Dan, so how's it coming? I'm wanting a forge as well, but all the information is overwhelming and every time I think about buying one, someone says I can build it for 1/5th the price. But since I'm working 6 and 7 days a week, have a rental house, have a mostly independent 95 year old Grandmother in my life that gets my time as well, I'll probably never build a forge or any other piece of equipment. If I ever take this hobby past the reading stage, most equipment will need to be turn key. But since turn key is much more expensive than DIY, I'll probably just sit back and watch.
I'm curious as to how your getting along or what choice you made if any. As others have said, you have nice work already. It's interesting that you already have a craft background with you and your wife before getting into knives. I weaved chainmail jewelry for awhile; that was very fun, but hard on the eyes and wrists.
Look out soon, I'm about to get the build together. I have my parts ready to go besides some blower fittings/hose. I consider buying a welder too... lol I get carried away! I still debate using bricks, board, castable refractory or inswool/metal for the ends. But that is easy... I'll likely use brick to keep it versatile.
I also needed a better place for my Forge/Foundry gear and poured a concrete table base a few days ago... it is looking good and won't catch on fire! This concrete thing is pretty interesting too! (note to self - stick to the forge!)
The build itself should not take long, it took me part of afternoon to build my smaller forge and maybe a couple of hours over a few days to line it. I'm glad I built it and have learned a lot... well worth my $30 expenditure for the forge body. Loads of fun too!
I'm building a very nice blown forge and like to research things quite a bit. It will also get a lot of use. So far I'd say for most people it would be great to buy a Whisper Momma or the likes. For the money and time you probably can't beat it. Portable too!
I started researching and found the subject of forge building to be a lot of fun. I could care less about building grinders or fixtures but this is really enjoyable for me.
My $30 body mini forge works great and with the Atlas burner it was pretty much plug and play. I need to do another video showing how I usually run it with the ends nearly closed off.
Price... hah!
I consider my forge a hot rod though. It has a real forge blower and is made to last a lifetime besides changing out the lining. Add up everything you need for a decent blown forge and it is not cheap if you have to buy everything. On the other hand if you really look around you can build something very nice for a decent budget. I found that my small forge is actually really big too... no need to build something huge unless you just really want to go that way.
That's cool on the chain mail! I finally gave in and wear 1x glasses for that sort of detail work, an Optivisor is next! It's good to stay busy making stuff and having fun! I think with your schedule a plug and play unit would be nice and save you a lot of time... get right to forging!
