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Just realized my old coal forge setup was wasting half my fuel

I was at the Midwest Blacksmiths meet in Springfield last fall and saw a guy using a simple firebrick ring around his coal pile. He said it cut his coal use by 40% because it kept the heat focused. I tried it in my own shop and it totally changed how I manage my fire. Anyone else have a simple tweak that saved them a ton on materials?

3 comments

3 Comments

lunar473mo ago

My forge was so bad I was basically heating the whole neighborhood, but @skyler_anderson65's pipe trick saved my wallet lmao.

skyler_anderson653mo ago

My old rivet forge was just eating coal, I mean I was going through a bag every other day. I started using a piece of heavy steel pipe as a sort of collar to build the fire against, maybe 8 inches tall. It sounds dumb but it made the coal last almost twice as long because the heat couldn't just wash out to the sides. I should have done it years ago.

johnthompson1mo ago

Wait, is it heavy steel pipe or just regular schedule 40? I've been doing the same thing for a few years now but I use a piece of 6 inch stovepipe that I cut down to about 6 inches tall. The trick is you want to use something thin walled so the heat transfers through it quick and you dont lose too much heat into the pipe itself. A heavy pipe will just suck up heat for a while before it starts reflecting it back. I made that mistake with a thick piece of exhaust tubing once and it took forever to get the fire hot.