New Charcoal Forge

J

jawilder

Joined
Jun 27, 2006
Messages
2,331
I finially found the time to make myself a forge and fired it up this past weekend. I must say I am pleased with how it turned out and I also found out that beating out rail road spikes is harder than I thought :confused:

I used this as my inspiration
http://64.176.180.203/washtubforge.htm

Anyways... on to the pictures:

First I made the adobe which is half sand and half cheap kitty litter with a handful of wood ash. I mixed water in until it was well mixed and similar to wet concrete.

I cut a hole in the side of the washtub for the air pipe, which is used oilfield pipe about 2.5 feet long with holes drilled about every inch or so. I also welded a plate on the end of the pipe rather than have it go all the way through the washtub. I know i'll just have to take off the blower to drain the ashes.

Once the pipe, washtub, and adobe were all in place it was a waiting game for the adobe to dry. it took a good 3 weeks in my garage but once it warmed up I sat it outside and it dried quicker.

The blower is a $11 hair dryer from Family Dollar.

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It fired up nicely an heated evenly. I used charcoal I made from oak. I went through about 3/4 of a 5 gal bucket of charcoal in about an hour.

I look forward to getting it going again this weekend if the weather permits.
 
nice Livley/Neo-Tribal Forge! Looks great My forging Mentor uses one he just moved up to an old school crank blower. I like my powered squirrell cage though!
 
That's nice. My friend's family is building a fireplace, and will have about a second fireplace's worth of firebrick left over. He said they will probably give it to me, once they are done with it, so yippie! Free firebricks!

By the way, jason, we're pretty close to eachother. I am shooting you an email now.
 
actually from what i have been told by others on here the zinc from galvanized can KILL you. please be sure of what you have.

good luck

jake
 
The tub won't get hot enough to burn off the zink. I've used an identical Tim Liveley style forge for a few years now. Still, be careful.
 
Yes, don't worry too much about the zinc burning off. I have heard of smiths picking the forge up by the sides and moving it ...while there are coals in the pan. The outside doesn't get hot enough to worry about the zinc.

Stacy
 
It is galvanized and I hope I put enough adobe in it to insulate it. I didn't think to touch the sides while burning but I did keep it outside with a fan to my back... just in case.

I'll check out the sides next time I fire it up and put more adobe if needed.

This was a very easy project that took minimal tools and money. I suggest this forge to anyone looking to make one.
 
I had to upgrade from the hair dryer pretty quickly though. Burnt motors. I picked up a squirrel cage blower from ebay for $20. Still kicking.
 
Where did you get the adobe? I just built something similiar in a 8 dollar charcoal grill but need something similiar to adobe to complete it.

Thanks
 
pike3e said:
Where did you get the adobe? I just built something similiar in a 8 dollar charcoal grill but need something similiar to adobe to complete it.

Thanks
Click to expand...

1. filtered sand from the back yard (plenty here in East Texas)
2. Bag of cheap walmart kitty litter, which is just clay (make sure it's not the kind that clumps)
3. handful of wood ash
4. water

Mix it together and you have adobe that cost about $2
 
Exactly how I did it. Except, I raided the kids sandbox for my sand.
 
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