Forge Table Construction

Hello again!

Two weeks ago I managed to go down to Coffs Harbour and order $1,200 worth of steel of various shapes and sizes. I won't go into all the details as to why I was so satisfied with the company I chose other to say that they were cheaper and more generous with their prices and help than anticipated. I had set a budget of $1,500 and despite my best efforts in spending it I walked away with much more material at a much cheaper price. As it turns out the sales person had other motives for keeping me happy. He had an idea that he needed a blacksmith for and asked if I could help. I provided him with a business card and told him to call me in a months time ( I had to make sure the forge was up and running). With the extra funds in the kitty I went to Gas Weld and bought a blower and a huge industrial bench grinder. Slightly over budget by $160 but a very satisfying buying day. All of the material bought was delivered the next day but unfortunately I could no appreciate its arrival as I was down again at Coff taking part in two courses.

So with material now in hand, I set to work to shifting the stuff in the forge around so that I would be able to construct some form of rack system where I could store the six metre long round bar, square bar, flat bar and stainless etc... first obstacle.. my shed is 6m x 9m and the wall I stored the material against is the 6m long one. That is 6m on the external part of the shed which meant that all the material was mere millimetres too long. Grrrrr to say the least! but with a little persuasion all worked out fine. So material safely stored out of the weather and getting used to using the arc welder again, I was making good progress!

The next thing to do was to work on the forge table itself, needless to say a more daunting yet exciting task. The table I had already created a while ago all that was missing was the pipe work, valve system, fire well, ash release and air flow. Sounds easy lol well using the 75mm diametre pipe I cut and welded the T joint needed as shown in the image below.

I then worked on the ash release and welded that into place.

Next was the more fiddly butterfly valve. After a few goes at getting the valve in place and secured that too was complete.

It was time to cut and weld the fire well. Knowing fully that the material being used was only 1mm mild steel I had to thicken the well up so that the heat of the forge would not burn through. Part of this thickening idea I utilised a part of an old BBQ grill. Completely unaware of how successful this would turn out to be I reenforced the side walls of the fire well with some scrap offcuts.

Now everything was welded, bolted together and all that was needed was the air. I found the exhaust pipe for the clothes dryer that we are not using and with a bit of tweaking fit everything together. I plugged in the blower and to my delight the butterfly valve worked a treat! The big test was to come though. I filled the forge table with coke, made a little timber pile in the fire well and set the thing on fire... the following photos show the growing fire under the coke with the assistance from the air passing through the recently welded pipes.

As you can see in the bottom part of those pictures I was using vice grips to manipulate the butterfly valve deep inside the forge table. I needed to make a handle for that. As the fire was burning well and the forced air was super heating the fire I dedcided to try it out. I found a piece of carbon steel that I had previously tried to heat using the oxy accetelene kit. I gave up as the material was too thick and I could only manage a localised heat. Not good when wanting to forge it into a handle. Submerged under the hot coke it only took a few moments for the metal to achieve a workable temperature. Massive smile on my face I can tell you!! The following pics are showing the heated shaped and punched handle. Too easy!

Well thats it again for this time I hope you enjoyed my brief account on how I managed to get my shed both forge and storage ready. Tomorrow I start with the construction of the exhaust system as it did get rather smokey in the forge when ignighting the coke. I shall photo document the found materials I plan to use to construct the hood. Very interesting I assure you.

Till then,

Cheers, Wombat