. 

[LarryFahnoe]

Here's how Hofi did his side draft chimneys. I plan to do something quite similar...