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I Forge Iron

Cast iron sink forge


shanew8869

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so i have an old cast iron sink and was thinking of trying to make it into a forge. it has two basins and is about ten inches deep. i believe it is ceramic coated inside. does anybody have any construction ideas? has this been done before? any foreseen problems? would it be too deep? could i possibly build it up or put something in it (clay, firebrick or brake drum) to decrease depth if needed?
Thanks
smithin' newb

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The first "duck nest" I made was in an old C/I sink, the porcalain/vitreous enamel veneer on the thing would pop off every now and then, which was a little disconcerting. But I ran the "rear tuyere" (I'm English) through the overflow and put a clinker cutter in the bottom, works fine. Donated it to the local venture scouts when we moved, and they still used it last time I visited.
Paul.
Don't confuse activity with accomplishment. And as always.
It's not over... Untill we Win!!!!

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  • 8 months later...

Hi there!
I have acquired a (very heavy) cast iron double well sink with the hope of using it as my first coal forge. I have managed to loosen and remove the drain attachments that were glued to the underside of the sink, but now I face the dilemma of needing to attach a coal dump and tuyere!
I am not sure how hot it will get on this part of the sink, but I have a feeling PVC and any PVC glue would not work well. I can't imagine being able to bolt something into the bottom of the sink either. Are there any suggestions out there for the construction of this idea? I can provide a picture tomorrow if need be!

Thanks in advance.

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I recently read a Popular Mechanics article (not sure if it was a recent article, I just read it recently.) about using a stainless steel double sink. From what they said it worked great.

I just worry if your sink is enameled like the one in our kitchen that the enamel will pop.

Kendrick

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I recently read a Popular Mechanics article (not sure if it was a recent article, I just read it recently.) about using a stainless steel double sink. From what they said it worked great.

I just worry if your sink is enameled like the one in our kitchen that the enamel will pop.

Kendrick


That's the article that inspired me to acquire this sink and use it for forging :D
It does have a white glaze of some kind, probably enamel. Maybe I can grind it off before use.

Why not just drill a couple of holes in the sink for bolts to hold the tyuere/ash dump?


What kind of bolts would be able to withstand the heat of the coal fire directly over the heads?
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If the sink is in good condition, sell it on Craigslist.org and use the money to get a different forge body. Brake drums/rotors are usually free and offer a shallower bowl with attachment points,and holes in them already. The sink could also be handy to have outside for a slack tub, washing up before heading in , etc. In my opinion most sinks are far too deep, and the enamel will cause problems. Do not grind it off, as that will take forever, and the dust is nasty stuff-it is basically glass fused onto the surface of the sink. Look around there are tons of free better forges around, you just have to open your eyes. Freon tanks, BBQ's, brake drums/rotors, satellite dishes, etc.. Do a search here for home made forges, and look at what others have cobbled together.

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I agree with Biggundoctor that sinks tend to be too deep for a good forge. There is a neutral zone in a coal fire where you want to be heating your iron in. Below that neutral zone is a oxidizing zone and above that neutral zone is a carbonizing zone, both are poor areas to be heating metal in. If I understand how these work, a sink will likely have a pretty huge carbonizing zone.

What I recommend is to change your settings so that your state and general location shows. That way people can recommend a smith or group of smiths near you where you can try out some forge(s) and see what works for you. Having experience with a decent working forge will allow you to make informed decisions about what to build or purchase. Also, someone local to you might have or know of an affordable forge that you could acquire, or let you try a decent set-up that you could construct.

While an experienced smith can likely heat up a length of iron and forge it with just about any heat source, a broken carpenter's hammer and a semi-flat rock, my personal feeling is that beginners are better off starting with tools that don't add to the variables they are trying to deal with during the learning process.

Just my opinion. Mileage may vary. :D
Dave E.

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  • 2 years later...

I saw an old enameled, cast iron kitchen sink the other day, and it got me thinking about using it as a forge.
I already have a small champion forge, but it doesn't have a lot of table space for new coal and workspace, and I was thinking if I lined it, it would be pretty practical.
My question is, can I use this? Would I have to remove the emamel?

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I've seen someone use a double sink made out of stainless as a forge. One issue might be depth of the sink though. You'd have to make some cuts in the sink to get long pieces through, but a double sink could be used as a quench tub as well as forge, two in one! I forget the link, but I think popular mechanics featured a guy a while back who did this with the stainless.

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This doesn't look as deep as you'd expect, and I figured if I used enough cement/sand to line it it would be shallow enogh. I was just concerned about the enamel because the left hand side is a flat work surface for drying dishes or something.
It looks something like this-

post-22216-0-32059000-1337955997_thumb.g

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I would test the porcelain glaze for lead. If it trests negative give it a try. if it tests posative take it to the dump.

Lead used to be used as a flux in all sorts of glaze materials. My guess is that the sink is of post lead law manufacture. But I am not sure if porcelain for sinks were covered under that law or not. Best to be safe rather than sorry though. Test it.

There is not much to be lost if it is not glazed with HAZMAT. Sounds like a good idea.

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Porcelain is likely to be unglazed. The bright colored glazes are the ones to look out for as lead can create many brightly colored compounds. Porcelain is very dense and absorbs very little water so that glazing is not required. High heat could expand the metal substrate and cause the porcelain coating to pop off (due to different expansion rates) but you are not likely to have such problems if you have the sink lined. I would think that the sink bowl is much too large and I would consider shrinking it with your lining material.

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I've seen sink forges before, and they work well. Build up the sink with some gravel to get the depth almost there and then a good layer of clay (cheap kitty litter mixed with some sand and wood ash). Form the fire pot as you go, and don't forget to cut a few access ports in the sides so you can get a long piece into the fire.

I've been wanting to try making one for myself, but I never seem to get around to it.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Popular mechanics had an artical in 1941 useing a cast iron double bowl sink. There is a PDF file floating around the web of it, the guy who used the stainless sink pretty much went off those plans. I thought about trying it because I like the quinch tub attached.

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My first forge was a porcelain "dry sink" from an old farm scrap pile in OK. It was rectangular and not very deep. I drilled a ring of holes in the end opposite the drain and popped out the inside and ran a piece of blackpipe down the middle and out the drain and drilled a lot of holes in it to act as a tuyere. Then I filled it creek clay and sand to make a v shaped trough in it. I don't recall the sink ever getting hot enough to spall the coating.

I used a ramrod in the pipe to control how long a fire I got and burned home made charcoal in it.

I do know that some of the old porcelain coated items were high lead due to reading up on lead poisoning when we moved into a house with our young children and found the previous owner ran a shooting range in the basement and had not disclosed this. State Health department came out and did a study on it (they had to recalibrate for one sample where their machine was set up for milligrams of lead and the sample was in *grams*!).

Anyway one of the cases I read was of a commune where *1* member came down with lead poisoning, the others showed exposure but his was acute. After an extensive testing they found that the commune had made wine in old cast iron porcelain covered bathtubs where the acidic liquid had etched lead from the coating. The one fellow used to sneak off and go on binges on their homemade wine and so ended up getting too much lead. Lead oxide was a common pigment at one time, now generally replaced with Titanium dioxide.

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  • 1 year later...

So I have this cast iron sink that is junk and i could easily turn it into a forge, it has a pipe running through the bottom and could be tilted or filled if i were to use charcoal but I was wondering if this would work well. I want to start on this as soon as possible because i have been toying with this idea for a while and while i was at school i could do nothing, I not have the power to make it happen but i just need to get started. Ashes and water lining? pipe across the bottom or even the sides? I have a leaf blower that i could use for an air source, i also have a shop vac and a hair dryer.  Also, is there any good places to get coal if i go that route that is in my area? Im in kitsap county washington so it would be really nice to find some cheap stuff to get started.

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