[TheForge] Hiya, time to get poundin...

[Dave Belfer-Shevett]

Heya folks, fall hath returned, I'm working with Ken again up in Derry,
and I actually have 2 commissions in my lap - one for some S-hangers for
plants, the other for a boot drying rack for someone at work.

I don't have a gas forge at home - this summer was -very- bad employment
wise, so I have almost no budget to work with.  Ken supplied me with 25-30
fire bricks, so I have enough to line a working firepit, and I've
appropriated a MONSTER anvil (probably 250lbs) which, though it has a
rough surface, ain't goin nowhere.

I'm building a cinderblock/firebrick coal forge to work in, and I'm
looking for some design suggestions.  This is currently being built far
away from teh house, in some open space.

Unfortunatley, I'm a sentimentalist.  Though I'm using cinderblock and
firebrick, I'm loathe to run power out, but I shall for the blower
initially.  I suspect a roof will go over this area in the not too distant
future.

At any rate, I'd love some designs for cinder block (or raw rock, sure as
shoot we have enough of it around here) freestanding coal forges.  I found
a link to a PDF via google, but the target site is down.  I'll need
something that has a side-draw, and doesn't require 15' of chimney above
it.  I plan on working basically simple low-carbon steel in it - wrought
iron stuff.  Working hotpoint should be about 8" wide and 14" deep.  I can
just move a brick to get a poke-through area (though, thinking about it, I
can probable rework the firebox so i can work pieces through it sideways).

Suggestions?  I'm sort of stumped how to hook up the blower and how to
build a decent chimney arrangement.

Next weekend's project: mounting the anvil (HEY!  get that smile off your
face!) and finding a nice whiskey barrel for water.  Not to mention
getting a new hammer.  Whee!  Then its POUNDIN TIME!

	-dbs

------------------.--------.
Dave Belfer-Shevett\ KB1FWR \
www.homeport.org    >--------`------------------------------------
shevett@pobox.com  / "The soul is born old, but grows young. That \
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