[TheForge] Easily Portable Smithing Equipment, anyone?

[mlawton38321 at roadrunner.com]

Bruce,

I am interested for my 16 year old son who has chosen blacksmithing as his historical occupation for the Royal Rangers youth program.

Thanks

Mark Lawton
603.651-0432

---- "Bruce ." <freemab222 at gmail.com> wrote: 
> I mentioned my "Lightweight Forge Project" in passing a month or two ago.
The news is that I've finished all the prototypes and NJBA is going to be
holding four or five workshops to fabricate six sets of portable equipment:
 Forge, firepot, hood & flue, anvil stand and vise stand.  (Blower stands
turn out to be almost trivial on the one hand, yet requiring custom work
for each different blower on the other, so no separate workshop will be
held for these.)

The design of this equipment is such that one complete smithy, including a
small tool box, a small slack tub, coal, and an EZ-Up canopy, should fit in
the trunk of my Toyota.  All six sets should fit into the back of an SUV or
pickup truck.  (I've tested these fits in the virtual world, but not yet in
the real world.  I hope to do the Toyota trunk test soon.  All this snow
makes it too sloppy right now.)

The limitation of this equipment is -- you got it! -- lightweight!  It's
intended for demonstrations, not for ordinary shop work.  To whit:

                  *****

* The (HF) anvil is 55 lb and of mediocre quality -- but good enough for
demonstrating the forging 1/2" square stock.  (High-quality anvils in this
weight range are available for six times the price of these!)

* The anvil stand adjusts up and down about 8", which is very nice for
demos but hardly necessary for your own shop.  It could probably safely
hold a 100-lb anvil, but that would defeat the purpose.

* The vise jaws are only 4" or so, and the portable stand limits the torque
you can exert on it, but, again, it will do the job required.  On the plus
side, there will be one per forge.  The vise can be removed from the base,
wheels clamped in the jaws, and the thing moved around like a hand truck.

* The firepot is 1/4" steel -- not what you'd choose for a permanent
installation, but, quite adequate for the purpose.  We have a couple
similar pots that are holding up very well.

* There's nothing flimsy about the forge table, which folds down to 20" x
28" x 3" -- but why use a folding table in a permanent shop?

* Likewise, the hoods nest either with each other or with other parts of
the equipment.  The flue sections also nest.

                  *****

So the reason for this posting is to assess whether there's any interest in
such equipment outside our group.  I've drawn up plans for all the
equipment and have given some thought to publishing it.

Bruce
​ Freeman​

NJ
​BA​
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