[TheForge] Re: Coal, Propane, or charcoal

[Saint Phlip]

Might be. Also, you might be having an awful lot of space to heat.
Whatever your fuel, you only have so many btus to work with, and if
they're busy trying to keep the forge warm, they aren't putting the
heat where you need it.

Suggest that you might want to build your own forge. You can do that
using off-the-shelf parts pretty cheaply and quickly. Start with a
brake drum with a 2 inch or so center hole, a flange, a 6" nipple, a T
fitting, 2 more 6" nipples on the other sections of the T, and you can
build a very simple gravity ash dump out of a round piece of sheet or
plate metal, a piece of angle iron, and a pin/rivet. Use one of those
cast iron shower grates for your grate, and using charcoal, you don't
need a clinker breaker. You can set the whole thing down in a table
you make, or make a stand for it, of disguise it in an old gas grill,
depending on your preference. Shouldn't cost you more than $50. Just
make sure the interior diameter of your nipples and piping is 2
inches, so you get plenty of air flow. You can even make it shallower
if you want, by lining it with castable refactory or clay.

On Thu, Sep 11, 2008 at 3:45 AM, robert hensarling
<rhrocker at hilconet.com> wrote:
> Humm...I wonder if that's some of my problem?  I have an old forge with
> cement lining.  The firepot is 6 inches from the top of the castable, to the
> clinker breaker, pretty deep.  I normally use coal.  So far it hasn't been a
> big problem, but it doesn't seem to get as hot as I'd like>


-- 
Saint Phlip

Heat it up
Hit it hard
Repent as necessary.

Priorities:

It's the smith who makes the tools, not the tools which make the smith.

.I never wanted to see anybody die, but there are a few obituary
notices I have read with pleasure. -Clarence Darrow