Anyone build their own forge from a portable air tank?

flatgrinder

flatgrinder

Joined
Dec 20, 2005
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Is this a viable idea?

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=40057

I was thinking about cutting off both ends, fitting hinges, using the ends as doors (one end will have a cut out for metal to go in), lining it with castable refractory cement and sticking a burner through the side.

Would the metal that the air tank is made of be too thin?

Should I use two burners or one?

Or how about using the 5 gallon tank and building a vertical forge?

Any advice would be really appreciated! Thanks.

:confused:
 
That's how I made mine but I would put the burners where they swirl more (I use a stainless muffle so it works that way but both burners are pointed directly at the center) and put another valve inline so I can run just one burner if I wanted to, but someday I'll change it. The thickness of the tank is fine and the outside barely gets warm even at 1850 degrees with 2" of kaowool and the refractory coatings used. The air bleed at the back now has a thermocouple in there hooked to my multimeter, this picture is about a year old and has held up very well.
 

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Thanks, it does work very well but I wish I'd taken my time and made it swirl instead of the blade getting a direct hit from the flame, but I do have a stainless muffle for heat treating.
 
Here's mine made from a cheapie air tank I picked up at Walmart. I cut the end off at the welded seam and discovered there was a steel ring inside the tank reinforcing the weld. Since I used a hack saw to do the job it took me a looooong time and plenty of sweat. The metal is thick enough to weld with caution. I used 1/16" 7018 running as low as I could and it worked great. Chain the beads so you keep the heat down. I lined mine with two layers of 1" inswool then put on two coats of satanite followed by a layer of ITC-100. Coated the bottom with a 3/8" thick layer of mizzou castable refractory to resist welding flux. The inside dimensions are 7.5" x 14". The front and back ports are both 3" square. The forced air burner will bring it up to welding heat in about 10 minutes. Make sure to install your burner tangentially to the inside of the forge so you get a good swirl going. This will ensure that you get complete combustion of the fuel and that the heat is even inside the forge chamber. And, yes, my blower is attached with duct tape. One of these days I will get around to making some other arrangement but it's worked fine so far. I have to keep up the redneck tradition since I live here in eastern KY.

K
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It funny that you mention this flatgrinder. I was thinking of doing the same thing. I have two gas forges but they are both square. I have an old air tank that I was not using and thought it would work great. Its cool to see that others have tried this.
Good luck.
 
I used an angle grinder with a cutoff wheel to cut the end off. The steel ring inside Ken mentioned was not something I was not expecting, I saved it to press into the Kaowool for a pattern for the back and the front pieces and cut perfect circles with it. I found a roll of Kaowool in 1/4" for almost nothing and rolled it up around a piece of 4" pvc drain pipe 10 times to shape it so it's actually 2 1/2" thick and covered it with ITC.
 
Beile said:
I used an angle grinder with a cutoff wheel to cut the end off. The steel ring inside Ken mentioned was not something I was not expecting, I saved it to press into the Kaowool for a pattern for the back and the front pieces and cut perfect circles with it. I found a roll of Kaowool in 1/4" for almost nothing and rolled it up around a piece of 4" pvc drain pipe 10 times to shape it so it's actually 2 1/2" thick and covered it with ITC.
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If I'd a knowed that the extra steel was in there afore I started I would have saved a lot of sweat and a little blood! Good idea on using those circles for cutting patterns. I did learn the value of the cutting disc and angle grinder though. I've spent the last hour or so cutting up a couple of 30 pound freon bottles to make a dedicated heat treating forge. The job went real SMOOOOOTH.
 
Yea that ducktape is good stuff! But yes I built my horizontal forge ala Ron Reils design in "Good Info Here"...it works great but I haven't tried to weld with it...probably build a vertical like Don Fogg's for that...used a large expendable freon tank that got tossed, cut out the top and bottom withsome of the curvature of the ends to hold the ceramic wool in and used a piece of kiln shelf for a floor and doors with small openings for forge access...used a Oliver upwind burner design which also works real well...but I think ablown burner is hotter.
 
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