My two boys Jason and Charles invited their friend Jordan over to help with the project. I want to say that I'm proud of the three boys, they did the majority of the work.
We started out looking for materials to build the forge out of so we didn't have to spend any money. We found a steel drum, rebar and galvanized steel fence posts to use.
We split the steel drum down it's length. Charles got the fun job of
cleaning out all the dried paint out of the drum.
We then welded the two
open ends of the drum together to form the trough of the forge.
After welding the trough together we cut some of the tubing to make a frame and started welding the frame and trough together.
Here's Jordan welding up the frame to the trough. This was Jordan's first welding experience and he got right in there eager to learn and do it. He did pretty good.
The next step was to measure and cut the angle on the ends of the legs so we could attach them to the side of the frame and trough.
Here we're setting the legs in place and tack welding them. After I tack welded the legs in place I let the boys finish up the welding.
The boys really did most of the cutting and welding. I only supervised, taught, explained and fixed a few things. They did almost all of the work.
We cut and welded some smaller pieces of pipe to act as supports from the frame to the legs. We also cut and welded rebar across as a brace between the legs. Finally we cut the legs down.
Here is the forge for the first time standing on it's legs. After we stood it up for the first time we cut, ground down and filed the edge of the trough so that it was fairly level and not sharp.
Next was to add the tuyere. Ya I know, you asking what the heck is a tuyere? Basically a tuyere is the air pipe that you attach to a bellows, fan or other forced air source.
The forced air is what increases the heat of the coals in order to get metal to the desired temperature. The more air the higher the temperature.
Also you'll notice that one end of the tuyere extends away from the forge. This is for the connection to the forced air source. The other end will just have a removable cap so that it could be use as a clean out if needed.
So now that the tuyere was welded in place we need to come up with something to use as a diffuser. The job of the diffuser is to distribute the forced air evenly so all of the coals are heated the same at the same time producing even heat through the forge.
We had some very hard steel posts with holes in them all the way down the front. The posts reminded of street sign posts with holes to bolt the signs through.
We cut them to length and then set them at an angle so there was an opening in the center and the holes were pointed to the sides. I welded only about one inch every six inches or so. This was to allow the center slot to stay open for air down the center.
So now that we have our diffuser done our next step is to place the forge out in the open away from anything flammable. We cleared everything so we were down the dirt, and here in Arizona we have a lot of dirt! Now that it's in a safe place to use it we can move on to the refractory.
Ok what is the refractory and why are using it? The refractory is a substance used to reflect the heat back towards the coals. This helps to concentrate the heat towards the center of the forge where the metal is placed. The refractory also helps to protect the metal barrel and frame from over heating during use.
Since we do have so much dirt here in Arizona and the clay content is so high we used the dirt for our refractory. We also went to a local wash (dried stream bed) to collect sand to use in the refractory mix.
We used a screen to sift out any rocks, organic matter or anything other than fine clay particles and fine sand.
We mixed the refractory and applied it in layers.
For the first layer we mixed two parts sand to one part clay. Only enough water was added to make the mix stiff and sticky.
We let the base refractory layer dry in the 110 degree weather so it didn't take too long.
We the places a small amount of charcoal down the center on top of the diffuser. I wanted to dry the refractory a little faster and find the cracks caused by the heat early so they could be filled before the second layer is put on.
The first firing lasted for about an hour. When it was done several cracks had appeared but, overall the refractory stayed intact and worked very well.
We waited until the next day and cleaned out all of the ashes. We then made another mix of the refractory.
This time however the mix was made one part sifted sand to one part sifted clay. The refractory mix was also mixed a little wetter than the first batch so that it could be pressed into all of the cracks.
A wetter mix is stickier and adheres to to the first layer better.
We applied the second layer to make sure there was enough thickness to make to refractory even and effective.
We'll have to wait until tomorrow to check for cracks and begin to fire cure the refractory.
We did also spend some time building a box to house a a recycled vacuum impeller and motor. Unfortunately the motor bearings self destructed after it ran for about 10 minutes. So we had to scrap that part of the project.
Our current backup forced air supply is to use the exhaust port from a shop vac. We've tested it and it seems to work well enough.
Tomorrow we'll check for cracks and fill anything that have shown up and maybe begin to fire cure the refractory.
I'm proud of Jason, Charles and Jordan for all of their hard work.
