Turn a 55 Gallon Drum Into a Forge

Turn a 55 Gallon Drum Into a Forge

As I began building up my wood working tools for timber framing etc I noticed most of these people have a small forge of one type or another. I’ve done a few things along these lines so it was the next logical step. In this instance what I did was take a drum with a removable lid and I turned it over so I could cut two holes for the 2" steel tubing and then cut off a bit less than one third of the drum. I flipped the bottomless drum over and locked the cut off piece to the other end using the band and bolt to lock it in place. At the end I have it assembled and burned out. The next step will be installing some fire bricks and sand plus a blower of some sort. Eventually it will be a bellows, which I’ve made before, but it will probably start out with an old hair drier or vacuum cleaner.

I already have a small anvil 55 lbs, but I’m leaning more towards a Viking stump anvil. As I looked over prices for broad axes and numerous other items, I decided I should just learn to make what I need.

This is the link to the next phase of this project. The bellows will be made in the fall more than likely. They will look like a Frankenstein iron lung more than likely. Here is how I finished this aspect of the project off. https://rumble.com/v1b0x9v-turn-a-55-gallon-drum-into-a-forge-part-deux.html