[TheForge] Easily Portable Smithing Equipment, anyone?

[Peter Fels & Phoebe Palmer]

There’s material on the subject on anvilfire.com and probably on iforgeiron.com too.

On Mar 5, 2015, at 11:22 AM, Richardson, Grover <Grover.Richardson at gtri.gatech.edu> wrote:

I use a 12" long 10" diameter piece of air conditioning pipe lined with kaowool, 8 pound.  Place it on a welded v about 2" above a metal table and it will work all day long.  I do all my demos and home work with this forge.  I can supply more details if you wish.

-----Original Message-----
From: TheForge [mailto:theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of mlawton38321 at roadrunner.com
Sent: Thursday, March 05, 2015 11:27 AM
To: Blacksmithing List Sponsored by ABANA
Subject: Re: [TheForge] Easily Portable Smithing Equipment, anyone?

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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