Forge project

[julianthegypsy]

I take it you get smoke when you light it? Does it only last months if you use it once a month. It definitely sounds cheaper than using propane (not to mention more fun playing with a real fire).

Is this a good deal? How big are the so called beans?

£12 for 25kgs in my area. Sounds like a decent deal. You'd be amazed how little you actually use. The forge is really a very small fire, it's just very intense because of the air being blasted at it, but the heart of the fire is rarely bigger than your fist unless you're doing pretty big stuff. A bag would probably do you a couple of weeks if you were using it all day every day. The beans are about the size of peanuts, maybe a fraction bigger. Turn up the air and have some fun!

 

[outofthefire]

You could also try charcoal, its not as good but it is cleaner. I gave up with my coke forge because its just too mucky its the soot thats produced rather than the smoke every time I lit it one or other of my neighbours had washing out.

 

[KemppiFrog]

After reading a thread on here, I built a forge. At around the same time, a mate dropped of some bags of Welsh coal. Works well, but smokes is a bit chokey. Lots of sulfur.. But no neighbours to worry about.

 

[outofthefire]

Just come across this picture of a little power hammer Groundshaker

 

[Spark plug]

Just come across this picture of a little power hammer Groundshaker

I wonder what today's helth and safety would have to say about that?

 

[DAPPH]

It's all powered rollers pre set winches and done from a control cabin quite a few feet further back these days / though some guys do get to keep quite warm

Forge masters of Sheffield used to have some decent pictures

This is a part link to Forgemasters

youtube.com/watch?v=u8u-nhcJjs8

 

[captain-destructo]

i was collecting some coal earlier today and had a word with the guy in there, he sugested a half and half mix of anthrasite and petrolium coke

i dont know if he delivers up to durham itself but i have seen his wagons in the darlington area so you may be lucky

P Woodhouse
Commercial Street,
Ferndale One Vulcan Street,
Middlesbrough
TS2 1JT ‎

01642 241644

 

[Maker]

My Nan gets the oval briquettes for her fire indoors and under the coals it glows orange, would it be a good idea to try forging with some of these? They do produce a lot of ash though so I'm guessing impossible to use for forge welding? She said there's a place down the road that sells coal so I'll find out if they sell Anthracite beans.

 

[julianthegypsy]

My Nan gets the oval briquettes for her fire indoors and under the coals it glows orange, would it be a good idea to try forging with some of these? They do produce a lot of ash though so I'm guessing impossible to use for forge welding? She said there's a place down the road that sells coal so I'll find out if they sell Anthracite beans.

You can try it, it burns so blast air at it and it'll burn hotter, but its big so there will be a lot of gaps in the fire. It would work better broken down into smaller pieces. If you can get the steel hot enough then you can fire weld, but I wouldn't recommend trying it as a beginner. You would need some borax for flux as well to weld mild steel.

 

[outofthefire]

If you can get the steel hot enough then you can fire weld, but I wouldn't recommend trying it as a beginner. You would need some borax for flux as well to weld mild steel.

Peat Oberon has his beginners welding virtually straight away and i've never used borax or any flux for simple welding.

 

[DAPPH]

I never used anything save for getting a good yellow heat & a wire brush to remove any crud before forge welding steel on the anvil

 

[dan.taylor.1]

Don't use the man made briquettes as the stuff they glue them together with causes issues.

Dan

 

[bigegg]

Don't use the man made briquettes as the stuff they glue them together with causes issues.

Dan

^^^^^^ Glued together with portland cement, usually (or is that charcoal briquettes?)

Flypress is good for smashing coal lumps into beans

 

[dan.taylor.1]

I just went mad with a big sledge on some coal I found at my grandads!

 

[Spark plug]

I got back on with the forge tonight, I got the tue all sealed up and sealed into the bosh, I'm letting the sealer go off overnight and water test tomorrow night.

I'm telling myself that it's going to leak, so when it dose I won't feel too bad

 

[julianthegypsy]

Peat Oberon has his beginners welding virtually straight away and i've never used borax or any flux for simple welding.

No reason why not I suppose, but I bash something or other over the anvil at least a couple of times a week if not more, usually simple things like door catches, sometimes with leaves and other bits and bobs. I tend to use oxy to heat things up because I never do enough at one go to be worth firing up a forge, my back won't cope with too much at a time these days, but I can't remember the last time I did any fire welding, I have a mig for that. I'd rather see a beginner learning skills like drawing down, pointing, making decent curves, punching holes, hot rasping etc etc before fire welding, since we have welders designed to do that for us.

 

[Bsmith]

View attachment 57113 View attachment 57112


Your doing a grand job there, just thought I would add my little bit of input. Below is a poor quality photo of my forge, the base is the proper forge, made by Blackstone's of London, you should be able to make out there are 2 lift out sections on the sides, most useful for when your forge is new and you don't have enough ash to bring the fire up to top level or for if you want to heat lengths of steel somewhere away from the end.

 

[The welding angel]

Well after finally finding a decent anvil at a reasonable price, nearly a year of searching!

It's now time to get a forge build under way, I've looked on you tube but there are so many different designs and types I don't know ware to start.

I'm looking to build something for heating decent size stuff I expect to be working with 1/2"-1" most of the time but may end up doing bigger stuff from time to time.

I have seen the brake drum forges but these look a bit limited. I do have best part of an 8mm plate looking for a use.

Any ideas or pointers would be much appreciated.

Thanks very much for the offer but it a little far for me to travel and probably awkward to transport. Also the build is half the fun.

I am struggling to decide witch is better bottom draft or side draft. What are the pros and cons with either.

Bottom draft, u don't struggle to clean the pipe...

 

[The welding angel]

If your going to make a bottom draft forge this is a good design. Brake drums are rubbish, they don't even make particularly good fire pots the sides are too steep. My old forge is slowly rusting away in the back garden (the coke forge ****** off the neighbours), if you want to drive down to Leeds you can take it away for free its still got loads of life the firepits made out of 10 or 12mm plate

That's perfect, and you will need to be able to variate the draft, very important. Calm it down when you do big series so you don't burn everything.

 

[Spark plug]

That's perfect, and you will need to be able to variate the draft, very important. Calm it down when you do big series so you don't burn everything.

I got a ball valve to go in line from the pump to the tue