Brake drum forge

[RonHopeful]

I bought a chop saw today, which enabled me to make the legs for my brake drum forge. The quality of the welds is still variable but, overall, I'm getting better.
The spare hairdryer that I was promised by my wife has gone missing, and searches of my daughter's room have found nothing. So, I don't have a blower and couldn't fire up the forge today as I hoped.
I did a day's blacksmithing course a few years back and I've been wanting to do more ever since. I'm hoping to try making a few fire steels and knife blades.
The thing at the bottom left is the handle of the ash dump. The leg opposite is fixed to the ground with a large tent peg, so it won't fall over.



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[pedrobedro]

That's more of a brake disc forge though isn't it. Have you tried lighting a fire in it just for a play ?

 

[Digger6135]

You need a brake drum off a comercial vehicle or bus, the one you have made I would suggest is too small, though I like the concept, it woulld only have limited heat capacity

Digger6135.

 

[RonHopeful]

Yes, I guess it is a brake disc. This probably explains why I always take my car to a garage, even for anything minor! There are loads of similar forges on the Internet. Certainly, this is right at the small end of the scale. But I'll see how it goes. There's quite a large steel plate under the fire pot. So, if I find a larger drum, I can hopefully unbolt the current one and fit the new one without needing to do too much modification.

 

[RonHopeful]

Well, I tried my forge and Digger is right. I did get a piece of metal just about hot enough to shape, but it took about 20 minutes and clearly wasn't going to be practicable. I was so disappointed. But I've managed to get hold of a drum. It's still not huge, but what a difference it makes! I've just fired it up for the first time.

And I even managed to make a 'thing':

It isn't intended to be anything. After my first failure I wasn't really expecting much from the forge. So, when to my surprise, I found I had yellow hot metal, I wasn't sure what to do with it - so I just hit it. One thing led to another, and this is what turned out. My first project will be a pair of blacksmithing tongs.