28" wood / coal forge build

[Frank S]

For 55 years I have wanted my own forge for the past 50 years I have made do with either a rose bud on a torch or tossed together small temporary forges when I needed one.
A while back I had to replace one of my 8n tractor rims because the old one would not hold air if I wanted to mount up tubeless.
What better use for an old rim than to make a forge out of it. Actually I don't really have the time to build a forge right now, with trying to mine and haul fill for my shop but I have an excavator with a broken drive and a bent drive sprocket that if I had a forge I could repair the drive then use the excavator to mine with and either the loader of the backhoe or the 863 Bobcat that I am repairing to haul and level the fill with so I said BUILD THE STUPID THING frank and be done with it at the very worst you can use it as a means of heating the shop next winter LOL
Ok 28" tractor rim salvaged from my 8n
the bottom of the forge is a 26" diameter 1/4" plate the previous property owner used as a lid for his burn barrel
the legs were taken from my stock of 100s of salvaged sprinkler down pipes
the apron was made out of a piece of auction scrap I bought years ago
that is the basic list of materials for the forge itself More about the toyere later




It seemed like a good idea to remove the rotted out band

Starting the apron



after welding and grinding the welds I used my needle scaller to give it a hammered effect

drilling the air holes for the toyere I decided that I wanted an iris for air control and flame modulation this is why the holes are drilled in a spiral

Shown here the iris is closed leaving only a single hole exposed

Open phase 1