January 11, 200917 yr Well i started building a forge about a month ago and fired up for the first time today. Built it out of a old grill body to hold everything, then fire bricks and a brake rotor for a pot. ran air in underneath with steel pipe. Fired it up using royal oak. Then started practicing on some cold roll steel. Apparently, the grill body wasn't the best choice. i burnt through it in about 45 mins. So i let it cool down and started over. Since i live in ga. (red clay capital of the world), i buried the pipe and dug the brake rotor in to the ground and bricked it up for insulation. I'm also apparently having a problem regulating my heat. I melted my metal. I was just trying to beat out a round into a flat and break everything in. Then decided to fold it over and try a weld. Got it to weld twice, folded it again (practicing for knives) and put it back in the fire. The next time i pulled it out to hammer, it was just about burnt through. Also generating alot of scale. Any ideas on this????
January 11, 200917 yr Dude thats very impressive to get a forge weld on the first try.. much less twice. For the heat just put a valve of some sorts. It can be really crude jus make sure theres a place for the air to leave before the valve so when you shut it off all the way you don't screw your blower if its electric. And the scale will go away with less air.. or you can make a deeper fire to consume all the extra oxygen.
January 11, 200917 yr Ayup, you've stumbled onto one of the sacred secrets handed down to blacksmiths since Tubal Cain's Daddy let it slip. Charcoal burns plenty hot enough to weld, melt and burn steel. . . Easy. The excess scale is because you have your steel too deep in the fire, too close to the air grate. OR you're giving it too much air. OR your charcoal pieces are too large allowing too much oxy past. My bet is a little of all three. Well done none the less. Frosty
January 11, 200917 yr LB0007 Seeing colors As Josh says, dump (vent) some of the air to control the heat of the fire.
January 12, 200917 yr Author yea me and a buddy were talking this am over some coffee and we decided that i was probably pumping way too much air in. I wish i had took some pics. I laughed really hard for a while on this one. My wife thinks i'm nuts but i had a blast. also glenn, i just read your attachment, so the sparks off my steel was a bad thing.......i wish i had took pics, the more experienced folks would have laughed the a** off at my ignorance.....but it was fun :) Edited January 12, 200917 yr by rebelbuck24
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