2-day $20-$50 Blacksmithing Forge

A How-To on how to make a small forge

Step 1: The Stuff

Clay- From a potters-shop

Fan- From one of those tacky iflatible palm trees

Metal Chair- I got one from my church

Safety Wire- $5-$10 at hardware shops

Big Speaker- Found an old steel one at my church as well

Quickcrete- $3 on sale

Light Fixture- Got an old one from my chicken coop ($5 new)

Steel Pipe- Found behind my church, probably could be found at a junkyard

Tire Rim- can be found at a junkyard to

A Hack Saw- Every man should have one of these

I think that covers it- on to Step 2

Comments

[Evilblaze]

Wow, nice instructable. What do you think, can I make a foundry to melt titanium with a similar way like this? The titanium melts at 1700 Celsius, it means much more heat needed than in this case (aluminum melting).

The titanium is produced this way: http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-titanium-metal/

[snowluck2345]

no, you would have to seal the titanium in an inert environment or it would combust.

[OldOwlIronworks]

I have worked titanium several times in both coal and propane, in a non-reducing atmosphere. I have never had an issue with combustion. Many smiths can validate this statement

[OldOwlIronworks]

Hmm I don't know if my forge would be capable of producing such temps. of 1700 Celcius (3092 F) nessesary for forging Titanium. It may be able to get the metal red-hot, but probably won't melt it. I am currently working on a new instructable for a different forge that may suit your purposes. Did you actually make Titanium, I saw that article in PopSci-Gray Matter and really wished I could do that. Thanks for the comment! --KatanaKreater

[_Scratch_]

Wow, your church has a lot of junk...

[jjhammerstein]

It's much easier to use a brake drum from a truck for your fire bowl. I found mine on the side of the highway somewhere. It has the same thermal mass qualities, and I'm pretty sure junk car lots are easier to find than pottery supply shops. Cheaper too.

[seabee890]

the blacksmith that was teaching me used the top of a old water heater tank(the inside not the outside, this made a natural cleanout hole at the bottom. I miss the smell of burning coal sometimes.

[OldOwlIronworks]

That is a great idea for a forge, I plan to build a Blacksmiths shop as well as a new forge this summer. And the smell of coal will never get old(:

[seabee890]

my goal is to find a way to create a power hammer without  the weight and space, i was going to use a cherry picker and a jack hammer  set up so that i could custom make the bits but i have not got the space for a shop yet.

[OldOwlIronworks]

Ah that may work, and a good Idea, but where would you get the jackhammer? just wondering. Ive had some thoughtsabout a trip hammer and may even make it traditionally, but with a electric(possibly) motor

[badideasrus]

a possibly more complicated way to do it may be to observe some clock movements. use a pendulum and gear setup to lift and drop a hammer. need big weight on the pendulum tho.....

also, i a blacksmith book i bought, there was an 'un' powered hammer that used ur foot to hammer. maybe i draw a pic, if i can figure out how to upload one. basically, hammer is on an axle. a leaf spring (which was made of wood in the pic) was attached to a chain, rope, ect, looped over a pully and attached to the hammer.

another chain-thing was attached to the axle (or an arm attached to the axle, for more leverage....). the other end of the chain was attached to a foot pedal. hands are free to manover the metal and such, while the foot moved the hammer.

[Demascus]

you use a electric motor, and the spring for a car or truck the gears and stuff are not really needed unless you want to make it a multi speed unit.
you make a cam our of a piece of square steel tubing . can also be made out of a large square piece of wood. the spring with hammer head on the end is held down on the other end and it rests on the square tubing. AS the motor turns the tubing is acts like a cam and raises the piece and lets it fall. Germans had one that used a water wheel and large logs that Ka thunked down with steel heads to pound their steel. I can makes some drawing if anyone needs more visiable information

[n0ukf]

Why would you want thermal mass in your firepot? More thermal mass takes more energy (more coal) to heat. Also, while the wider pot of a truck brake drum would give you more working area for the 'fire', you don't want the pot very deep if you want to heat anything very long (like say, a larger dagger or sword for the blade makers).

I've tried to work with a deep firepot, but to heat the middle of a longer piece, I had to either build the fire way up or bend the piece to get it down into the coals (coke). That's why so many smiths will have a more table type forge with the fire built up more in a pile. There is a firepot below the surface, but it's not that deep.

You can go to Anvilfire to learn more, they're very helpful there.

[Starshock01]

yeah while brake drum forges are nice they have barely enough room to make a decent knife, unless your using a monster truck drum

[jjhammerstein]

I use a monster brake drum. :D

[Demascus]

me too, made 2ft by 3 ft long table out of angle iron and 1/8 inch steel plate for the table bed, cut a hole in it just big enough to allow the brake drum to sit down in it and is held by that little rim on the outside edge all brake drums have. Use a large table fitting about 2inch diam pipe drilled holes in the inside edge of the brake drum (where the tire mounting nuts go.) used clay to pack a little bit around it and then made a 1/2 inch thick plate with holes in that set on the bottom. and I use coal, once it is started I keep adding more til it makes a mole hill in the middle of the forge. You use a watering sprinkler can to wet down the coal and keeps the fire from spreading also makes it coke up in there. I punch a little hole in the side of it and creates a "little cave" that way I can see my stuff and not melt it off. (yes I have done that) with just coal and air the thing gets over 3,000 degrees inside it will burn steel.literally

[OldOwlIronworks]

I got the clay from my uncle for Christmas last year. Where I live pottery clay is about $1-$2 a pound so 3 lbs. isn't hugely expensive. But I agree that car pieces are easier to find.

[Dumchicken]

you mean inflatable

[jakenzi357]

i died.

[geodez]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAq9Y-m8_uk&feature=related

[ichbinoadie]

Slow-curing something like this is VERY important. I might also suggest you put some thick perforated plate or a bar stock grid over the hole. Clinkers will clog that in minutes if you ever managed to fire coal in there. It also looks a bit deep to me. You don't need anything larger than a brake drum for a small-ish forge because without a large series of tuyeres (air holes), only a small area of fuel is getting sufficiently heated, anyway. A metal table built around the brake drum holds extra fuel to be raked in as needed. I'd be curious as to just how hot this thing actually gets. What size bar stock did you heat in that pic? I know from experience that you can get thinner stock well past cherry red in an old Weber kettle grill with commercial charcoal briquettes. Heck, you can smelt with nothing but mud, clay, and bellows. Not easy or efficient, but doable. Hope my commentary was at least mildly constructive. Great to see people actively DIYing blacksmithing/casting type projects. Finally, a disclaimer: My comments are mostly scholarly, not experiential. Hard to play with fire on almost any scale in a rented house with no yard right off a commercial street in a college town. But I've done my homework relatively thoroughly and have spoken with several people quite in the know. Take it or leave it.

[OldOwlIronworks]

thanks for commenting about dangers. I don't have a thermometer that goes over 300 degrees F. the "bar stock" I am not sure as to its size, but it was about as big around as my thumb.

[redhand rik]

what you need for a thermometer is a pyrometer... it's the same thing but a much higher temperature capacity... be careful though, they can damage your wallet . with experience you can guesstimate temp by color. that's what was used throughout history

[badideasrus]

why not get an infrared thermometer. i think i've seen a couple cheap ones somewere....

[Cube Steak]

Ouch.... not nice.... And Isaac, your such a freak Haha....

[pigpenguin]

 this may sound stupid and out of place, but you said in the instructable that you can get a bike rim from a junkyard, how does that work i can't seem to find any help on that....

[OldOwlIronworks]

In the Instructable, I did not mean a bike tire rim, but rather a common vehicle wheel. I got mine from a locale vehicle dealership for free but one may be able to find one for a small fee.

[Roger4Wheel]

He didn't use concrete (sand cement and gravel). He used mortar mix (sand cement and lime). quick-crete, kwick-crete, and others are just BRANDS of concrete type products. If you have a bunch of fire brick (broken or not) from an old chimney or fireplace, you can break then grind it up into a course powder and when mixed with fireplace mortar will make a nice mix to use for forges (not for iron or steel melting)

[petzlglyph]

Fire clay is available from most masonry suppliers it is used for building fireplaces. I should be fired before it dry's out. I just used it to build a melting furnace and had no problems with exploding, just a few small cracks into which I placed more fire clay before the next firing. I used a mixture of two parts 60 grit silica sand and one part fire clay. The first firing needs to be a long one to cure the fire clay. I filled it with charcoal ( Bar-B-Que type ), light the charcoal and let burn till all of it is ignited ( lots of steam will form ). Then turn on the blower ( low if possible ) until all of the charcoal is consumed. then cover the top with a ( dry ) stepping stone or something non combustable to hold in the heat until it cools on it's own. The charcoal produces nasty fumes do this outside. Great Instructable, I like your use of available resources!

[Diverguy83]

i dont know about using concrete cause that crap explodes when heated to high temps ... i just went to the pottery shop and got some fireclay for pretty cheap plus i use a brake drum and i havent had any problems making knives with it.

[skaar]

if you look at the diy foundry sites, you'll find that a mix of cement and vermiculite works well as a refractory, so it, can't be too bad to use cement. i think maybe it's the rocks in concrete that crack, but there's no rocks in the clay/cement mix.

[OldOwlIronworks]

Great. I couldn't find fireclay for a reasonable price or anywhere near me. How much did you pay for yours? And concrete is a little unsafe when first exposed to the heat, so if making a forge from quick-krete/clay use precaution when first using. And also, my forge isn't waterproof, so don't let it sit in the rain.

[grimcat27]

you can use kitty litter but it has to be crushed up first. It will not work whole an old blender and some window screen works well and oh yeah some time and Patience too. (maybe an hour or two to get a few LBS )

[seabee890]

!WARNING! USE THE BLENDER IDEA ONLY IF YOU WANT THE MISSUS TO DRAG YOU TO THE LOCAL APPLIANCE STORE BECAUSE SHE CAUGHT YOU USING THE BLENDER TO GRIND UP KITTY LITTER>>>> It was an old blender but I still felt like a kid getting caught playing with matches.

[Diverguy83]

no i keep mine in the garage but as far as the fireclay goes i just looked up a rinker materials plant and picked up a 50 pound bag for about 23 bucks after taxes.

[Thundertydus]

Damn, I Died.. If i could sue you... Hmmm..

[trf]

i used refractory cement...proably the most durable thing there is for a forge. Put some in a wheelbarrow and add water till u get the consistency you want. I kept mine stiff. I just globbed it in there and smoothed it out. If youd like to see my forge, visit http://www.instructables.com/id/How_To_Make_A_Bladesmiths_Forge/ .
I will be adding more pictures of usage and such in the coming days on my next project.

[ebothwell1]

This will work, but I would add a few more safety and performance caveats.

1. Concrete is not refractory. It will fail eventually; quite possibly not at a good time. Be certain to allow a bunch of old coal to be between the fire and the concrete to try and keep it from over heating.

2. The rocks in the concrete may not be the right type; this is especially a risk with quickcrete. Some rocks explode when heated. Not usual, but possible. Best to use a cement which is heavy on sand rather than rocks

3. Yes, as ichbinoadie notes, the concrete must be completely cured before using the forge. Otherwise it will steam, and possibly pop or explode.

4. jjhammerstein et al note a break drum forge is an good option for a home made forge. It is designed for a higher temp tolerance than concrete.

Remember, things that unexpectedly go boom are bad...

[OldOwlIronworks]

Yes, very unsafe but don't be stupid.

[n0ukf]

One reason rocks explode in fire is because of trapped moisture becoming steam. I've seen rocks from the lake shore explode when used to ring a fire due to the steam pressure. Before you start forging with a lined firepot, you'll want to make sure the lining is fully dry. The thicker it is, the longer it needs to dry. Just because concrete or furnace cement is hard, doesn't mean it's dry yet.