homemade forge.

[syborg]

ive seen a few of these on this wonderfull site and thought id have a go,

i had a chat with my mate who luckily works at a local ats garage and he gave me these beautys.

its an astra front disc and a rear drum off an unknown vehicle,

im thinking of using a small gas bottle with the top chopped off as an ash catcher and welding a tube on about a meter long to supply the air via a hairdryer,

im hoping to heat up some rebar and have a bit of fun with scroll work and other projects.

also fancy making a nice bushcraft knife from some big dull files ive got laying around.
they,ll get heated cherry red, beaten to the rough shape then quenched in oil, then out comes the grinder and discs for some final shaping,

worth a go i think.

what ya reckon?

peace

syborg

 

[Dusty]

looking forward to seein how you go with it, syborg. Always fancied one meself.
(fancy makin a few special blades/tools But don't have the right pile of scrap yet!)

 

[syborg]

well folks...im 99.9% there.

i made the base, the air feed and attempted to weld the 2 cast items together. yes i know u cant weld iron with steel rods. need eutectic rods and all that but thought it was worth a go, and failed,lol basicaly i knocked the centre out of the disc and welded the drum underneath giving a deeper firehole...it fell off during heating so in the end i sat the drum ontop.

i used a holesaw to cut a 30mm hole in the gas bottle after i chopped the top off. welded a 1 1/2 pipe to the bottle for the air feed, attached a hoover with blow function and filled up the drum with charcoal and slung in an old file.

one it was cherry red i quenched it in oil and began fettling to make a start on my new bushknife,

still alot of work to go, ie handle tang and loads of polishing but its a good start.


now sitting down with a pint of homebrewed lager to wash the taste of grinding dust away,lol...
cant beat youngs brewbuddy lager kit in times of financial restraints,


how does it look? the knife i mean? lol

peace

syborg

 

[Pete.]

Nice forge!

I have a couple of fans from a portable air-con unit here. I've been thinking of making a propane-fuelled furnace using one of them.

 

[Dune]

What sort of temperatures are you getting with these. I make telescopes as a hoby and would like to try slumping some glass. It takes a while about 48 hours at 1500c and then you need to beable to control cooling to stop the glass cracking. Youve defo got me thinking about something along these lines...

 

[hareng]

With coke the heat will border a white heat, not quite enough for Damascus.