This little forge is made from a paint can and some ceramic wool,
and is a cheap and easy way to get started in beginning blacksmithing.
[Captions by Jeffrey D. at Y Translator] [music]
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Guys, I'm here with Grant.
This is not the Grant you're used to seeing.
This is another Grant.
Grant, say hi.
>> Hello.
>> Today Grant is gonna be showing us how we can build a forge
out of a paint can.
Grant, you've done this before right?
>> I've done it once yeah. >> Wonderful.
So we've got a fantastic method of building a forge out of a paint can,
and it doesn't use too many materials.
You wanna give us a rundown of what materials we're going to be using?
>> So you're gonna need one paint can, um you can use a big one or a little one.
>> These are available at the hardware store.
I got this at Home Depot for about $5.
>> You'll need one alumina silicate firebrick and one one foot by two foot
length of kaowool blanket.
We got four quarter inch carriage bolts, 4 inches long,
we got gour 1/4 inch
and 2 and 1/2 inch long carriage bolts,
and 16 quarter inch hex nuts.
>> The fire brick is usually available online,
or at specialty refractory materials stores.
Some places specialize in equipment and materials to build things
like pizza ovens.
That's a great place to look.
Here's the basic idea.
Carriage bolts will be attached to the paint can as feet to keep it off
the ground.
The inside of the can will be lined with kaowool and a piece of firebrick
will act as the work surface.
A propane or matte gas torch will be our
heat source.
Grant, we've got all of our materials ready.
What is gonna be the first step?
>> The first step is gonna remove the inside lining of the paint can,
because if we don't,
it'll start burning when we start using it later on,
and it's gonna smell really bad.
>> So these cans have sort of a plastic lining and you can see that
it's a different color from the metal and we need to burn all of that out.
Right now, Grant is using the propane torch to burn the paint
from the outside of the can.
This is mostly because if you stick the propane torch down inside of the can,
it burns up all of the oxygen and then the torch goes out.
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Our paint can is now all burned out.
We got rid of all the paint so I think it's time to move on to the nextstep.
What do we do now?
>> We're gonna add four carriage bolts as the feet.
>> We've got the four holes set up about four inches apart in either direction.
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We've got the four holes drilled in,
we've got our four carriage bolts.
Since we want a nut on both sides of the paint can,
first, we need to thread one on far enough
that we can fit it on and then back it up.
Grab a pair of pliers just to make sure that's nice and tight.
Now, we do that three more times.
At this point, you can see the direction that this forge is going.
We're gonna have a nice opening at one side
and the feet that let it stand up.
But we've also got four more shorter carriage bolts.
Grant what are we using these for?
>> We're using these four smaller ones to put on the bottom of the forge
so that we can then flip it over.
And it might be a mini foundry.
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We've now made something that looks like a steel alien bug.
Is that what we were going for?
>> Yeah.
>> Perfect. Then we nailed it.
What's next?
>> So we're gonna line the inside now with kale wool.
And we're goinna put a piece down at the bottom as well.
>> 7 and 1/2 inches by about 18 inches.
That's the measurements we're getting for our paint can.
>> Technically, you're supposed to wear a mask and and eye protection
when you're cutting this stuff.
So, we just thought we'd go overboard.
>> We'll also go outside.
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So now let's curl this and see how well it fits inside the can.
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Hey look. It fits.
Now we need a circle with a diameter of about 3 and half maybe 4 inches.
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All right we've got the can lined with the kaowool.
Now we've got our fire brick. What are we doing with this?
>> We're gonna cut it out.
to make a work surface to get on the very center.
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Just for aesthetic purposes, we're gonna cut out some small triangle
pieces to fill these gaps.
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Well neat.
That looks like it might work as a forge.
>> I think we're missing something.
That'll work.
>> So we need the fire coming out of the torch
to be going through the side of the paint can,
through the kale wool,
and then blowing fire right down onto the brick.
We've got our line, and we're gonna mark along there,
and we're going to put the torch kind of near the front.
That way if we want to angle it a little bit more forward, we can,
and if we want to twist it and angle a little bit more backwards, we can.
If we have the torch too far back,
then we really only have the option of angling it forward or down.
Further forward gives us more space to play with it.
We are using 5/8 inch forstner bit to drill our hole.
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So at this point,
we can turn on the fire.
It's gonna get nice and hot in there
and we can use this for blacksmithing right?
>> Yes you can.
>> Wonderful.
Is there anything else you want to do with this can before we
say we're all finished?
>> Well we added these four bolts on the bottom.
We want to turn it into a mini foundry.
We're gonna have to add a second hole.
>> Once again carefully drilling through the kaowool without it twisting
and binding up and without drilling into my fingers.
I choose to keep all of my fingers for now.
Hopefully, forever.
Definitely for now.
Aha!
And now it's a little foundry.
So we've now got two holes in our foundry,
and you say we should have a small kaowool plug.
Yeah to just plug whichever one we're not using.
>> Exactly. >> All right.
Well I've got this little spare piece.
Let's cut a plug out of it. >> Yeah.
>> There. Plugged.
Now, when we're using it as a forge,
the fire won't come out of here,
and when we're using it as a foundry,
we can just move the plug and then the fire won't come out of here.
For the convenience of space we've come outside.
We've got a piece of railroad track and we're gonna be using this as an anvil.
Let's test if our forge gets hot enough that we can soften metal and begin to shape it.
Grant, I have a question.
You have no glove on the hand that's holding the steel,
but you are wearing a glove on the other hand.
What's up with that?
>> When you're working with hot steel,
you wanna grab the metal with a bare hand
because if you're wearing a glove, or a plastic glove or something,
you might not feel it's super hot, and it might burn the leather or the plastic
right into your flesh.
So you just wanna keep it bare skin.
So you know how hot and how not the steel is.
Uh with the hammer,
I just you don't need a glove.
I just use one because it's for padding.
Let's flatten it.
I'd say it's pretty flat. >> That's flat!
I mean you could we can make it into a very large flat-head screwdriver.
Grant thanks for coming out and showing us how to build this little foundry.
>> You're welcome.
>> I'm hoping that sometime in the future, we can have you back,
and you can show us some of the things we can do with this.
Maybe a little bit of introductory blacksmithing.
>> I'd love to, yeah.
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