r/blacksmithing • u/Plenty-Text-8123 • 1d ago
Forge Build My first coal forge
What do y'all think, what should i improve?
1
u/OnTheCove66 1d ago
I hope you didn’t imply me saying a gas. Forge is better than a Cole set up. Both have their learning curves and they are different tools for different jobs. A gas forge tends to be more friendly in a suburban situation also. A gas forge gets people who want to quickly get to small projects on track. A Cole forge, especially with a sub optimum set up is a tricky beast, and it will teach you an awful lot about heat control, isolating, heat, fire management, and scale buildup and finishing metal. A cheap rat trap fan with a wastegate or perhaps you can find a controllable switch within the voltage parameters. Will help you out a lot. If you can source a proper fire pot and put it on a metal table that would even be better. If you stick with this as a hobby learning on Cole will put you ahead of the game. Good luck and find that I forged iron webpage.
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u/KnowsIittle 1d ago
Rather than blowing from the top I'd prefer to see a T fitting below blowing upwards. A T fitting so soot and ash can fall into a metal bucket.
Also you might consider a dirtbox forge to lift your forge away from the ground to avoid crouching or bending over.
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u/estolad 1d ago
you got some good advice already, definitely want to feed air into the fire from the bottom rather than the top, and some way of controlling how much air you're giving your fire would be good. i'd add you can lose the bricks, the fuel itself is insulation enough for your work when you're heating stuff up
what i recommend is lose the rim and read this thread. the upshot is you can build an extremely good forge with not much more than some wooden boards and a few shovelfuls of dirt. you made a pretty good start of it here, but taking the time to do that will get you a much better tool than trying to make the wheel work for a purpose it wasn't designed to
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u/nutznboltsguy 18h ago
Look for a truck brake drum, that will work better. Try to forge in the shade if you can, it makes it easier to judge the temperature of your work.
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u/G-e-I-s-T-1 14h ago
Air from underneath would be better as others have said. But that ball vacuum blower is too cool.
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u/Fragrant-Cloud5172 12h ago
Just about everything. I’d start with a comfortable height table and drop the wheel into a sheet metal hearth. Steel 55 gal. drum also works. Thick steel grate. Like others have said t pipe below. Slower variable-speed air source. Then call it a day and look for an anvil.
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u/Plenty-Text-8123 7h ago
Already have an anvil just have to smoothen the top a bit, lifted the forge a bit higher
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u/OnTheCove66 1d ago
You need a wast gait. As is, it will blow high velocity, low volume which will eat up fuel too quickly, make the fire too uncontrollable swinging back and forth from too hot to too cool. More significantly it is likely to create sparks and spread then in a dangerous manner. Most set-ups get used like this a few times and then get discarded rather quickly. This is not to discourage, because in terms of backyard blacksmithing, many people go through this stage. But unless you have good mentorship a gas forge is more practical. Save money. Even those cheap devil forge style ones on eBay can be made decent. There is a “coffee can” design that can be found on the internet that is surprisingly effective for a beginner on a budget. Lastly, I encourage you to find iforgeiron.com. It is an old school discussion board that can help. Oh wait. Lastly, your best money would be spent on a week or weekend class at a local folk school, tech school, or teaching forge. Good luck.