A two brick forge, here goes nothing.

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peppen108

Joined
Apr 14, 2012
Messages
663
A while ago I picked up some weight light weight bricks from a closed down brick factory. I would love to learn more about HT and eventually get in to the hole garden blacksmith thing.

So with no plan, some spoons and a banana bent and utterly destroyed mora knife I got started.


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Lessons leaned so far.

1. I gets to the critical temperature in the back.
2. Next time bring a fresh bottle of propane, I knew this would run out but I still got disappointed when it did.
3. The chamber is unevenly heated.
4. The burner will take time to heat the forge up.
5. It's surprisingly mellow looking.
6. I'm hooked.
 
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The gas bottle should not be used in a horizontal position. It should be very close to upright. A 45 degree angle might work. Anything less, and you will be trying to burn liquid propane rather than gas.
 
It worked because it was almost empty I guess. I guess I will have to build some sort of foot high stand whit other bricks.
 
So whats the next step.

1 Build a little stand.
2 Get more propane.
3 Build a little door.

What more is there to do to make it work better?
 
I built my first one about a month ago and it looks almost exactly like yours. On my next one ( I have about 50 firebricks that were in a shed on my property when I bought my house) I'm going to try to make the chamber more precisely round and put the burner farther to the rear and angle it forward slightly in an attempt to get the heat working it's way forward more evenly instead of having one hot spot. I also drilled the hole for the burner at the top edge of the radius instead of at the center (where the bricks meet) like yours. I don't know how much difference that makes.

I also had my chamber cut all the way through the bricks and had a third brick in the rear.
 
R.Markus said:
I built my first one about a month ago and it looks almost exactly like yours. On my next one ( I have about 50 firebricks that were in a shed on my property when I bought my house) I'm going to try to make the chamber more precisely round and put the burner farther to the rear and angle it forward slightly in an attempt to get the heat working it's way forward more evenly instead of having one hot spot. I also drilled the hole for the burner at the top edge of the radius instead of at the center (where the bricks meet) like yours. I don't know how much difference that makes.

I also had my chamber cut all the way through the bricks and had a third brick in the rear.
Click to expand...
If they're older bricks, they may contain asbestos. Be careful.
 
Angle the burner and have it offset so it enters at the top/side of the chamber and swirls nicely. Also, consider a better burner.
 
I guess he's not into self promotion, but for my second 2-brick, I used zaph1's tutorial in the WIPs that are in the stickies. I tried a cheap leaf burner (as is pictured) but it wasn't noticeably better than my standard trigger start benzomatic, and used a lot more fuel. I upgraded to the one zaph1 suggested, Mag-Torch MT245C. Much better output and noticeably hotter. As has been said, aim the torch in through the top brick and angled forward slightly, you want the flame to swirl, not run straight into the opposite wall.
 
Sure, you could do it that way, but I was just trying to help with the project he has going. You'll notice that my WIP uses the same arch bricks that Peppen108 is using. I really prefer drilling the hole through the front of the brick instead of trying to get a nice chamber the way it was done here. It ends up more round and even the way it's done in my WIP, but no one seems to do it that way so I don't promote it much.

Also, I'm not sure what torches Peppen108 has available in Sweden. Yes, I've tried over 15 torches now and the MT245C is by far the best torch that I've found.
 
Ok. Thanks! :) I might order on on line. I'm going to give this one a proper fire up before changing it thou. One always learn something. :) The entrance of the flame in to the chamber is of center but the bricks are not true (like zaph1 ones), the are cut at an angel for making arches or something. The reason why I chose a non circular chamber is because it creates more turbulence. That turbulence might hinder the swirl witch i now know might be bad. We, will see how this toss up works in a near future.
 
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