Single Burner Forge

[Matt Shade]

Originally Posted by dubby

I know you've been talking about this forge in bits and pieces the past little bit, but I wasn't expecting this. With your workload and daily to-do list, I didn't imagine it to be quite so complete yet

Looks great and awful handy.

Thanks Building it also served as a diversion for a couple days when I had a weekend off cause the weather was too bad to work anywhere else. I've been trying to make more time for stuff like this now and then because the daily grind was getting kind of mind numbing just driving tractors in circles and stacking hay.

[toprecycler]

Originally Posted by Matt Shade

I am trying to be better about putting a value on my time when I do something for myself. That is the thing though, this job was for myself. The horseshoeing is a side gig for me that I bill out separately. As farm manager my responsibility is to make sure someone shoes the horses, but I don't have to be the one. I do sub 80% it out but circumstances always end up where certain horses it is easier to do myself, or a horse loses a shoe between farrier visits and I need the horse to be doing its job, so I put the shoe back on instead of having a week of downtime for the horse. Having a forge at the farm will be easier on my body and since I charge by the horse for shoeing it should be more profitable when the job is easier.

The closest thing commercially to what I built is probably this guy:
https://www.stockhoffsonline.com/aca...ol.html#SID=70

That has roughly the same size chamber, side vents/barstock openings and a front door just like mine (just with 2 smaller burners instead of one medium) and it is basically $1000 and does not include a tank, or any kind of a stand or table for it. The burner parts for mine were about $75, the liner was about $120, I already had the firebrick and the steel sheet from other jobs, and I would still have had to build the table, buy the tank and put it all together. If you figure just my time for making the box, making the burner and putting the liner in, I came out way ahead even with a decent hourly rate.

Since it was me that needed a forge it made the most sense for me to build this. If it had been a case where "the farm" needed a forge I might have just ordered a forgemaster or NC forge and been done with it.

And now we know the rest of the story.

Glad to hear that do get paid separately for the shoeing you do.

It’s a lot different story when you build something for yourself vs buying something already made. You are your own best judge of the value of something when you spend your own money. Or your time to make something that might be customized for how you like to work.

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[Whitetrash]

As usual with your projects Matt well thought out and executed. Should make shoeing projects easier with an efficient work area with everything within reach.

[Matt Shade]

Thanks Everybody

Tonight's project was to make a pair of 1/4 inch tongs to go with the 3/8 inch I made yesterday. Those 2 sizes cover most of whatever I would do making or modifying shoes. The 1/4 inch tongs went together pretty quick so I used a 3rd set of blanks and made a pair of hot fitting tongs.

Hot fitting tongs grip the shoe by the nail holes and let you take it to the hoof and see if it fits or if you need to make more changes. I haven't used a pair before but they should be much more handy than dunking the shoe in water over and over or trying to grip one side with vise grips.

[Matt Shade]

Got it all set up this morning.

[toprecycler]

Looks nice and organized.


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[greywynd]

Good looking setup Matt, that’ll make your work go faster and smoother for sure!

The tackroom setup looks good too, should work well!


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[allessence]

Nice build Matt.

I bought a single burner forge on Amazon.. Volcano brand..

I sent it to my mom's boyfriend.. He dabbles..

it was 89.99 with free shipping.

I then bought their 2 burner forge for the school.. Was 159.00..

Both forges will reach forge welding temps supposedly.

Anyhow, great job..

[Matt Shade]

Originally Posted by allessence

Nice build Matt.

I bought a single burner forge on Amazon.. Volcano brand..

I sent it to my mom's boyfriend.. He dabbles..

it was 89.99 with free shipping.

I then bought their 2 burner forge for the school.. Was 159.00..

Both forges will reach forge welding temps supposedly.

Anyhow, great job..

I looked very hard at the amazon options. Would have liked to see them in person to see how sturdy they are. By the looks of the burners and liners there is no reason they wouldn't work, but I was a little worried how they would hold up to the barn environment. It seems I come in and find things broken and nobody knows how it happened fairly often With a 3/16 firebox I could just about use the forge as an anvil which is only a problem when I have to pick it up.

I even considered buying one of those forges just to use the burners and the regulator etc. but I got a regulator with gauge and braided hose for $26. Between the cheap forges and the vevor and doyle anvils it really is a great time for folks to get into smithing.

I built my first forge maybe 20 years ago (doesn't seem possible ) and back then there really were no other options that I could find. The budget build was to stack firebricks in the yard and use a weedburner torch.

[Matt Shade]

Originally Posted by greywynd

Good looking setup Matt, that’ll make your work go faster and smoother for sure!

The tackroom setup looks good too, should work well!


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Thanks, I'm excited to have things running better at the farm. I honestly don't know how we did without these changes for so long. Even with things streamlined and organized there's a lot of days I'm working 10 or 12 hours just to tread water.

The girls started moving into the tackroom today. I told them before they started that I was NOT settling any arguments over the pegboard layout