Dio catches another spark!

And that is the inspiration that struck me yesterday immediately following the bad news of the month. Non-Gratus, Free, Ready to pick up and throw in the back of the truck.

Add in the following and you have the makings of a drum forge.
This little tidbit is under negotiations right now. My uncle has had this in his basement for some time and I asked to borrow it. Found out when I did that it needed a massive tuneup. Years of neglect. Now, I am trying to talk him into selling it to me.(cheaply of course, I am a cheap rat bastard.) Here I am cutting the legs for the forge.
And here we are, all welded up, and pieces placed, ready for the blower to be attached. Cutting that disc was a breeze with the torch; damned good investment. All the metal I am using is either scrap that I have picked up along the way, or stuff that I purchased in bulk during some other project. Cost on this one, NADA. Other than my expendables like gases and welding wire, I haven't really spent squat on this project.(yet)


TADA! One drum forge ready for a liner of refractory cement and fire brick. I plan on using the firebrick to raise the sides up about 8 inches. I am thinking that I will be able to use this for my melts instead of digging a hole in the ground every time. The brick and cement will be the only things that I have had to go to a store to get for this little project. Everything else was on hand in some form. Still have plenty of gases left, about 7 pounds remain on my wirespool, and I still have 15' of 1 1/4" 1/8"wall- square tubing left. (and loads of 1/8" plate remaining. )
After I have the liner in place and dried, I will do a slow 'cookoff' to set the refractory. More pictures then. That should be interesting. Then I plan on finishing making that daggum tool that I have needed a forge to finish. High quality steel really needs a good heat that just isn't really all that easy to attain with just a torch. This should be just the ticket for that.