Date:
Summer 2021
Skills Used:
CAD, Carpentry, Mechanical Design
Design Decisions
The forge needed to be fairly cheap to build, safe to use, and capable of getting metal hot enough to forge. To this end, a “Just a Box of Dirt” forge was selected, due to the stability and relatively low cost of wood. In order to keep the wood from burning, a thick layer of clay was used to insulate the fire from the wood. The airflow was supplied with a hair dryer, and fed through a plain carbon steel pipe to the firepot, which was made of a pipe connector.
The very basic technical drawing I made for myself to follow while building the forge.
The assembled box. The firepot gets hot during operation, but is insulated by clay. A hole beneath the firepot that was added after this picture was taken that thermally decouples it from the wood.
The forge filled halfway with clay!
A closeup of the firepot. The bricks help insulate the fire.
The finished product in all its glory. You can check out some blacksmithing projects I’ve done on the artwork page on this site.