# Homemade forge



## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Have had a few uses for this, today was getting a broken stub shaft out that a walking tandem pivots on. Tried numerous times in the field to get this apart, even had three torches with rosebuds and still couldn't get enough heat. ******* forge did it with no problems today.

Bottom third of a 55 gallon drum, originally just had the slots cut in bottom with the thought a natural draft would be hot enough, it wasn't. Added the piece of pipe with three 3/32nd holes drilled in it, hook the air hose to it and run a few pounds of pressure. Set the drum on several bricks, then use more bricks on the inside to limit the amount of charcoal it takes.



Bricks and charcoal with the rock shaft assembly about to be lowered in. Usually dump one small bag of charcoal in, light that then after it's taken off add more.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

As the charcoal burns down just keep adding more to the top, usually keeping about 6-8 inches of coals under the piece creates the most heat.










Broken piece finally out, 2 1/2" shaft, 3/8" wall tube it's in. Takes a lot of heat to get that much mass red hot all the way thru. Was rusted together enough with the torches the inner shaft absorbed most of the heat even though we were just heating the socket it slid into. Heated it for a couple hours yesterday then let it completely cool, reheated today and it popped right out with a inch driver and a 3 lb maul.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Good picture of just how hot regular old charcoal can get with a little o2 added. Starting don't even have enough pressure to make a 0-120 pound gauge read, pressure will have to be turned up a little as you go so the ash doesn't block the holes in the barrel. Was maybe running 3-4lbs after burning up five 8 pound bags of charcoal. Too much air though doesn't make it much hotter, but you can almost watch the level of the charcoal drop.


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## Lostin55 (Sep 21, 2013)

I like it.


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## hog987 (Apr 5, 2011)

back when I was smelting some gold and just had wood for fuel. I would burn a log till it had all the coals in the bottom of the fire and than I would get the shop vac and put the hose on the outlet and blow air into the fire. Worked alright. The only problem was all the gold in the rocks on the rented land was not worth the time and effort to bother with. Several hours work for a speck or two of gold. But still fun to play with fire.


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## ARD Farm (Jul 12, 2012)

You are pretty creative. I really liked and read about the oil burner you posted. I'm gonna get one but the 'Mama Burn' for the shop. My LP bill kills me every winter and I have lots of used oil

Probably could have popped that in my shop. I have a 70 ton hydraulic arbor press for shoving broaches. I believe it would have done the job. I can bend railroad track, no problem.

I was always under the impression that a forge used coke and not charcoal but whatever works and it works.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

If I ever had enough use for it I'd probably mortar in some fire brick then head over to amish country and buy some proper coal for it.

Thought about using our press as well, but it's under the lean to part of the shop and wouldn't have enough ceiling height to get the assembly in there standing on end. Think it's twelve foot wide. Not sure what the welding shops in town is, can't remember if it's a 7 or 8" cylinder on it, but same problem there, not enough ceiling height and its too big to move out in the open.

If the forge didn't work last alternative was to wash the welds out on the socket, place it in the press then weld it back on, really really didn't want to do that as if it was the least bit off on either axis when welding it back on then it would be pretty hard on tires when roading it.


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## PaMike (Dec 7, 2013)

Leaf blower works good too. I did just about the same thing with a pipe hooked up to the leaf blower and used all the fines and bark from the wood splitting. It worked really well till I couldnt find the pipe so I just set the leaf blower near the barrel. Left it unattended and when I came back the blower was a pile of melted plastic...


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## deadmoose (Oct 30, 2011)

mlappin said:


> If I ever had enough use for it I'd probably mortar in some fire brick then head over to amish country and buy some proper coal for it.
> 
> Thought about using our press as well, but it's under the lean to part of the shop and wouldn't have enough ceiling height to get the assembly in there standing on end. Think it's twelve foot wide. Not sure what the welding shops in town is, can't remember if it's a 7 or 8" cylinder on it, but same problem there, not enough ceiling height and its too big to move out in the open.
> 
> If the forge didn't work last alternative was to wash the welds out on the socket, place it in the press then weld it back on, really really didn't want to do that as if it was the least bit off on either axis when welding it back on then it would be pretty hard on tires when roading it.


Is bagged coal not readily available? Local stove ahop sells coal stoves along with pellet and wood. Sell coal in a bag just like wood pellets.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Have never seen bagged coal around here, if it was most likely over in amish land.


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## ARD Farm (Jul 12, 2012)

mlappin said:


> If I ever had enough use for it I'd probably mortar in some fire brick then head over to amish country and buy some proper coal for it.
> 
> Thought about using our press as well, but it's under the lean to part of the shop and wouldn't have enough ceiling height to get the assembly in there standing on end. Think it's twelve foot wide. Not sure what the welding shops in town is, can't remember if it's a 7 or 8" cylinder on it, but same problem there, not enough ceiling height and its too big to move out in the open.
> 
> If the forge didn't work last alternative was to wash the welds out on the socket, place it in the press then weld it back on, really really didn't want to do that as if it was the least bit off on either axis when welding it back on then it would be pretty hard on tires when roading it.


Hoosiers all seem pretty resourceful..... If I didn't own ground here in Michigan, I'd be a Hoosier myself. I like Indiana.


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