The under £30 micro forge

[mick91]

Decided to have a crack at a larger (but still micro) forge after some success with knife making in my coffee can gas forge. Its mainly going to be used for heat hardening but is big enough to accomodate a greater range of items

Fire cement. : £3.99 screwfix
Old golden hen : £15.00 Tesco
Crutch lower. . : found in a skip
Airbed pump : £5.00 Asda? (bought months ago)
Charcoal. : £3.00 Aldi

Once it's cured and fired up I'll post more. But just shows you you don't have to spend huge amounts and I daresay with effort I could have scavened a keg too, but I enjoyed emptying that one enough to warrant the £15!

 

[GGTBod]

Cool, looking forward to seeing it in action

 

[Dannytsg]

I'm looking into building a new small forge for myself so I am interested in seeing this in action

 

[mick91]

Will be dried totally by tomorrow and then fire cured. Having a go at forge welding steel cables for knife blades (twist damascus) but might just get to see it flattening some rebar if that goes belly up!

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[Tom Gold]

Looks good Mick. Like the idea of the footpump - easier than holding the haidrier in other hand I'm guessing! Btw, what is Golden Hen?

 

[mick91]

Looks good Mick. Like the idea of the footpump - easier than holding the haidrier in other hand I'm guessing! Btw, what is Golden Hen?

The airbed pump is electric but have positioned the pipe so it can be flicked on and left. Golden hen is a light golden ale from the makers of speckled hen, it comes in those 11 pint kegs and they're reasonably thick stainless. Lovely drop it is too

 

[richardhomer]

Looking forward to seeing the photos of the finished forge. I would love to have a go at making one myself one day

 

[mick91]

Looking forward to seeing the photos of the finished forge. I would love to have a go at making one myself one day

Basic one like that takes under an hour to be honest mate people massively overestimate how difficult things like that are. Check out some brake drum forges. End of the day it's a case of putting an air feed into something heat proof and filling it with coal. Bloody good fun though

 

[mick91]

Fired it up for the first time. Coming up to temperature nicely

 

[mick91]

Getting respectable temperatures out of it, easily hit enough to work pretty thick rebar

 

[WoodsmanJim]

Oh, now you gone and re-ignited (see what I did there!) my desire to make a forge...

Must resist! Have waaay too many projects on the go as it is.

 

[mick91]

I see it indeed! Easy as anything to make and it's held up to the heat no problem.
Cured it with the charcoal but will be moving on to coke to really get the heat up while forging. Although I do need a more suitable anvil!

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[janso]

Oh, now you gone and re-ignited (see what I did there!) my desire to make a forge...

Must resist! Have waaay too many projects on the go as it is.

You're not the only one there mate, it's still on my 'to-do' list!
Cracking little forge there!


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[mick91]

Cheers janso. Works great! No fancy gear needed to make it or use it and I'm all about simple!

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[Everything Mac]

Can't argue with that. I'd switch to lump wood charcoal for a start though. You'll get better results.

But just to put things in perspective, I paid £30 for this lot at the scrap yard two weeks ago.

5 gas tank tops/ bottoms which will all be turned into forges. Numerous springs for tooling and a few other odds and ends too.

Get down to a scrap yard near you for the bargains.

Andy

 

[mick91]

Can't argue with that. I'd switch to lump wood charcoal for a start though. You'll get better results.

But just to put things in perspective, I paid £30 for this lot at the scrap yard two weeks ago.

5 gas tank tops/ bottoms which will all be turned into forges. Numerous springs for tooling and a few other odds and ends too.

Get down to a scrap yard near you for the bargains.

Andy

I'll be using either decent quality wood charcoal or actual coal/coke the BBQ gear was only to cure the refractory layer really, and to check the pump was adequate and did the job.
And I doth my cap to thee sir those are some serious bargains there! Never thought of coiled suspension springs to work with, but I suppose with the right temperature and the proper application of brute force and ignorance theyed be quite useful.

 

[Everything Mac]

In fairness the price I pay at the scrappies depends on who is there on the day. I'd have paid much more if the old boy was there. I also don't normally buy so much but had a couple of mates down from Scotland for a mini "forge in" and a fair amount of it went to them.

When the the lad said £30 it was a case of hand over the cash and Foxtrot Oscar ASAP before he changed his mind. The lads from Scotland were incredulous over the price.

If you can get British made charcoal or have the ability to make your own you will find it superior to the store bought stuff you can get which is typically imported from Africa and is nasty stuff to use.


Coil springs are good material. They make very good punches and tooling. Many folks use the to make a blade too.
Straightening them out can be a faff but not overly difficult once you have the technique down.

Andy