Ideas for your forge, and how to make one! AND a thermal cement resipi!!!

Ok so here's my forge,

it's out side so I don't need a chimney,  it' burns coal,

and I have an electric blower hooked up to the bottom with a switch that runs to the out side of the forge so I can turn the air on or off easily.

 

it's not super duper but it works very well,  it'll heat anything up I want it to and unlike my others it hasn't died (yet)  I had to tone down the blower alot cause it with out that piece or cardboard you see in the picture above it would blow all the coal away!    The actual metal I used for the base was just the steel bottom of an old pressure tank!  I liked it cause there was already a hole in the bottom for a blower and the metal was pretty thick, so I got out my trusty angle grinder with a cutting disk on it and I went to work, I sliced the bottom off and welded some legs on so it would stand above the ground, then I made the hole in the bottom a little bigger, put some metal filter over that to make sure no big chucks of coal get down in to the blower,  then I just strapped the blower on and put in the cement!

THERMAL CEMENT RECIPE!!!!
so all you'll need is some wood ash (ashes you get from burning wood)
and sand (fine and clean sand works best), it's really easy.
Take 1/2 to 3/4 of a five gallon bucket of the sand
then take about 8-15 cups worth of the ashes and mix it up
then add just enough water to get it all wet and sticky, then it's ready to apply to whatever you need it for!
NOTE: It not professional grade so it wont last forever, but it dose work very well if you can get your mixture right,  and you shouldn't have to patch or replace it too often,   and when you to, take the old cement out and put it in your new cement, it'll save you time and the stuff that's been bunt actually works better!      and when you add the water, you don't want to make it sloppy,  just enough to make it kinda like clay, if it's runny add more sand and ash till it's firm, you don't want it too dry, but not to wet either.

Now the reason for thermal cement is for insulation,  if your heat can't escape through the walls of your forge it has no other option then to go in to your metal.



if you're looking for what kind of forge you want there are quite a few options!











                                     There are Turk burners

 There's big classic forges.

 There are slightly more modern forges like mine.

                           

                                    And of course there's always gas.


              Or you can just come up with your own thing, that's what I did,   pretty much any method of heating metal will work,  it should be cheap and officiant though, that's why I burn coal.

it's all about person all preference though, if you like coal go for it, of you like gas, great!  just don't be unhappy with your forge, it's one of those things you need to get along with.
if your just starting out and you don't know what you want, I would recommend coal as a start, of you can get a gas forge that'll be fine but you need to take safety precautions and you need to know what your doing just a little bit.

as always I'll take any questions or comments and I'll be happy to give any advice I can,  you can contact me through craftsmanofmich@gmail.com or in the comments.
                                     peace out!