Home Built Forge 2.0

I am still very proud of my boys for building the large forge as their summer project. It was the first post I put on this blog. I did however run into an issue with the forge, it's a fuel hog. I figure that if you had 4 or more people all needing a forge at the same time the large forge is awesome but, unless you're working on something big the forge turns out to be too large for just 1 person. So a new project was born, to design and build a smaller more fuel efficient and more versatile forge. I again did some scrounging for materials and came up with what I think is a good design.

So I based my design on the brake drum ideas that are popular online. However I felt that the normal brake drum forges where too shallow so I got 2 matching drums and welded the open ends together. I then cut the top off to make a nice deep fire pot. I used some rebar for handles and supports and tubing for legs and tuyere. I also added an ash dump to this design. 

First thing that you notice is the handles. I made them taller and centered so that I can use a rod, pipe or anything through the handles to remove the lid or place the lid on while the forge is hot without being burnt. You'll also notice the tabs coming down from the lid. These lock into the ridges and keep the lid stable.

I wanted my fire pot to be removable for cleaning or any needed repairs. So to do this I welded small stubs of 1/2 inch rebar to the old rim to match the bolt hole pattern in the bottom of the fire pot. This allows the fire pot to easily be removed but, keeps it study for operation. The fire pot also holds down my diffuser plate. That way if it ever gets damaged it can simply be removed and replaced at a later date without having to rebuild anything.

I added the ring of rebar to act as a handle be able to move the forge when needed, to act as a buffer to help keep anyone from getting burnt and to give me a place to hang s few tools to tend the fire. The ring could also act a s a base for a support if I ever needed to add one.

Here you can see that I made a fairly deep fire pot in order to get some good controlled heats while at the same time attempting to conserve fuel. Both the large forge and this small forge were built with the idea of using wood and charcoal as fuel but, from what I've been told coal or coke could be used as well. I don't know of any coal suppliers near me in the middle of the Arizona desert but, we have lots of mesquite hard wood. I cook with mesquite cuttings all year long and always have some on hand.

I also did some research and found out that the EPA allows you to burn used oil and wood scraps form construction sites to pallets as a fuel source in forges, heaters, boilers, foundries and more. According to the EPA this is allowed, legal and considered recycling because none of it ends up in landfills and since it's considered waste the EPA sees it as using that energy for another purpose with little to no waste product left.

You can see here that I made 2 removable cutouts. I bent some rebar to match the curve of the fire pot to attach to the cutouts. Then I added 2 upright bars connected to the fire pot at an angle so the cutouts could be removed when needed.

My idea here was to be able to remove either side as needed or for longer work I could remove both cutouts in order to heat small sections at a time.

The nice thing about this design is the flexibility. This allows me to use a relatively small forge for many things and since the smaller forge is more fuel efficient I can conserve fuel, which is always a good thing.

Here is a picture with the cutouts removed and the top on. I plan on using this option for anything that needs concentrated heat like the forge welding of pattern steel.

Also I left the bolt and axle holes open in the top. I wanted use the top to get a chimney effect but, not blow all the heat out of the cutout openings.

I also had planned to use the cutouts in place and the top on when I was finished in order to help extinguish the fuel rather that just burn everything out every time.

Just a note on the fire pot. As you can see from this picture I did not try to completely weld the seem of the 2 brake drums. I was afraid that if I did then the weld may crack during a heating or cooling cycle. Once a crack starts it will run the entire length of the entire weld. So by only welding short beads if one cracks I don't have to worry about the entire upper half of the fire pot suddenly coming apart from a  crack that occurred during a heating or cooling cycle. This would be very bad to have happen while the forge was being fired. So I thought it would be a good idea to try and avoid that and not make a continuous weld.

I added an ash dump on this forge. The angle iron that I used wasn't wide enough so I had to add short triangular pieces to each side to make the closer wide enough to seal the bottom of the tuyere pipe. I just used 2 oversized nuts for the hinge point welded to 2 small steel plates to provide enough space for the pivot. I used a nut and bolt or the pivot pin and welded the angle iron to the pivot pin. I lined up the angle iron and the bottom of the tuyere to get a good seal and welded the steel plates to the tuyere.

I also decided to weld on some counter weight to the end of the angle iron to counter act the force of the air coming in through the tuyere. Depending on the force of the air that I need to use I ma have to add a little more counter weight.

Once I use the forge for a little while and I make sure everything is working right I'll give it a coat of black heat resistant paint to clean it up.

I also wanted to say that all of the material I used foe this forge was also scrounged for free so there was no cost for any of these materials.

The only other thing that I may end up doing is to add some clay and sand refractory around the base or the fire pot inside the old rim to help reflect the hat back to the fire pot instead of radiating out. I'll use the forge and test it out first to see if I need to add it or not.

I hope this has helped answer some questions or maybe given you some ideas.