New Forge

KenH

Well-Known Member
Ya’ll remember a thread I started a while back about blown burner and building a forge. Thanks to the nice knowledgeable folks and especially Ed I’ve pretty much got it built.

Forge-Front.jpg

Above is a view of the front of forge, the blower is mounted to the side rather than at bottom of cart. Based on Stacy’s advice the burner tube is installed so the flame is pointed toward the rear and upward a tad. This causes a swirling action of the flame to help heat the interior more evenly and the flame never directly hits the billet. That is a BIG plus!

The burner tube is 1-1/4” pipe from 90 to forge. A larger (or smaller?) size might have been better? Not sure but this seems to work pretty good. It wouldn’t be hard to change if needed.

Forge-Wheel.jpg

Above is a view of the 10” pneumatic tire mounted on the forge end of the Harbor Freight cart. This is only one of the “best” suggestions I received. At $4 each those tires are the best investment of all. Makes pushing cart so easy on grass.

Forge-Blower.jpg

Above is a view from blower end of cart – the tube for thermocouple is visible. With the ceramic sheath extending an inch or so inside forge the temperature is monitored nicely. The movable rack mounted in front of forge is another great idea that was offered. The rack slides in for storage and slides out for use to hold the handle of billets. VERY handy. Visible is the burner tube angled toward the rear, but the angle upwards doesn't really show.

is a short video showing the flame swirling. Note the mixture is a tad rich (lots of dragon breath) to better show the swirling action of the flame. I think I got a
finger over the mic causing the sound to drop out.

Welded-Billet.jpg

Above is 10 layers of 1075 & 1095 tack welded for a billet.

Front-Billet.jpg

Above is a single brick to close off front for forging. The billet is inside heating to set weld. If you could see the billet is a pretty even heat from one end to other.

Front-Brick.jpg

The billet is a bit more visible after playing with photo some. From the even color inside you can tell the interior is a pretty even. This is what angling the burner tube toward the rear and upwards forcing the flame to swirl around the interior.

Ken H>
 
Very nice....I've been in the slow process of getting my vertical forge done. Trying to get my air/fuel mixture right...these blown forges are a little more picky than my venturi burner forge
 
I forgot to mention that Ed is the person who suggested I put the adjusting needle valve at the burner end rather than at the regulator - GREAT IDEA!! Thanks Ed.

Jeremy, you said your blown forge is more picky than your venturi burner? Interesting - when I built my first venturi burner it took me a while to get the jet, air, etc correct to burn good. Once it's set you don't have to fool with it anymore. The Blown burner it did take a bit for me to learn enough to get it working good, but once it's figured out, with blower running just crank that needle valve open with a hand held propane torch inside and it seems to light right off. Easy to adjust after that.

It seems like most of what I've read say a blown burner is easier to work with than a venturi, but I might be mistaken.
 
I forgot to mention that Ed is the person who suggested I put the adjusting needle valve at the burner end rather than at the regulator - GREAT IDEA!! Thanks Ed.

I am the guy who is going to suggest if you don't have it fastened to the cart, "DO IT" I will tell you if you are rolling it one day the cart is going to hang on something. Don't ask how I know!

OK I will tell you. In my case I had just finished using the forge outside and let it cool down some. I went to roll it back into the garage and a small 2x4 block I had knocked out from under a bench while looking for something while I was forging, was laying on the floor.

I missed seeing it and the cart I have is higher. The cart hit the 2x4 block and I looked up to see the forge, still too hot to grab. Tipping with the cart. I managed to stop the cart but knew the forge was not cool enough to grab.


It went off the cart broke up the gas lines, bent one of the burners where it went into the forge itself, bent one of the legs, and cracked the inside casting of the forge. Besides being anger .jpg mad at myself it turned out to be a total rebuild!!!
 
Bummer on the forge damage - bet it's fasten down to cart now? Fastening forge to cart was one of the first things I did with my new forge. I took a copper tube, flattened it to make a strap and used that to strap forge to cart.
 
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