best forge for under $300?

J

JZknives

Joined
Feb 7, 2013
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If I were to get a gas forge what would it be? keep in mind i would like it to reach forge welding temperatures easily and would like it to have a relatively scale free atmosphere.

also unrelated note

Is there a better alternative to the rubber hoses for propane tanks? Everytime i look at it i worry about explosions and it seems to degrade over time in the sun. Dont they make metal braided ones?
 
I'm pretty happy with my Atlas Mini Forge. It definitely gets up to welding temperatures. Jut keep some extra fire brick in hand as the flux will eat away at the very little fire brick that it comes with. Keep in mind this is from a stock removal guy that just recently got a forge.
 
While a mini forge will work, it won't keep you happy for long. For $300, I would look at a forge build kit from High Temp Tools and Refractory or just build one from scratch and use a pre-built burner ( or build the burner from a kit). www.hightemptools.com has all supplies and materials needed. A forge build is really a simple project.

The hoses for propane are pretty robust. don't know anyone who had one fail. Mine have been going strong for at least 15 years. Some are much older. I would say that replacing them every 10 years would be good safety, but I would guess that they will last a lifetime. Inspecting then periodically is a good practice for all pressure hoses. They do have mesh shielded gas hoses, and also mesh shields you can slide over hoses in areas where they may get damaged ( like near the forge).
 
While a mini forge will work, it won't keep you happy for long. For $300, I would look at a forge build kit from High Temp Tools and Refractory or just build one from scratch and use a pre-built burner ( or build the burner from a kit). www.hightemptools.com has all supplies and materials needed. A forge build is really a simple project.

The hoses for propane are pretty robust. don't know anyone who had one fail. Mine have been going strong for at least 15 years. Some are much older. I would say that replacing them every 10 years would be good safety, but I would guess that they will last a lifetime. Inspecting then periodically is a good practice for all pressure hoses. They do have mesh shielded gas hoses, and also mesh shields you can slide over hoses in areas where they may get damaged ( like near the forge).
 
I recommend you build your own forge- for $300 or under that's your option, for the features you want with a decent sized heat chamber. If minimal scaling is a requisite, I think a blown burner would be best... they are very adjusdtable. They work great for forge welding too, for that matter, as a reducing atmosphere at any temp is simple to maintain.
Building a forge is not that hard, you need a big pipe or tube, some kaowool and satanite, assorted pipe fittings, an adjustable regulator with gauge, a shutoff valve, not a whole lot else but about a weekend to build it in.
There's TONS of tutorial stuff on building a blown forge right here in shoptalk, as well as all over the web.
 
I use this metal braid regulator: search Amazon for part# M5HPR-30. I move my forge around per session (umm, shed to some spot in the backyard), so depend on the wind direction sometime high temp exhaust can wraps around toward the hose, therefore metal braid provides a bit of assurance. That said, a rubber hose would work fine for me - since the hose need to extend away from the forge to avoid high ambient heat.
 
I really dont want to build a forge to have it not end up working in the end. If i am going to build a forge i need a proven design with fixed dimensions.

Not sure how i feel about a blown burner as i keep my forge outside and dont like the idea of electronics failing and creating an explosion.
 
While a mini forge will work, it won't keep you happy for long. For $300, I would look at a forge build kit from High Temp Tools and Refractory or just build one from scratch and use a pre-built burner ( or build the burner from a kit). www.hightemptools.com has all supplies and materials needed. A forge build is really a simple project.

The hoses for propane are pretty robust. I don't know anyone who had one fail. Mine have been going strong for at least 15 years, and I have welding hoses that are 50 years old. I would say that replacing them every 10 years would be good safety, but I would guess that they will last a lifetime. Inspecting them periodically is a good practice for all pressure hoses.

They do have mesh shielded gas hoses, and also mesh shields you can slide over rubber hoses in areas where they may get damaged ( like near the forge).
 
No matter what kind of forge you have, if you keep it outside it should have some protection from the elements when not in use.
If your blower was to fail, you likely wouldn't get an explosion- more of a big flame up out your forge doors. As some one else said recently, I've heard about knifemakers getting burnt but never one getting blown up. And god help us there are no doubt some pretty dumb makers out there fooling with propane.

A little research will make it quite easy to build a forge and have it work well from the get go. For instance, a vertical or horizontal tube of 12" diameter with 2" of wool inside it, and 18" in length will work well with a blown burner with a 1.5" burner tube, as long as your fan is capable of 100 cfm or more, fuel is controllably introduced in the right area, and blast is adjustable by one of several means.

Sometimes you might have to tweak your burner design just a little after initial firing, but almost never anything really drastic like re-configuring the forge shell or re-lining.

By the way, what's your 20? Maybe someone here lives near you and could help.
 
It really is simple to make one. An 8" by 16" piece of pipe or some metal cylindrical object that basic size will be the shell. Finding the shell is the biggest part...and if you look around, you will see forge shells everywhere. The rest is a simple project and one order of materials from HTT&R.
 
Kinda looks like if the power goes out on an indian george forge and you don't notice, You will be buying a new blower, the burner pipe will act just like a chimney


A 30# propane cylinder makes a great forge body, I used a 20# and its a little to small, a fan from a hair dryer works great for the blower fan, hook it up to a car battery and there is no worry about the power going out, couple that with a 12volt rheostat from radio shack and the blower will be adjustable (hair dryer fans use dc current)
 
I'm with Stacy on this one. I'm impatient so when I saw the atlas forge for 200$ I jumped on it. I wanted to slowly introduce myself to forging but after hanging out with Dan Graves and using his forge you can quickly see how a small mini forge has its limitations. I'm mostly a stock removal guy but I just wanted that option with out investing too much incase it didn't work out. But if you have the time I would definitely build your own. Not too bad at all
 
If the power goes out on a vertical manifold burner (IG type), just shut off the gas valve and then the air gate. Or, just install the blower arm in place with the blower below the forge when you build it. A NC solenoid in the gas line is a good idea on any blown forge.
 
We bought a normally aspirated forge from Dave Lisch. It works great.

I think it was $300.

Chuck
 
clivehamilton77 said:
I'm with Stacy on this one. I'm impatient so when I saw the atlas forge for 200$ I jumped on it. I wanted to slowly introduce myself to forging but after hanging out with Dan Graves and using his forge you can quickly see how a small mini forge has its limitations. I'm mostly a stock removal guy but I just wanted that option with out investing too much incase it didn't work out. But if you have the time I would definitely build your own. Not too bad at all
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Ya i spent a whole summer forging with my ebay forge and it seemed like it was just wasting gas.

It was a 2 burner forge (they were not even really "burners") and even when you blocked the entrances is struggled to get to bright orange and would not under any circumstance forge weld.

This is AFTER i applied all those special ceramic add ons like ITC 100

So im really just looking for a small forge that will heat bowie sized (maximum) knives quickly and efficiently up to forge welding temperature and be minorly adjustable to lower temps that wont forge weld (or is a forge that forge welds completely fixed on its temp and it just depends how long you leave the piece in?)
 
A forge that will weld should not at all be fixed at that temp. You should have a range of possible heats, down to temperatures suitable for heat treating.
If you mean that you want to make damascus bowies, a billet for a decent sized bowie knife is not all that small of a thing... much bulkier than the blade will turn out to be. I'm not saying you need a huge forge, but it's easy enough to get into something with a fair sized heat chamber.
 
Salem Straub said:
A forge that will weld should not at all be fixed at that temp. You should have a range of possible heats, down to temperatures suitable for heat treating.
If you mean that you want to make damascus bowies, a billet for a decent sized bowie knife is not all that small of a thing... much bulkier than the blade will turn out to be. I'm not saying you need a huge forge, but it's easy enough to get into something with a fair sized heat chamber.
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1. about fixed temps

How adjustable is a forge that has venturi burners? is what you say possible with said burners?

2. How big should the forge be if I want to do damascus?
 
You can do decent billets in a 6" round heat chamber, horizontal forge- for a vertical forge an 8" round heat chamber would be better.
A forge with venturi burners can be pretty adjustable, sidearm burners with chokes work well in conjunction with an adjustable propane regulator. You just boost the propane pressure to achieve welding heats, the atmosphere can be dialed away from oxidizing by choking a little bit. My little venturi forge can be run at like 1 psi for very low heats, or cranked up to 10 psi or so for welding. That's with a IIRC a #59 jet.

One forge I had years ago was a 16" long piece of 10" round pipe, with two layers of 2400 degree inswool and satanite on top of that. It was heated by two 3/4" sidearm burners. The heat chamber was about 6" round, with a thin flat brick for a floor on top of the wool. That forge got stupid hot for welding and was pretty nice in general. Much of the time I used it with just one burner running for general forging.
 
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