ArtMetal

Hi Folks-
Thanks everyone for your generous suggestions on this project. This is my forge I finally finished putting together. The forge is a little more than 500 cubic inches inside. The body is from 304 stainless 16 gage I got an amazing deal on at the scrap yard. The front door is on two sets of rollers that are mounted perpendicularly to each other, allowing the door to travel in both the y axis and the z axis. The door opens vertically up and down (in the y axis) for maximum visibility.

The door also travels in the z axis (straight out towards you) about an inch. Two springs hold the door tightly against the front face of the forge in any position the door is in, in the y axis. Pulling the handle (on the right) simultaneously pulls the door out and either raises or lowers the door. The door is on two counterweights to balance the door weight, which makes it very easy to raise and lower the door.

I used 4 inches of Kaowool on the inside (with three fire bricks for the floor), and three inches for the doors. I also used the ITC-100 on the inside and doors as well. I used two ¾" T-Rex burners. This is one very toasty forge (unlike my last forge that wouldn't even make toast…). From a dead cold forge, it takes less than ten minutes to heat a 1" round to cherry heat at 7 lbs of gas.
Rob