Antique Coal Forge

 
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LDPosse
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Post by LDPosse » Thu. Jan. 02, 2014 5:28 pm

I had been wanting to give blacksmithing a try, and have been contemplating building a forge. Luckily, I happened upon an antique forge from "Champion Blower & Forge" at a farm auction yesterday. Picked it up for $80!

I tried it out today before the snow started. I had some low-vol bitty from the Broad Top field on hand to use. I'm not sure if low vol or high vol is better for this.

I'm going to keep an eye out now for tools of the trade, especially an anvil. If anyone has commentary or suggestions it would be greatly appreciated!

Here are some pics!

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LDPosse
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Post by LDPosse » Thu. Jan. 02, 2014 5:30 pm

The rest of the pics

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grumpy
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Post by grumpy » Thu. Jan. 02, 2014 5:42 pm

Thats cool, hey if you find a Anvil you should try Anvil Shooting when your board with the forge.. just be sure to wear a hard hat.

 
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freetown fred
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Post by freetown fred » Thu. Jan. 02, 2014 6:10 pm

Nice find LD

 
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Ctyankee
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Post by Ctyankee » Thu. Jan. 02, 2014 6:34 pm

Remember the safety clothing. White hot iron chips could do some damage I bet!

 
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carlherrnstein
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Post by carlherrnstein » Fri. Jan. 03, 2014 11:08 am

You can make most of your own tools except the anvil. A piece of RR track can be used as a anvil.

 
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Post by Carbon12 » Fri. Jan. 03, 2014 11:21 am

Did it come with a grill top??? Bet it could cook a burger in 11 seconds!


 
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Post by dlj » Fri. Jan. 03, 2014 1:21 pm

I need to see photos of the forge empty. To do good forging, the forge needs to have a twyer. From the looks of it, that one appears to be a BBQ converted to a forge of sorts. The steep sides are not what you want, as you will want to lay metal flat across the fire. But that's easy enough to change, you just cut down two sides across from each other so you can lay iron across the fire.

The fire you've build is far to difuse - a good forge fire is focused - lots to explain about that... If it's not a converted BBQ, it could be what they call a riveting forge, not too useful for real smithy work. they did not have twyers, you'd have to either find one or build one. I could help you with the designs of a twyer you could make if you want.

The champion blower is a good one...worth at least what you paid for the whole set-up...

dj

 
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Post by LDPosse » Sat. Jan. 04, 2014 8:25 pm

dlj wrote:I need to see photos of the forge empty. To do good forging, the forge needs to have a twyer. From the looks of it, that one appears to be a BBQ converted to a forge of sorts. The steep sides are not what you want, as you will want to lay metal flat across the fire. But that's easy enough to change, you just cut down two sides across from each other so you can lay iron across the fire.

The fire you've build is far to difuse - a good forge fire is focused - lots to explain about that... If it's not a converted BBQ, it could be what they call a riveting forge, not too useful for real smithy work. they did not have twyers, you'd have to either find one or build one. I could help you with the designs of a twyer you could make if you want.

The champion blower is a good one...worth at least what you paid for the whole set-up...

dj
The forge is a Champion model 401. The firepot is flat on the bottom. I will take some pics in the daylight and post them.

Thanks for the info!

 
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Post by dlj » Sat. Jan. 04, 2014 8:50 pm

LDPosse wrote:
The forge is a Champion model 401. The firepot is flat on the bottom. I will take some pics in the daylight and post them.

Thanks for the info!
Then its a riviting forge. I don't know the model numbers at this point. The blower is big enough to handle a decent twyer so you could fabricate one easy enough. Depends what you want to do with it. Let me know what you want to do. I can make lots of suggestions depending on what you think you might want to do with it.... Its a really nice size to work with...

dj

 
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LDPosse
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Post by LDPosse » Sun. Jan. 05, 2014 4:52 pm

Here is a pic of the forge before I fired it. The refractory cement in the bottom cracked the first (and only) time I fired it.
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Post by rockwood » Sun. Jan. 05, 2014 5:41 pm

carlherrnstein wrote:A piece of RR track can be used as a anvil.

That's what I use ;)
dlj wrote:Then its a riviting forge.
Do you mean heating big rivets like they used to use for structural steel, building ships etc.?

 
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Post by dcrane » Sun. Jan. 05, 2014 7:04 pm

great find! I just watch American Restorations last night and they were doing over a unit EXACTLY like this one (maybe you can pull it up online?)... theirs was definitely a BBQ (for cooking steaks) but maybe they made several types of these?

 
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Post by dlj » Sun. Jan. 05, 2014 9:51 pm

LDPosse wrote:Here is a pic of the forge before I fired it. The refractory cement in the bottom cracked the first (and only) time I fired it.
Yeap, you have a riveting forge there. Nice Champion blower on it for sure. Riveting forges were small portable forges used in the field for doing light work associated with assembly. Usually for making rivets - hence the name - but not always. They could have been used for making small parts as needed for an on-site assembly of larger items that would have been pre-fabricated in the shop.

Rockwood - for doing the big rivets for structural work, they often used portable forges. Similar to the one LDPosse has, but with a twyer in it. That's also spelled tuyere (with an ` on the first e, but I don't know how to get this onto it here...) Here's a link to a picture of one you can buy (yea right, at that price???)

http://www.thak.ca/supply/firepot-with-tuyere/

That one is a really big one measuring 11 inches long, 9 inches wide and 4 inches deep. Those should be the measurements of the top portion that is rectangular. But that's way too big... You would do well with about 6 to 8 inches long and about 4 to 6 inches wide - the 4 inches deep is right however. You can also do circular, Champion used to make their twyers round. I don't like them so much though, I prefer rectangular. I think they make for better fire control. The 4 inches deep is important...

The Brits, and sometimes the French, used side blast twyers, but those are pretty complicated and you couldn't really do that on the forge you have. I've worked on those too, but don't like them so much. There are some advantages to them however... but I guess I'd best not make this a book...

At the bottom of the top part where it connects to the round section there is usually a kind of rotating grate. In the picture, you see a crank handle coming out of that's used to rotate it for cleaning the fire.

Then you get down to where all the air connections are made and the trap door at the bottom to let the crap out, usually on a flapper type hinge. You should have all these last parts on your riveting forge now.

What I'd do with your forge is build the rotating grate, and the top part of the twyer on top of the base you currently have. Fill the bottom of the forge with cement, you can use the same stuff used for the fire pots on the coal stoves, making a nice flat surface level with the top of your new twyer. There are four tools needed to manage a forge fire - a fire rake, a straight poker, a set of tongs (small solid ends) and a water sprinkler...

If you actually want to set this thing up as a real forge, I'd be happy to talk you through some serious fire management techniques...

dj

 
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LDPosse
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Post by LDPosse » Sun. Jan. 05, 2014 10:24 pm

Sounds like I must have had too big of a fire going. Here is a video I took at the same time that I took the pictures in the original post.


dlj wrote:If you actually want to set this thing up as a real forge, I'd be happy to talk you through some serious fire management techniques...
Thanks for all of your input so far, I think I'll take you up on that. I'll shoot you a PM.


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