Hot Stuff

Forge

I found I needed to be able to anneal, shape & work larger pieces of steel than my simple brick hearth & blowtorch were suited to, so I made a simple forge - similar in principle to the 'Brake Drum Forge'.

For example: This will allow me to re-use old car & truck springs, these are really good quality steel which is hardenable & suited to making some tools from.

My version was made completely of scrap found during roadside rubbish collections.

I put it inside on the bench, just to photograph it - when in use, this is an outdoor item only.

	Disk from a plough/cultivator - it might get a thin refractory lining one day
	Length of 100mm steel pipe
	3 simple feet of steel plate
	Piece of thin plate to block one end of the pipe
	Hair dryer - although originally mains operated, the motor was 12V internally - I removed the diode & the heating element which acted as the ballast resistor - now it is 12V only - If I need more air, I just couple up the exhaust from a vacuum cleaner
	A piece of mesh to minimise coals falling down into the pipe - this bit is consumable & will probably need to be replaced often.

The only part left to make is a curved wind shield, which will be clipped on to one side.