A flower pot forge....

[Hogan Baker]

Hi,

I have been looking for a cheap easy way to build a forge. Today I had an idea, why not use a flower pot? I took a clay pot ( about 4 inches deep and 14 inches across), a tin can, an old piece of sink drain, and a hairdryer. The whole set up cost me $1.00 for the hairdryer.

 

I started out by cutting up the can in order to use it as a grate type thing, the thingy at the bottom of the forge, to let air in but not let coals out. I put that in the pot, attached the pipe to the bottom of the pot (the air goes through the little drainage hole in the bottom of the pot). Next i attached the hairdryer to the pipe. I was than finished with my "forge".

 

I filled the pot up with about 2 pounds of charcoal, put a couple of drops of gas on it, and lit it. It worked like a charm! I was able to get a piece of steel to non magnetic in a matter of minutes. After it had been in there for about 5 minutes it started to burn !

 

I will confess that i don't know very much about forges. I don't know if that was a good time in heating up the metal. Was it? When the pot started to cool down though, it started to crack. Big enough cracks to make me think that the forge would sell destruct after a few uses. Is there any way to keep the pot from splitting? I am sorry if flower pot forges have already been covered, but i didn't see one....

 

~Hogan

[Jared Stier]

you could bury it in the ground with sand around it, that might help it from cracking

[Tony Coiro]

A few years ago, a friend of mine bet me I could not build a forge. I did it, joined this forum and it's been all downhill from there. Consider yourself warned. The "first" one I made was similar to yours, used a hairdryer and cinder blocks. Don't use cinder blocks, they explode, don't ask me how I know. I guess you could forge wearing Kevlar, but firebrick is cheaper. I bought 6 firebricks, I think it was less than $10, certainly under $20. Two bricks per side, two on the bottom with about 2-3 inches of space between them. Over this was a piece of sheet metal, 1/8th inch thick would be idea, I think mine used 1/16th because I bent it without having blacksmith forearms. (I still don't have blacksmith forearms.) I drilled holes totally at random, you might want to think it out. Make it look like an air hockey table, a smaller area of holes will make the area heated smaller and you will use less charcoal, but this is not always a good idea, especially when you want to heat-treat, so weigh your options. It's a nice setup because you can do longer lengths and heat in sections. I just realized two things a few minutes ago. 1. That explanation barely even made sense to me. 2. I am a huge geek. A few minutes later, problem solved.

 

Mine looked like this. Just a heads up, the firebricks in the 3D model were made from "carpet." I'd avoid firebricks made from that if you can.

 

This was the forge in real life.

 

Like I said, should be in business for less than $20. I upgraded to a unnecessarily large squirrel cage blower for mine, pretty much just blew coals all over. This can be fun for the first few minutes, but quickly loses it's charm. Good luck and welcome to the addiction.

Edited December 8, 2008 by Tony C

[Dee]

its much better to make a forge that will last a while ... rather than just waste time with making temporary ones that crack and split and cause issues ...

you end up spending more time fixing the darn things than you do forging otherwise.

 

ive seen flower pot types forges work before ...

especially when ive helped with really big castings ...

but those were usually lined with ceramic wool ... kaowool and such ...

so the pot didnt have the heat directed onto it so much ..

but even then, we will cracked the vessel most of the time ...

we just used bailing wire and the like to make sure that any problems wouldnt end up with a mass explosion.

 

but ... im contradicting myself ...

i still hold to what i said originally ... make a proper forge if and when possible.

[Hogan Baker]

Tony, thank you very much for taking the time to make the that illustration! Do you still use that forge? Also, how do you know that cinderblocks explode ( )? It looks like a nice easy set-up that doesn't cost to much .

 

Dee, Thank you. But are saying that my "forge" was not a proper set-up (i agree) or are you saying that Tony's forge is not a proper set-up? It does make sense that i should make as good of a one as i can to start out with, but what do you mean by a good one ?

 

Thanks Again

~Hogan

[Dee]

sorry ... ill clear that up.... cause i did actually end up contradicting myself a little ... which im known to do at times.

 

using a flower pot might work .. but its not what i would call a permanent setup.

in fact, depending on what you are doing with it, it can be a kinda dangerous setup.

 

so i would suggest making something that will be safer and produce results that are expected for the next time that you use the forge.

 

the fire brick forge that Tony has plotted out looks fine enough as are many of the designs on this forum.

 

my point was more that if you start wasting time trying to make something serviceable from a flower pot .. you might end up spending more time continually repairing the forge rather than making blades.

 

and we all want to make blades, dont we?

[Hogan Baker]

Yep! I would much rather spend my time making knives than fixing a forge. Thank you for clarifying.

 

~Hogan

[SIXFOOTER]

Locate an old brake drum to use as your forge, it will live a Long time. Make some kind of a Rebar stand for it to save your back instead of working on the ground.

[Tony Coiro]

Haven't used that forge in awhile, I've upgraded to propane, but I know the old one is still in good working condition, even though it's been outside uncovered for over a year. My mind is in "study for finals" mode, but if I remember correctly, cinder blocks explode because they are very porous and tend to hold water. The water heats up and turns to steam, which wants to be about 35 times the volume of water. Pressure and temperature are directly proportional, keep increasing temperature and bad things happen.

[Hogan Baker]

Oh, ok. That makes sense! THX

 

~Hogan

[KPeacock]

SIXFOOTER is right on the money with the brake drum forge. I wanted a forge that was a bit smaller so I made one out of a brake drum and some 6" pipe. I basically used the brake drum as an outer wall and the piper as an innter wall. inbetween them, i filled the space with adobe. I used expanded steel for the bottom of the center section to keep the coals in. For a tuyere I welded a manifold to adapt a 1" pipe into 3ea 1/2" tubes that actually fed the air in under the coals.

 

My drum forge worked great, but at first I had the center pipe too long. so the opening of the center pipe was about 5" high than the drum itself. in order to get metal all the way to the bottom (hottest) coals, one was forced to hold tongs/tools directly over the forge. It didn;t take more than about 5 minutes of running it before I opted to cut down the forge and make everything even.

 

I've got a few 16 gallon drums that i use to support my forges. it doesn't take very long legs to put them right at the height I want them.

[Greg H.]

Locate an old brake drum to use as your forge, it will live a Long time. Make some kind of a Rebar stand for it to save your back instead of working on the ground.

 

Check the local bus maintenance shop - the brake drums off of a bus are big ( close to 18" across and 10"-12" deep ) and heavy ( ~50 lbs ) and built to take abuse. You might even be able to make a small furnace from a couple of them.

[KPeacock]

Greg,

 

Thats a good point. I used the drum off of a 1-ton truck, but there will definately be a difference in size comparing a drum froma Frod Ranger to a bus. A quick stop in to a local heavy vehicle garage should result in a free drum. I've acquired most of my materials and equipment for free this way.

 

I pretty much only use my drum forge for melting down aluminum now. In MN there is no deposit on aluminum cans so they go to waste in the garbage or recycling bin. I certainly down think that I'll make a whole lot of money melting it down and hauling it in, but if I'm out i nthe shop and I've got forges going anyways, I might just as well melt thenm down and collect the metal. perhaps it'll pay for a second hand 100# propane ank in a year or so :-)

[Hogan Baker]

Thank you for all of your advice! I will see what i can do about making a brake drum forge.

 

~Hogan

[Archie Zietman]

Wullo!

Another really easy thing to do is to take a big box and fill it with dirt. Dig a hole and stick a pipe in the bottom for a tuyere. You can adjust the size of your forge to whatever you need. Forges are just glorified holes in the ground with pipes stuck in'em (look at third world country blacksmiths). I used a setup like that for more than a year with a lot of success. It was great for any sort of wood/charcoal/solid biomass. In fact I'm gonna re-build it when I get home.

god luck!

 

be merry!

Archie

[Matthew McKenzie]

Tim Lively is known for a type of forge he used to manufacture and sell. He doesn't sell them anymore, but they're really easy and cheap to make. It's essentially a piece of pipe with a few holes drilled into it fixed in the bottom of a bucket filled with mud. Excepting the Champion blower he has attached to his in his wonderful bladesmithing video, I imagine that if I had to pay for all the materials for this forge brand new, it might cost me about $8. Plus you can just substitute a hair dryer for the blower, which might cost as little as $3. There's a tutorial HERE about how to make one of these forges.

[Hogan Baker]

Thanks for the suggestions guys!

 

Archie- I was hoping for something a little more portable than that.

 

Matthew - WOW that looks easy all right. How would it compare with a brake drum forge? What are the pros and cons of the Tim Lively forge?

 

KPeacock - I found a YouTube video about making the brake drum forge.

He says that he is making a brake drum forge, but he is actually making it out of a brake rotor. One thing about his forge though, shouldn't he put some sort of a screen between the flange and the fire pot? It seems like that with his design, all of the hot coals would fall down the pipe out of the fire pot... Is that basically what you guys mean by a brake drum forge?

 

So which forge would you guys suggest that i make?

Edited December 11, 2008 by hogan

[KPeacock]

"This video is no longer available"

according to youtube.

 

As far as the type of forge to build. charcoal forges can be build VERY innexpensively. I probably spent a total of $40 on my first one. a bit less on the brake drum forge. now I've got a couple of propane forges up and running. and I'm working on a third. I'm pretty sure that there is some sort of correlation between carbon content and opiate effects. This bladesmithing stuff is highly addictive. I've only been tinkering with this for about a month now. and I'm working on building my fifth forge. Each one works a little better than the one before it.

 

What works perfectly for me, might not suit you very well at all. it just takes some expiramenting.

[Greg H.]

Thanks for the suggestions guys!

 

Archie- I was hoping for something a little more portable than that.

 

Matthew - WOW that looks easy all right. How would it compare with a brake drum forge? What are the pros and cons of the Tim Lively forge?

 

KPeacock - I found a YouTube video about making the brake drum forge.

He says that he is making a brake drum forge, but he is actually making it out of a brake rotor. One thing about his forge though, shouldn't he put some sort of a screen between the flange and the fire pot? It seems like that with his design, all of the hot coals would fall down the pipe out of the fire pot... Is that basically what you guys mean by a brake drum forge?

 

So which forge would you guys suggest that i make?

 

Head over to Mother Earth News website, and search 'forge' they had a few articles about making one out of a brake drum, back about the early-mid 70's.

 

I have a electronic copy around computer somewhere, but since it is still under copyright, I can not just post it.

[Matthew McKenzie]

Matthew - WOW that looks easy all right. How would it compare with a brake drum forge? What are the pros and cons of the Tim Lively forge?

 

Like many modern smiths, my first forge was a brake drum. Actually, the big coal forge I still use from time to time (I generally use gas) has two brake drums as firepots. The benefit of a brake drum forge is that it's quick and easy to set up. Weld a piece of pipe and some legs under it and slip in a piece of mesh steel to keep your coal from falling through and you're in business.

 

The Lively forge is not as quick to set up. It requires at least a day for the adobe to dry. Then you have to fire it softly. The adobe will crack and you pack more adobe in, then wait a day. Then fire it softly. After that, it should be fine to run it full-out. The benefit to a Lively forge is that it's designed with bladesmithing in mind. Your tuyere keeps a long horizontal fire going, so your blade can heat evenly (a HUGE help when it comes it for quenching), as opposed to a brake drum, where your fire only comes from one spot. And if you're ever working on a smaller project, you can literally just cork the extra holes in your tuyere to make a smaller fire that burns less of your coal/charcoal. The only real con I see with a Lively forge is that it doesn't have much room for more than one good-sized blade, but this is also true of a brake drum (moreso, actually). A real benefit to the Lively forge is that it teaches you how to make bigger forges, since the design is scalable. If you want a bigger forge, all you have to do is use a longer piece of pipe and something bigger than a washtub (like a 55 gallon drum). The design doesn't change.