Propane Forge Build

If you are going to run your forge 24 hours a day 7 days a week Ed may be correct, although the people I buy from build huge furnaces for Alcoa still use ceramic blanket then cast over that and then coat that with Metrikote. For those of us who normally fire up the forge for a few hours even 4 or 5 days a week it takes a longgggg time for a solid cast forge to come up to heat and then it takes a longggg time for everything to cool back down. Lots of wasted fuel and time.
 
It's a matter of choices. EVERYTHING we do in the Hot shop, and in nearly every other aspect of Bladesmithing/Knifemaking is a "Give-N-Take" scenario..... in the case of castable refractory forges, you sacrifice short heat up and cool down times for long term durability. IF you want to reline a forge every couple of months (especially if you even THINK you want to forge weld in it, then you can go with ceramic fiber, and get much shorter heat up and cool down times. What's a good fit for one individual, may not be so for another. What most of you don't see are the PMs that I take the time to go back and forth with individuals who have asked for my help..... I try to learn about them, their situation, and their needs before making recommendations. Then, when I do recommend something, it's because I try to put myself in their shoes, and then use my experience to help them make the best choices...... I'm certainly not trying to push a product on them, nor sell them anything!
 
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Ooops, I didn't realize the OP was set on going with a cast liner. I don't have any experience with a cast liner, but it sure sounds like the way to go for working everyday. Heck, it'd hardly cool down during the night and still be warm next day when it was time to light it off again. If forge welding everyday with flux I'd for sure take Ed's advice because he has the experience to know.
 
EdCaffreyMS said:
It's a matter of choices. EVERYTHING we do in the Hot shop, and in nearly every other aspect of Bladesmithing/Knifemaking is a "Give-N-Take" scenario..... in the case of castable refractory forges, you sacrifice short heat up and cool down times for long term durability. IF you want to reline a forge every couple of months (especially if you even THINK you want to forge weld in it, then you can go with ceramic fiber, and get much shorter heat up and cool down times. What's a good fit for one individual, may not be so for another. What most of you don't see are the PMs that I take the time to go back and forth with individuals who have asked for my help..... I try to learn about them, their situation, and their needs before making recommendations. Then, when I do recommend something, it's because I try to put myself in their shoes, and then use my experience to help them make the best choices...... I'm certainly not trying to push a product on them, nor sell them anything!
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That's what I have observed in my interactions with you Ed, which is much appreciated.
 
I do want to express my sincere gratitude to all who have taken the time to respond to this thread. I think there is "wisdom in many counselors," and feel there is something to learn from everyone's experience. I am just grateful for a forum like this where we can all continue to learn and grow in our craft of knife-making.
 
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I built a cast refractory forge with soft fire brick layered around it. The size of the fire brick did limit the length of the forge but it helps keep the heat in the forge.

Doug
 
I built my forge with 1" Inswool, about 1/2" of Kast-0-Lite and a thin painting of Metrikote over 5 years ago and have yet needed to reline it. I do have a Ribbon Burner and weld billets with no flux and less than 1# of Propane pressure. If you are having flux build up in your forge you are using to much flux.
 
Here's another question regarding size of the fire box vs. thickness of cast refractory in my forge build. I'm working with a 10" diameter air tank which will become the outer shell of the forge. What is the optimum diameter of the fire box, vs. optimum thickness for the cast refractory? My initial thought is to take the 10" diameter of the shell and split the difference, creating a fire box 5" in diameter, and the cast refractory 5" in diameter. Or would it be preferable to have a 6" diameter fire box, with 4" of cast refractory? Put another way, what is the minimum recommended thickness for castable refractory? I appreciate any suggestions you may have to offer.
 
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Check out the Build a Gas Forge and the Ribbon Burner attachments on the Forge Supplies page at www.WayneCoeArtistBlacksmith.com.
Let me know if I can help you.
This is the way that I have been building forges for years and it seems to work very well. I think that you are planning to use solid cast with no ceramic blanket (Inswool). This has been covered in previous posts. How many hours do you plan to use the forge on a normal basis. How long will it take to get to a temp where you can start forging. My forge, from cold will heat 1" square to forging temp in 7 minutes.
 
Wayne Coe said:
Check out the Build a Gas Forge and the Ribbon Burner attachments on the Forge Supplies page at www.WayneCoeArtistBlacksmith.com.
Let me know if I can help you.
This is the way that I have been building forges for years and it seems to work very well. I think that you are planning to use solid cast with no ceramic blanket (Inswool). This has been covered in previous posts. How many hours do you plan to use the forge on a normal basis. How long will it take to get to a temp where you can start forging. My forge, from cold will heat 1" square to forging temp in 7 minutes.
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Thanks Wayne, but I'm going with cast refractory with this build. I'm hearing that 2-3" is sufficient thickness for insulation purposes. Would you concur?
 
Johnny, I don't know I have never built a forge that way. BTW, have you thought about how much that forge will weigh in case you have to move it from time to time?
 
Well, it took longer than I wanted, but it was well worth the wait. I want to give a special thanks to Ed Caffrey for sharing his experience, ideas, and tips along the way. Attached are a few pics of the build. I'm working on attaching some videos of the forge during its first burn, but I guess the files are too large to attach. Thanks to all for your very helpful suggestions as well!
 

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Johnny, you did a really NICE job on the forge and looks like it burns nicely. Note I can be really "picky" sometimes, but nothing I see to pick about.... well, I might have put the propane injection point right in front of the blower rather than middle of pipe to allow better mixing, but it looks like it's really doing good. Congrats on a good build.
 
KenH said:
Johnny, you did a really NICE job on the forge and looks like it burns nicely. Note I can be really "picky" sometimes, but nothing I see to pick about.... well, I might have put the propane injection point right in front of the blower rather than middle of pipe to allow better mixing, but it looks like it's really doing good. Congrats on a good build.
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Thanks! Actually, I’ve wondered about the placement of the injection point myself, and it would be an easy fix.
 
Great looking forge, really clean, I like it!

Just curious on your blower orientation. I wanted to orient my similar blower that way but the place I bought it was pretty insistent it could only be mounted horizontally. You had any issues or strange noise out of yours?
 
jaxxas said:
Great looking forge, really clean, I like it!

Just curious on your blower orientation. I wanted to orient my similar blower that way but the place I bought it was pretty insistent it could only be mounted horizontally. You had any issues or strange noise out of yours?
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No problems at all, or strange noise. I was going to mount mine horizontally but Ed C. convinced me that having the blower mounted below where the air is cooler would be safer in the event any trapped hot air should find its way up the tube once the forge is turned off.
 
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