World's best thread about forges...

[UncleBillyKnives]

here are two more that i have. the mini forge works great for small blades using map gas. the coal forge, i have only fired up once using wood charcoal. i got about 20 tiny burn holes in my shirt that one time!

 

[JAWilliams]

My 2 brick forge. Not the best but works for now.

For a 2 brick that looks really sweet!!!

 

[Dave Jacobson]

The big one is one I made after reading one of Ed Caffery's threads about having a middle shelf, burners on the bottom and not blowing directly on the steel. The high refractry bricks I had in there quickly cracked and crumbled, and I made the burners too big (bad gas mileage). The other one is now my favorite. It heats up fast, cost under $100 to build, and it gets GREAT gas mileage.

 

[deker]

Make sure you post somemore pictures when you get it fired up.

Got some more work on this forge done this weekend...Since Ray asked so nicely, I'm posting more pics

I had to make it a stand. It was just to tall for the current forge stand. Yes, the legs are crooked. No I don't care since it doesn't rock at all

Added a 1/2" NPT coupler to to the top to screw the industrial head thermocouple into. (Note: I know I can't weld worth a damn, you don't have to tell me )

Hung it from the lift ring to give it a coat of VHT header paint.

First coat of satanite over the insulating wool.

Got the burner mounted.

I also got a second coat of satanite on and a couple inches of castable in the bottom forming a "well" that's going to be filled with kitty litter to catch flux drippings. I also have a piece of wool for the top that has one side coated with satanite. It will get laid over the top and then have the lid bolted down to hold it in place after everything is nice and set. Next time I'm in the shop I should be able to test fire it! I still need to hook up the temperature controller, but that should be about 10 minutes of work.

-d

 

[BossDog]

exactly what we need...forge build pics...nice Decker..

 

[Original]

Hey Deker, great job on your forge!!, I am building an multi fuel forge similar to yours, have a wayne highspeed blower/injection system, special burner for waste oil that is home fab,etc going to try and run vertical/horizontal gonna try anyway.

 

[JAWilliams]

Here's mine. Not the world's best, but it works . It's a Darren Ellis body and burner, btw. I put together the 2 stage burner and control based off of Stacy Apelt's design as well as lined the forge:


Before the lining:

--nathan

Nathan does this just sit in the camber or is it sticking more to the middle? How hot are you burning? Have you had any issues so far holding temp?

 

[deker]

I got to test fire the new oil fired forge this morning. Here's some pics and commentary...

Yup, that's fire!

Looks like I need to redo some of the lining in the inlet tube. I think this smoke is caused by a restriction.

Yup, there's definitely some unburnt fuel backing up into the burner inlet. You can see it dripping out here...

I can adjust the air into the blower with the ring and plate setup here. To get it running right, I had to all but shut off the airflow.

It does get steel hot though!

Left to it's own devices, this is about where the temp settles

-d

 

[silver_pilate]

JA, I haven't had trouble holding temps. I can hold anywhere from around 1500F all the way up to 2300+F (which is as hot as I've had it). It actually seems harder to hold the lower temps because there is such a small difference between hi and low stages, and it's difficult to get a slightly reducing environment at low temps. I forge in the 1900-2000 range, and once it settles down, it will hold within about 10F. It does tend to drift a bit over time, usually towards a lower temp, so an occasional slight adjustment to the needle valves is needed to keep the temp up (maybe once every 10 minutes).

As for the TC, it enters from the side of the forge and projects into the chamber about 2-3 inches. I'm not using the forge for heat treating, so I'm terribly concerned if the temp is exact. However, it seems to be pretty accurate as to general chamber temp, and it is very responsive.

Deker, I'm eager to see that thing tuned in. What a beast of a forge!!

--nathan