Sunday work on the Forge

I checked out the welds on the tuyere today in the daylight and I realised that the joint was not closing properly AND that the weld wasn’t good enough. So I cut the hinge off the pipe, moved some bits around and redid the weld.

The hinge is much more satisfactory now and the closure is much better. I’ve also reversed the hinge so that the flap opens to the opposite side to the air intake pipe.


I could still cut away some of the hinge piece so that it is prettier, but it isn’t interfering with the closure so it isn’t critical.
Closed … and

Open!
Next I needed to weld the tuyere on to the base of the forge. Actually, this was a bit of a pain. I had to weld some reinforcing steel onto the tuyere so that I had a better welding joint onto the thin steel of the barrel.

Then weld the tuyere inside the forge for added strength.

I’ve used some offcuts from the pipe to make a cupping joint inside the forge body. The top of the tuyere comes up about 2” into the base of the forge. This will be the depth of the clay lining of the base.

The clay is pounded into the base and then smoothed over. There is an overall depression in the centre of the forge so that the fire is in a bowl like structure.

I’ve added the lining to the forge in place so that I don’t have to fart around with moving the forge around afterwards. That’s 30kg of clay plus the weight of the tuyere (about 1.5kg) and the barrel. Easier to move it in bits first.
Now I just have to wait for the clay to cure and then I can fire the forge up to cook the clay.