Finished Forge- Thanks!

Rob Sigafoos - Friday, April 18, 2008 - 1:17pm

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

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Great looking forge Rob, I

eligius1427 - Friday, April 18, 2008 - 3:26pm

Great looking forge Rob, I like the counterweight doors. The forge I took my first class at used them and they were very convenient. Why the need for the Z-axis for the door? Did you make or buy the burners? Natural Gas or Propane? Sorry for all of the questions, but I'd like to try building one myself. Can't wait to see what come out of your new piece of equipment.

Jake

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Thanks Jake! The reason for

Rob Sigafoos - Friday, April 18, 2008 - 4:43pm

Thanks Jake!
The reason for the z axis door was to allow the door to seal tightly against the forge frame, but still be able to travel up and down easily without abrading the insulation off the door. I couldn't figure out a way to hang the door and still have it seal against the forge frame.

The burners I bought from E&R Enterprises in Smithville, GA (hybridburners.com). They are the 3/4" T-Rex burners that are really unlike anything I have seen before in terms of efficiency and heat output. They are propane burners (can't get natural gas here).
Rob

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Hi Rob,I want to make a gas

NELSON - Friday, April 18, 2008 - 8:58pm

Hi Rob,I want to make a gas forge, and will start once I have all the info needed, thereof avoiding mistakes. Why did choose venturi over fan blown burners? I hear the venturi are noisy and roar like hell.What`s the advantages and drawbacks ? I do have a new fan and would definetely like to use.Likewise, I also have a pile of new industrial use fire bricks I bought long ago, and they will have to be used,no fire wool around here. One concern I have is what happens if the iron piece inside furnace is hit directly by the gas/air mix? Won`t there be a hotter spot and the flame might burn a hole before the whole piece is heated? Does this mean that the burner port or inlet into the forge should always be at least slightly higher than the piece to be heated? Thanks for input Rob, and excuse me if some issues are obvious, not to me yet! Thanks.nelson.

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Hi Nelson! Regarding the

Rob Sigafoos - Friday, April 18, 2008 - 9:33pm

Hi Nelson!
Regarding the blowers, I don't have any experience with the fan driven burners. It is quite likely that someone else on this website could give you a good comparison between the two types. You may also check out Ron Reil's site (http://www.abana.org/ronreil/Hybrid.shtml). As for me, I went with what I had experience with. I am a former horseshoer, and just about everyone who uses a gas forge in the profession uses the venturi type, perhaps because they are more portable (no electricity required)?.

These burners I am using are very quiet (unlike my previous forge). When I first fired it, I had to keep checking to make sure they were still burning. This will take some getting used to. This may be due in part to the amount of insulation I used, but they were surprisingly quite even when I free air fired them when I was tuning them.

Regarding the insulation, there are several forge designs on the web that are made entirely from fire brick and obviously work quite well. The advantage to this type of forge is that they are easily reconfigured since the bricks are dry stacked without mortar to make the forge. This would give you a lot of latitude to build a forge for any size project you were working on.

Regarding burning a hole in a project with the burner, don't worry about it. The burner nozzle is up inside the insulation so the entire inside of the forge is evenly heated. Another advantage to gas over coal is that you don't burn things up as easily as you can with coal.

Good luck with your forge, Nelson. Please post us some pictures of your design.

Rob

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Rob those burners you bought

NELSON - Saturday, April 19, 2008 - 8:02am

Rob those burners you bought are definetely top quality, and right know it`d be difficult for me to getèm from here. Anyway, I like the no-electric-power feature of venturi burners, so that`ll be the next step. I will start with what I have and that`ll be a good start. Thanks. nelson.

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