I give up. I want to forge. What do i need?

J

JollyDeathCow

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Sep 26, 2020
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I love woodworking but there are so few projects of mine that only involve wood. I always say, "the hardest part about woodworking... is all the metal working I can't do". So I finally decided to hurt my bank account even further and consider a very modest home Forge setup. Can anyone help point me in the direction of some items to start looking at.. what I need to spend money on, what I don't need to spend money on... that sort of thing? I Know Nothing Jon Snow.
 
Very little exp myself so I'm sure you'll get better answers, but there are a fair few home forge build videos on youtube that can be pretty cheap. This is one example:

 
@opYou have no idea. That's why you even bothered asking. Nothing against you, but once you find out, most guys realize steel is more than they want to get into.

I don't have a forge, but I do have a basic machine shop. Fabricating metal is a new dimension in expense. With the forge you'll also want an kiln for tempering, at least a drill press and mill for machining, maybe a lathe, lots of fixtures like anvils and vises, a power hammer, band saw, quenching equipment, a free-standing belt/disk sander, probably an arc welder and oxy-acetylene torch, a ventilation system, compressed air, a heavy-duty metal shop vac, plumbing fixtures, sewer, steel bar stock, steel racks and shelving, maybe a sheet-metal break/shear, spot welder, a few hand tools--tongs, hammers, magic potions--and some not so magical--to use in heat treating/hardening, lubrication and adhesion, possibly liquid nitrogen/cryogenics, climate control, personal protection equipment (not a big expense, but absolutely essential), precision thermocouples/rtds, countdown timers, benches, grinders (bench and handheld), cutting wheels, and the enclosed space to hold it all.

You can move up from those basics. On the used market we're talking $17,000. I don't forge anything, just basic machining of small to medium-sized pieces. Just the vise for the drill press cost me $600. Tooling also gets expensive, but hobby guys can usually buy each tool once. You won't wear out mills, cutters and bits. But they can break.
 
I believe there's a workshop-related subforum here...you may get more and better answers there.
 
awesome14 said:
@opYou have no idea. That's why you even bothered asking. Nothing against you, but once you find out, most guys realize steel is more than they want to get into.

I don't have a forge, but I do have a basic machine shop. Fabricating metal is a new dimension in expense. With the forge you'll also want an kiln for tempering, at least a drill press and mill for machining, maybe a lathe, lots of fixtures like anvils and vises, a power hammer, band saw, quenching equipment, a free-standing belt/disk sander, probably an arc welder and oxy-acetylene torch, a ventilation system, compressed air, a heavy-duty metal shop vac, plumbing fixtures, sewer, steel bar stock, steel racks and shelving, maybe a sheet-metal break/shear, spot welder, a few hand tools--tongs, hammers, magic potions--and some not so magical--to use in heat treating/hardening, lubrication and adhesion, possibly liquid nitrogen/cryogenics, climate control, personal protection equipment (not a big expense, but absolutely essential), precision thermocouples/rtds, countdown timers, benches, grinders (bench and handheld), cutting wheels, and the enclosed space to hold it all.

You can move up from those basics. On the used market we're talking $17,000. I don't forge anything, just basic machining of small to medium-sized pieces. Just the vise for the drill press cost me $600. Tooling also gets expensive, but hobby guys can usually buy each tool once. You won't wear out mills, cutters and bits. But they can break.
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Oh I hear you on the expense. Like I said, I primarily do woodworking and for the longest time I avoided getting into joinery or turning because the entry fee for the basic stuff you'll want is so high. I've always giving my dad a hard time for passing up on a $22,000 milling machine (offered by his former employer for $4,000). He makes all sorts of excuses like they didn't have the space nor the additional power hookup necessary but I mean come on!
 
awesome14 said:
With the forge you'll also want an kiln for tempering, at least a drill press and mill for machining, maybe a lathe, lots of fixtures like anvils and vises, a power hammer, band saw,
Click to expand...
I hope you are taking this with the grain of salt I'm going to assume was intended.
You can do a lot with a forge, anvil, post-vise a few hammers and some tongs.

Now as you get into it, what A awesome14 said can be true. But outside of a good swage block and metal layout table, the rest are wants and nice-to-haves that definitely can expand your repertoire. But not necessary to do a lot of high quality work.
 
You don't need a forge to do machine work, and you don't need a machine shop to do forge work. Figure out exactly what your metalwork objectives are first. If you are looking to machine modern small parts and fasteners, forging probably isn't your path. If you are looking to handcraft retro, blacksmithy-type hardware and accessories then a forge is what you want.
 
Honestly if you can, always buy the best tools you can afford. You can always grow yes, but once your skills grow you'll start hating if your fighting equipment and making excuses. Yes the DIY things are great, but what I learned when I bought my forge and anvil is I could make tongs, but the time and frustration instead of getting into the projects I wanted made it not as fun.
Be honest with your skills, and realize that if you build a tool or piece of equipment, are you good enough to make it without any compromises. I have all the equipment (welder, fab table, cold cut saw etc) to build a bad ass grinder for myself, but I'm saving up spare cash now to buy one. Why, because I don't want to build one and have my equipment out of square or fight with mounts to make sure my stock at the end is square. I know finances aren't always there, but if you compromise on the tools you'll end up fighting the deficiencies, or quit because it isn't doing exactly what you want.
Just my two cents.
 
Unless I missed it, what do you intend to do. You only mentioned a forge and I see suggestions for a machine shop.
Knowing what materials, sizes, and end products you want to create will go a long way to pointing in the right direction.


If all else fails and you want to forge you need:

Something to heat with
Something to hit with
Something to hold with
Something to hit
Something to hit on
 
weo said:
I hope you are taking this with the grain of salt I'm going to assume was intended.
You can do a lot with a forge, anvil, post-vise a few hammers and some tongs.

Now as you get into it, what A awesome14 said can be true. But outside of a good swage block and metal layout table, the rest are wants and nice-to-haves that definitely can expand your repertoire. But not necessary to do a lot of high quality work.
Click to expand...
I guess you have to figure out what's worth more, your time or your money. For a guy with more time and less funding, going basic is logical, because almost all of the 'want items' are simply time savers. And, they can always be added as needed. I just don't consider $15,000-$20,000 an unreasonable expense to start forging.

But one can produce some exquisite work with a forge and hand tools. It's just impossible to recover much for your time and effort when it requires so much time.
 
Don't get to bent out of shape about buying the best of everything. I used a chunk of railroad track for years as an anvil. Worked good.

I bought a real anvil, a 240 lb Fontanini, and I wouldn't trade it for 100 railroad tracks.
 
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