Found a cheap way to stop my coal forge from eating so much fuel

I was burning through a 50 pound bag of coal every two days on my small home forge. Tried making a deeper fire pot, but that just made it worse. Then I read about using a piece of old firebrick to block off about a third of the air inlet at the bottom. I cut a brick to fit and it worked right away. My coal use dropped by almost half because the fire stays hotter and more focused. Anyone have other tricks for making a coal forge more efficient?

2 comments

2 Comments

thea_chen1mo ago

Blocking the air sounds like a bad idea honestly. You're just choking the fire and making it burn dirtier. Maybe your forge just needs better coal or a different blower setup.

-1

wade7801mo agoMost Upvoted

Actually used to block the air on my old forge all the time, thought it helped. But you're right, it just made a ton of nasty smoke and left the coal all crusty. Switched to a better blower and it burns way cleaner now.