Forge
I've made a couple of coal forges. Take a rear brake drum and weld up a
tuyere out of an iron pipe Tee screwed into a floor flange that bolts to the
center bottom of the brake drum. Make a circle of steel, about 1/8" that
sandwiches between the two and drill about a dozen 1/4" holes in that.
Connect your blower to the input pipe of the tuyere. Can be hand crank blower
or an auto heater blower, etc. Put a wastegate on the blower output.
Get some ball clay from a ceramics shop to use as a refractory, and mix a
bunch of that with sawdust, about 70:30. Coat the inside of the drum, maybe
1" thick in the corners, fading to 1/2" at the top flange and the center
where the air comes up. Use *just* enough water to make the clay/sawdust mix
stick together, not one bit more.
Let the refractory dry well before building a fire. Make your first fire
rather cool, just enough coal to give an inch on the bottom and rounded up
the sides. Start it with kerosene soaked kindling and little air. Keep the
air blowing just hard enough to get a good heat. Keep adding coal to the
center to give some resistance to the air while the fire burns to the
outside. When it is all consumed, let the fire die and the refractory cool.
Now you can build as big a fire as you want. This forge will weld 2 bars
1"X1.5" with no problem.
Lots of info on the net about gas forges, which are not as much fun, nor do
they smell as good :-)
Cehers/Carron
tuyere out of an iron pipe Tee screwed into a floor flange that bolts to the
center bottom of the brake drum. Make a circle of steel, about 1/8" that
sandwiches between the two and drill about a dozen 1/4" holes in that.
Connect your blower to the input pipe of the tuyere. Can be hand crank blower
or an auto heater blower, etc. Put a wastegate on the blower output.
Get some ball clay from a ceramics shop to use as a refractory, and mix a
bunch of that with sawdust, about 70:30. Coat the inside of the drum, maybe
1" thick in the corners, fading to 1/2" at the top flange and the center
where the air comes up. Use *just* enough water to make the clay/sawdust mix
stick together, not one bit more.
Let the refractory dry well before building a fire. Make your first fire
rather cool, just enough coal to give an inch on the bottom and rounded up
the sides. Start it with kerosene soaked kindling and little air. Keep the
air blowing just hard enough to get a good heat. Keep adding coal to the
center to give some resistance to the air while the fire burns to the
outside. When it is all consumed, let the fire die and the refractory cool.
Now you can build as big a fire as you want. This forge will weld 2 bars
1"X1.5" with no problem.
Lots of info on the net about gas forges, which are not as much fun, nor do
they smell as good :-)
Cehers/Carron