Anyone built a forge?

[Jackfre]

My daughter picked up a 98# Hay Budden anvil for me for fathers day, so I guess it is time to get onto the forge part of the equation. Any suggestions or ideas would be much appreciated.

 

[Thumper68]

I built a coal forge last year, I did a video series on the build, link to my youtube channel in my sig.

 

[jakemac]

Tip : don't use cement where the fire will be. Use fire clay and fire bricks.
At the heat levels you'll be operating, cement and brick will break down faster.
They're fine for the structure that won't be near the flue though.

You could build a propane furnace, but I haven't done it, so I can't help there.

 

[deberly12]

Check out this one built for almost nothing by Chucke2009

What type of use are you looking for.
(Recreation, light modification, or full blacksmithing)

Sent from my XT1635-01 using Tapatalk

 

[dogdog]

I am still planning / collecting stage.. only build one Ron Reil burner so far.. and made one batch of the sodium silicates and few bags of perlite as insulator...(or you can use kale wool aka ceramic fiber), firebricks ... collected 0 crucible..... I guess for a forge you don't needed it... Share some pics if you are building it... still interested, just in the back burner.

I think the Ron Reil burner design is the most popular, and easiest to build... I used .025 mig welding tip 1/4 pipes 2" to 3/4 bell shape reducer and a needle valve regulator.

https://www.abana.org/ronreil/design1.shtml

If you are looking for electric oven build there is a guy here that made a post about 2 or 3 years ago.... made that out of fire bricks and an industrial temp controller and hand wound nickle chromium wires . I forgot the post, don't think have seen him post anything lately........

If you are looking for a home build coal forge, I think the kingoframdom have one that is out of a 5 gallon metal bucket and sodium silicate and perlite, he later upgrade it to use kale wool and ron reil style propane burner.

Few here I think also made the forge out of some HF portable air tanks (the steel ones) and propane burner...

and there are Induction Heaters if you have the $$$.... needs a 240V 50 amp breaker

 

[great white tj]

This is a cheep coal forge, I have less than $60.00 in this for the pipe. Get your self a old grill for the table, a rotor 3" to 4" deep, some """Black"" 2" pipe a 2" floor flange and a hair dryer and some coal. And have fun...

 

[Firebrick43]

I built a lp fired forge using an 8 gallon portable air tank. Cut the end off and added hinges so the end is now a door, added a port in the door to stick work in and added 4 ports for burners. I used the side arm burners from the Ron reil page. If you make one of these burners the most important thing is the taper in the burner flare. You lose a lot of efficientcy and heat by deviating from the set design of the end flare and I recommend buying ss premade ones and building everything else.

I used kawool for the insulation and firebrick for the floor to resist the fluxes some what.

It has been so powerful I have never turned on the last burner and only run the other about half throttle. It is more powerful and fuel efficient than any of my buddies commercially made farrier type forges. Ron reils designs are really good

 

[great white tj]

The bottom of the fire pot

 

[great white tj]

Here is a nice stand for your HB.

 

[M_George]

You might also consider a gas forge. Their not vary good for doing a forge weld but great for general work. Just light it and go right to work. I have both but use the gas forge 90% of the time. I have the Majestic Forge shown in the link:
http://www.majesticforge.com/product/2-burner-artist-deluxe/

 

[jallyn]

I make propane forge burners. They put out 150,000 BTU/hr when supplied with 30 PSI propane. I typically run them on 20 PSI or less, but more power is available. They have a choke for fine tuning the air/fuel ratio and optimum flame color & temperature.

Here is a basic 8" tubing forge. My FIL has two of my burners on a forge he fashioned from an old grill lined with refractory materials. Using a ball valve he can run it with one burner or both. He cut his teeth on coal forges but the propane is so much more convenient.

Message me if you are interested.

 

[great white tj]

You might also consider a gas forge. Their not vary good for doing a forge weld but great for general work. Just light it and go right to work. I have both but use the gas forge 90% of the time. I have the Majestic Forge shown in the link:
http://www.majesticforge.com/product/2-burner-artist-deluxe/

Gas is going to be my next tool for the shop. I don't do much hammering on the anvil do to my back, I make a lot of pull handles for barns here in Ocala. I can get buy with a single burner but I think this is like a welder.... get a little bigger unit then what I need.

 

[M_George]

I use a Uri Hofi style ergonomic hammer. This should help you with your back pain. You can watch his You Tube video

I have this set and they have worked well for me.
https://www.blacksmithsdepot.com/czech-style-hammers.html

 

[M_George]

Gas is going to be my next tool for the shop. I don't do much hammering on the anvil do to my back, I make a lot of pull handles for barns here in Ocala. I can get buy with a single burner but I think this is like a welder.... get a little bigger unit then what I need.

Your handles look great!!

 

[great white tj]

I use a Uri Hofi style ergonomic hammer. This should help you with your back pain. You can watch his You Tube video

I have this set and they have worked well for me.
https://www.blacksmithsdepot.com/czech-style-hammers.html

Thanks for the info..

 

[jumbojak]

Look up Charles Stevens JBOD forge. It's about as simple as you can get and works very well. Just a box of dirt.

 

[Jackfre]

While I would prefer to build a coal unit, it is dry dry dry here in the foothills and I don't want to be the one who unleashes that stray spark. Also, I'm a gas guy in business and can handle anything along that line. Jallyn, I'll drop you a line.

 

[makgreens]

I use coal and propane. I can give you a run through on how to build both easily. I normally use coal because that’s what I learned on in my apprenticeship.

 

[tym]

Oldironfarmer built a forge recently; he has a mega-thread in the Garage Gallery section.