Major Project Post 1 Forge Design
Hello again,
For my major project I chose to use my return to the hobby of being a blacksmith and document my journey and progress. I started smithing in high school with a friend of mine. Unfortunately then my short attention span got the better of me and I moved on. Ever since then I have often wanted to go back to it. So here I go.
Forging metal into desired shapes requires only 4 things: the metal to shape, something to hit it with, something to hit it on, and something to heat it up with. Fortunately, I already have an anvil and a few hammers laying around and a few pieces of high carbon engine parts that are good scrap to start with. So, the only thing I lack is the heating element.
First, I had to decide whether I wanted to use solid fuel (coal/coke) or gas. For familiarity and maybe a little nostalgia, I chose to go with a coal/coke forge. Additionally, rather than buy it I decided to make it.
I'm using a side blast design with a water cooled tue iron. I got the design idea from this video. The tue iron is where the air supply comes from to feed the fire in the forge. The beauty of a side blast forge is that it is extremely maintainable and allows for precision heating. The tue iron needs to be water cooled because it is very close to the heat and will get so hot that it will melt and become unusable over time. The hull of the forge is being made from an old water tank from a co-worker's basement.
My coworker and I cut it to size and cut out the notches in the sides for the material to slide through.
Afterwards:
For my major project I chose to use my return to the hobby of being a blacksmith and document my journey and progress. I started smithing in high school with a friend of mine. Unfortunately then my short attention span got the better of me and I moved on. Ever since then I have often wanted to go back to it. So here I go.
Forging metal into desired shapes requires only 4 things: the metal to shape, something to hit it with, something to hit it on, and something to heat it up with. Fortunately, I already have an anvil and a few hammers laying around and a few pieces of high carbon engine parts that are good scrap to start with. So, the only thing I lack is the heating element.
First, I had to decide whether I wanted to use solid fuel (coal/coke) or gas. For familiarity and maybe a little nostalgia, I chose to go with a coal/coke forge. Additionally, rather than buy it I decided to make it.
I'm using a side blast design with a water cooled tue iron. I got the design idea from this video. The tue iron is where the air supply comes from to feed the fire in the forge. The beauty of a side blast forge is that it is extremely maintainable and allows for precision heating. The tue iron needs to be water cooled because it is very close to the heat and will get so hot that it will melt and become unusable over time. The hull of the forge is being made from an old water tank from a co-worker's basement.
Afterwards:
After drilling holes for the tue iron I decided it was cold and lit a fire.
Today 3/11/18 we worked on cutting the pieces needed for the tue iron. And practiced our welding that we will need to do when the cutting is done.
Next week we will finish cutting the pieces and assemble them together with the piping for the tue iron.
This is very interesting. I really enjoyed your blog. I've often found myself going back to continue something I didn't finish or something I don't do anymore (usually something good). It is such a good feeling. I wish you the best of luck and look forward to hearing about your journey.
ReplyDeleteYou are doing a great job describing (teaching) us how to build a forge. Looking forward to learning more.
ReplyDelete