well i finally got a forge built. nothing fancy,  made out of a big brake rotor.  i am having some pronlems and thought maybe some of you fine fellows might shine some light.  
1.  fuel,  i have used lumps of wood, and chare coal.  seems to burn up pretty fast. too cheap to hook up a gas burning system.
2.  i cant seem to get my steel hot.  if i do get it hot it takes a really long  time.

these are my main problems(right now at least).

If you don't have something to force air through the coals, you're not going to get the steel up to working temp.

Look up Tim Lively's site & see how he builds a forge. He builds knives from truck springs & uses a charcoal forge.

Larry

I'll second Larry on the need for a blower of some sort.  I started out using a cheap hairdryer from Walmart.  A good small squirrel cage fan wired to a reostat with a baffle on the air intake to regulate the flow is about the best thing you can get for a coal forge.  I used to use blacksmithing coal, but switched to wood chunks and charcoal because they are cheaper and burn cleaner.  Coal does last longer, though.

Nowdays I use a homeade gas forge for most of my work, and it was pretty cheap to make, really.  A lot cleaner, too.

Todd

Funny, my first gas forge cost me less than $15 and is still going strong.  Good for knife work anyway.

Larry and Todd are spot on.  You need a blower of some sort and a way to regulate it.

Proper fire maintenance is an art all in itself.  If you're serious about going that route I recommend picking up a copy of "The Art of Blacksmithing" by Alex Bealer.  You can pick up a new hardcover copy for under $10 on Amazon right now.

i have an air sorce(cheap hair blower).  but after talking to some older men around here, they said that it sounded like i didnt have enough fuel in the pot.  im using charcoal right now, but that might change.