Building my basic forge - a step by step guide

This is a step by step of how I built my very basic forge. It was intended to be a mobile forge so I can move it outside when I want to (I work mostly outside)
It is by no means a long term product and I hope to be replacing it in the future with a bottom blast forge which will be significantly more robust.

It is my belief that anyone with a DIY background could make one of these in an afternoon as I did.

I had intended on using an oil drum for the base of the construction but when it came to it the scrap yard didn't have any. So I found a decent sized drawer from a metal filing cabinet. 



Add some flimsy legs made from rebar. - I was planning on using the new welder to fit these, then weld some supports around the base to make it more sturdy, but welding pins proved to be too much hassle, so I just bolted the legs on which was a bit easier. I've yet to weld braces to the legs, but it is stable enough without them. The whole thing would be easy to disassemble as it stands also. 



All this needs to be is a container to hold a reasonable amount of fuel. It doesn't need to be anything serious. You could do it in a metal bucket if you really wanted. But just make sure it's not galvanised. 


I used the bricks from the mk1 version of this forge to line the base of the drawer. I needed to cut these down slightly to fit in the box, I didn't want to ruin a good saw, so I bought a cheap one for the job. - I really recommend you do this if any of you use these bricks to build a forge, they will cut fine. but your saw will me knackered. - the one I used is utterly blunt now. 







Finally I cut two large openings in either side to allow me to work long stock.



As it turns out I made these a little too large and a little too deep in the box. But luckily I kept the offcuts so I can stick them in and adjust accordingly. 

Finally a shot of me about to fire it up. 



You can see the forge up and running in this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DLlTujuHQc

I need to make something to hold my hair drier in place - its pretty basic just now. 

The forge is just another one to get me going at the new house. Ultimately I'd like to replace it once more with something a bit more serious, but as it stands this forge is running well, and it's not going to fall apart any time soon. Total cost has been less than £30 to build. 

I was using coke to fuel it but the local supply is awful stuff, I'm hoping to find a better supply or I'll go back to using charcoal. 

Cheers 
Andy