Thanks for checking out my first Instructable!

I had made a forge/smelter recently, but it wasn't terribly easy to only heat up a specific part of the piece I was working on due to it being really tall. Look for that Instructable soon.

I had tried using a metal fire pit as my forge, but didn't want to modify that with an air hole, so it didn't get as hot as I needed. I decided it was time to make a proper forge.

I'm lucky in that I get to play in the school's machine shop whenever I want. I happened across a bunch of free scrap metal from a friend, so I figured this was a perfect opportunity to build my forge.

Step 1: Layout

I had a piece of 1/8th plate that was roughly 24"x24". I decided that I wanted it to be 3" deep to hold a decent amount of coal. I marked off 3" from each side with some soapstone.

Step 2: Cut the "Belly"

I've seen where people would use a brake drum for the middle. I didn't have a brake drum handy, but I did have a section of an air tank that was 9.25" in diameter. I'm not for sure what this part is called in a real forge, but I'm calling it the "belly". I figured that 3" would be a good depth for it.

Step 3: Cut Out the Belly Hole

Once the belly was laid out on the plate, I went to the grinder. I had never tried cutting a circle out of metal with a grinder, but our plasma cutter is out of commission at the moment. I was inspired by Jimmy DiResta for this part. He made a jig for cutting out perfect circles with an angle grinder. I didn't want to spend the time making a jig, so I just went for it. It only took about 10 minutes to cut it out.

Here's Jimmy's video of the jig. If you haven't watched all of his videos, be sure to subscribe to his channel and watch all of them now.

Step 4: Cutting Corners, Scoring Lines, and Bending

After the middle was cut out, I cut out the corners. Then it was time to score the folding lines. I took the piece to the vice first, but because I didn't score it enough I had to move to the brake. I accidentally tried to bent it the opposite way of what I wanted to, so when I tried bending the first fold back the other way it snapped off. The rest of the folds went pretty well, so it was time to weld it up.

Step 5: Welding the Seams

Not much to point out here. Just weld along the seams. It really doesn't need to be welded all the way around like this one. Due to the way pieces were bent, the seam was on the outside, and I didn't trust it too much, so it was welded all around.

Step 6: Air Intake Holes

I decided just to use the belly as the air grate. I just used whatever bit was in the drill press at the time, as I didn't really want to walk to the tool room to get a different size. I'm not for sure how well it will do. I may need to either add some more holes, or plug some up.

Step 7: Air Intake Pipe

I needed a way to get air into the forge. I really didn't feel like cutting and welding some square tube to make the bend. I found a piece of 1.25" diameter round pipe that would work perfectly. I used the pipe bender to get a 90°-ish bend. I thought the pipe was a little small, so I cut a section of 2" and 3" pipe to make somewhat of a funnel shape. The funnel was welded together, then welded to the bottom plate of the belly.

Step 8: Welding the Belly to the Air Intake, Welding Tabs, and Welding Legs

I forgot to take a picture of the belly being welded to the air intake, but you can guess what it looked like.

I wanted the belly to fit flush on the bottom of the forge, so 3 tabs were welded on the top rim of the belly.

I had some long sections of .75" diameter re-bar, and thought they would work perfect for legs. I wanted the forge to be a total of 36" tall, so the legs were cut at 33" long.

Once the legs were welded up, the belly section was fed through the hole.

Step 9: Finished!

The whole build from concept to finished product took about 5 hours. I had a lot of help from a friend who did all the welding. We ran out of 75/25 mix for the MIG, so all we had left was stick. I am terrible at stick welding, so I had him do it all. (I did try a couple welds, and yes, I was terrible at it)

I think I will add a shelf on the bottom and a rod to go around the edges to hold tongs and hammers.

If you have any questions, post them and I'll try to answer all of them.

Thanks for looking and be sure to vote if you like my Instructable!