8" Forge dimensions

I like how this is coming together.

My suggestion would be to stand the ovals on their 4" dimension. I rarely hold my piece flat on it's side and anytime I bump my forge, it's on the top of the openings.
 
Atlas Knife Company said:
Hehe, I've been talking to Ed Caffrey about the same thing. It would enter the forge more around 4:30, angling up. Here's a rough mock-up on the plans showing my thoughts. The chamber is shown by the red circle and the burner can be upto almost 7" long. I have plenty of room to do this with my burners, but blown and side-arm are considerably longer and may pose a problem.

While tipping over is a concern, my reason for doing it this way is to get the rubber hose out of the possible path of any heat. Thanks for thinking of me, though.


View attachment 568960
Click to expand...

That will work very well for your portable forge, and allow the burner and hose to clear the table side. My main reason was also to remove the hose from risk and damage. I think you have a great improvement in that one small change.

On a larger forge with a dedicated stand, I will make the burner port tube fully vertical will allow it to go right through the HT cart top.

I read Rick's suggestion about vertical ovals. I agree that in a small forge, you rarely need to lay the blade flat, and some amount of vertical clearance is perhaps preferable. Personally, I thing a plain 3" round port front and rear might be simpler.... and just as versatile. By round, I mean a circle with the bottom being a chord of 1.5" flush with the floor...so actually sort of "D" shape. Just a suggestion for consideration. Draw it up and see what it looks like.
 
I am 68 and just getting into knife making. I have most tools I need, including welders, mill, Grizzly knife sander, drill press, 20 ton press, etc., but I don't have a forge yet. I have built AR-15s and a .308 AR-10 from 80% lowers I finished on the mill, and 3 AK-47s using imported parts. All of these have been Cerakoted. I do not wish to start constructing my forge until I am comfortable that it is well designed and safe. In addition to using the forge for knife making, I also want to be able to heat treat AK-47 stamped receivers and other gun parts.

I have an 8X8X1/4" square steel tube that is 20 inches long. I plan to use 2 inch insulation all around, and close the ends with movable opening doors. My question is, how many burners should I put in a tube this large, and which kind are recommended. I want a fairly versatile forge that will handle short and reasonably long blades, but I don't know if I need 2 or three burners and how much spacing. I was impressed with Zoeller's burners, but haven't any luck at all trying to contact him.

Thanks!
 
Last edited:
A 20" forge would run fine of two blown burners. Square isn't quite as good as round, but all you have to do is put a piece of wool in each corner to make the main wool roll become round. The satanite coating will ten be able to round out the chamber even more.

BUT, for the type of HT you want to do, you do not want to use a forge! You want a 24" HT oven.
 
Here's a video of the forge at the hammer-in last weekend. You could hear the little spurt at the beginning. This stopped happening after about 10 minutes, although was prone to it when the wind blew a bit harder. After about 12 hours it started to run out of propane, but held up very nicely for the first and second day. Most of the time there were three people with metal in the forge, two in the front and one in the back. Not quite as hot as the dual burner whisper or Tracy's blown forge, but it was very nice and even with a very quick turnaround for forging. For what it's worth, I no-flux welded two san-mai billets in it and it welded fine. Amazingly, the Atlas gets hotter although not as even as this forge.

Future improvements include a longer burner and maybe a slightly bigger port. I'm also looking at shields for the burner to reduce the effect of the wind.

TC showed 2300° F at the front and 2150° F at the rear, while running at 15-17 PSI producing about 80,000 BTU

[youtube]_MS6Ah1Ljq8[/youtube]
 
Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
A 20" forge would run fine of two blown burners. Square isn't quite as good as round, but all you have to do is put a piece of wool in each corner to make the main wool roll become round. The satanite coating will ten be able to round out the chamber even more.

BUT, for the type of HT you want to do, you do not want to use a forge! You want a 24" HT oven.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info! Until I got to this forum, I hadn't thought about blown burners at all...... Now I've got a whole new can of worms..... Where should I go for Ideas and parts?
 
I would say who's your target customers? If it's someone like me who is new, I wanted a forge with a thermocouple opening so I can tell where I'm at heat wise.
 
D_Golden said:
I would say who's your target customers? If it's someone like me who is new, I wanted a forge with a thermocouple opening so I can tell where I'm at heat wise.
Click to expand...

It's so easy to grab a cordless drill and drill a small hole for a TC that I don't bother. Second, if I drill the holes and someone doesn't use a TC, then there's an unwanted hole. Plus, every time I've used a TC I just stick it in the rear opening, then the front opening. That way I get front/back readings and is more accurate.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top