Old toilette bowl to hold my fire?

[Roy Edward]

In my study on forges it quickly became apparent that metal is not going to work to hold my coal bed( there is a term for that but I cannot remember it) I was at first thinking of the clay around here everywhere, but it cracks really bad. On the way to pick up the kids at the school bus stop I thought of the old ceramic toilette I have sitting out back.

Ceramic toiletts are baked at 2,500 degrees f so I got to thinking that should handle the temps quite well, though the bowl is way to deep, but I figured I may be able to put pices of ceramic in the bowl until it is only about 4 inches deep and blow my air through bottom hole. I am well know for my level of ingenuity ( wife calls it being cheap ), but is this idea just crazy or does it have some potential merit? I can bake it in the oven outside to make sure there is no moisture in it, don want any exploding ceramics... Is there anything else to be aware of?...

[Grant]

I like the way you think! Had a friend who made a high-back chair out of a large old urinal. I made my first forge out of an old sink.

[sam salvati]

That's a $hitty idea!

[David Einhorn]

Its worth a try. My first forge was a wooden box forge, lined with some old bricks and a length of black pipe and an old hand held hair dryer to provide the air. Wooden box forges lined with dirt were the original portable forges and are documented in use by both northern and southern armies in the American War Between the States. So if you have some scrap wood and some dirt, you can make a forge out of that too.

[Bruce Macmillan]

Seems like a sound idea....If I can forge a head you should be able to...... head a forge?.......Hmm...not very catchy...

• 

[Roy Edward]

My wife mentioned te idea of using an old sink but we do not have any ceramic sinks, I was concerned about the metal in the sink breaking down too quickly. I have a couple old sinks from travel trailers with the dual sink and only a depth of about six inches. These sinks would be very handy size wise and shape wise for mounting up as a firepit.

The real question is would the metal hold up to the fire temps for any length of time?

I was considering using one my large fuel tanks as the body of my forge. The tanks are about 5 feet long 2 feet wide and about 4 feet deep. I was considering standing the tank up and setting it about 2 foot off the ground. I could then cut the side out leaving the top in place as a hood and set my firepit inside the open cutout. I was thinking that I may be able to place another tank on top of that for carbonizing wood from the heat of the forge fire while I work. A carbonizing tank on top gets a bit tall so it may be better placed beside the forge setup.

Any thoughts here?... Has anyone used a tank setup like this as a forge body?...

[Neil Gustafson]

Good Morning,

Welcome to the land of thinking without a box. Can is a question of ability. Can you use a toilet to make a forge, ABSOLUTELY. Is it the best first choice, absolutely not.

Like said earlier, you can make a forge from a wooden box. Heat goes up, primarily. Make a 2 inch thick layer of your clay, on the wood, the wood won't burn. Doesn't have to be wood, can be whatever you have, a toilet??

You want to use propane, you can make a forge with 9 bricks and a tiger torch. Don't need to make a chimney!!

If you want to go to the moon, use a old fuel tank. if you want to stay here, use an old water tank, a hot water tank that is NOT GALVANIZED. Unless you still want to go to the moon, galvanize will take away your lungs.

If you are going to use coal, you will want a fire-pot with a place to feed air in and a place to let the ash fall out. Yes it can be made with a pipe T-fitting. What do you have to make wind, other than what follows you around? How are you going to control the wind, More Beans?

There are a lot of ways to make fire and control it. The secret is to control it. Contain the heart of the fire, control the air to the fire breathing monster, control the smoke away from your lungs and your wife's laundry. Have something to hold, something to hold with. Something to hit on, something to hit with. Make lottsa Miss-Steaks before you learn what doesn't work. Have a bit of an Idea what you want to make.

FORGET ABOUT THE IDEA OF MAKING A SWORD, FIRST!!!!!!! MANY HAVE TRIED, NONE HAVE MAINTAINED ENTHUSIASM.

The best way is to find someone fairly close to you, find out what they do, ask a lot of questions, READ BOOKS!!

Enjoy the journey!! It can last a life-time. There is no, ONE, way to do something. There are many, some work better than others. Take care of your eyes, ears and all moving parts!!!!!

There is no First base. There is no finish line. Keep smiling and learning.

Neil

[Roy Edward]

After studying the toilette bowl I realised it is not big enough for me, the backs of the two toilets though look to have some promise if I cut them in half. If I cut both toilette backs in half and cut the closed ends off two of the halfs I can then put together a ceramic tray 4 inches deep and 36 inches long by 20 inches wide which would just fit inside the barrel I would like to use as a forge body. Each end would have the plunger hole in it allowing me to run air through them for the fire, I could also run pipe down the sides of the box as well I geuss or even cut in the sides of the ceramic. I imagine my diamond tile cutter should work well for cutting this material.

As far as air supply, well I have a lot of things I could use, but I really do not have any idea of how many cubic feet per minute would be required for forgeing at this point. For foundry I have a huge old fan unit for cooling buildings that I was intending to use, but I would imagine that would be way way too much air for a forge. I have an old squirrel cage setup that was in a furnace in my house but that also may be a bit too much. I have many many rigs with various squirrel cage fans for heaters, I will probably try one of those to start with, it would also be nice to have the varying speed control with those.

Here is a pic of the type of tanks I want to use for my forge body.



So far my idea is to set the tank 2 feet off the ground and cut it on the rounded side facing toward the camera at one foot from the bottom. I will continue the cut to each side back about 16 to 18 inches and then cut up and angle back toward the front as I go up. The overall idea is to make the top two feet of the tank the hood and leave the sides somewhat shielded. I then cut and mount the chimney on top in the back. The bottom 1 foot of the barrel then gets filled to 4 inches from the lip with clay and I set in my toilette pieces to level with the lip and fill around them with clay.

I would also like to use one of these tanks for a pyrolysis tank, I was thinking of cutting a 56 inch long by about 16 inch wide door in the side. Weld or bolt some 1/2 inch flat all the way around on the hole in the tank for support with some 1/2 inch bolts added every 6 inches or so. The piece that I cut out would then have some 1/4 inch by 2inch flat added to its sides to leave 1 inch over lap on the tank hole. I drill the flange on the door to match the bolts and I can then bolt and unbolt it from the tank. I figured I could just use some of the fireplace rope as a seal on the door. I would run 3- 2 inch pipe stubbs out of the holes in the tank and plumb them to one 2 inch line and run that to a fire box built below the tank. I should be able to get around 200 to 250 pounds of charcoal if I fill the tank tightly packed with 58 inch long logs depending on what wood I use.

As far as tools and whatnot, I figure I need to get the fuel and forge figured out first, then I will start learning about those things.

Any thoughts on the plan so far?....

My biggest concern at the moment is on the pyrolysis tank setup, the image of a runaway explosive train comes to mind, and while I am pretty smart I could see myself easily missing something that I shouldn't.

[Roy Edward]

Here is a very basic illustration of the forge plan... forgive the pic I am not very good at this on computer... quite good on paper though...



Maybe this will give a better idea of what I have in mind.

[Daryl]

I think if I was going to all that work I would build something along the lines more traditional forge, with a proven design. A quick google search for "Coal forge plans" came up with lots of good hits, but this page has a lot of info
http://www.beautifuliron.com/forge.htm
It is at least a place to start

There were many other pages as well.
The cheapest quickest forge I have seen was made in minutes and the only manufactured pieces where the two plastic grocery bags which were the bellows. An African kid demonstrated it to us. I should try to make one some time, if just to document how he did it.