The beginning of the Tiny Forge: on old horse trailer.

The first step was cutting the roof off of the horse trailer

Roof is almost entirely cut off

The roof added a lot of stability, so with it gone, the frame had to be strengthened.

Creating a wooden exoskeleton on the metal trailer

Continuing the framing work on a lovely spring day

Work was lovely when the spring flowers started to bloom

It didn’t help that my dad was storing an old chest of drawers in the trailer … that became a wasp hotel!

The roof will be made of rubber, to be glued onto a plywood decking … when I get around to it. For now, it’s just a tarp.

Finally gluing the roof on! Didn’t want to glue any of my shirts …

For the floor, I salvaged heavy duty plastic pallets from my day job at Cielo, a bottled water company. They get tons of them, and they are stacked up in the warehouse. Very cuttable, and very solid. Then a layer of wire netting with gravel on the top. The hole on the left is for the foundation of the anvil, which needs to rest on the ground. (So, no, I can’t just hook up the trailer and drive away, any more!)

The back door was a problem. I intended it to raise up, to provide light and more shaded/protected workspace at the back of the forge. But it was just too darn heavy! So I created a winching system, and forged a simple rod to distribute the weight evenly.

First firing of the forge! My talented girlfriend Abigail came to take photographs, which appear on the front page of this website.

The last large tool to be put in place was the flypress. Because it was the heaviest! I used a storage box off an old Cielo box, turned vertical and framed with heavy wood, to create a stable base. You can also see the vise on the left side.

Showing the tiny forge to some interested visitors to Christ the Reconciler

Fly press!