Blown forge DONE! With PID to monitor temps...

Brian Ayres

Brian Ayres

Joined
Feb 4, 2011
Messages
1,429
So I pieced this burner together......

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I then got a piece of scrap 8" at the shop. Welded some scrap 3/4" pipe on for slide rails with some 1/2" solid for the tool rest. I also cut 2" slices off each end and welded them on to be able to both easily line the forge, and open the ends for larger pieces if needed....

This pic is before I redid the hinges at the top.....

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Added a salvage WH blower motor donated by Greg Haile... Greg helped with lining the forge and mounting the blower. :thumbup:

Lined it with 1" of 2700 degree? Inswool, 1/2" of 3200 degree cement and a 1/4"ish if IR reflector from a local company that makes heat treat ovens.....

Mounted it on an old Singer Sewing machine stand for artistic points...

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Picked up a regulator from a BBQ supplier, added a PID from Auberins with a thermocouple....

A little of this!!!:D:D:D



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And we were making fire! :):thumbup:

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We fired it so we could do some heat treating.... But got excited and I threw my 119# Kohlswa anvil on the garage floor and starting forging a quick blade out.... Didn't get to the bevels or setting the ricasso, before Greg's SWMBO shut our little fun down.... :( (to be fair,it was late, and we did zero sound dampening on the anvil...hammering on the concrete floor)....:D

Voila'!!

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We were able to hold temps with almost zero work to adjust with the needle valve and gate valve.
The Reg was running at 1 PSI or so. We ran it for 3 hours and maybe used 3-4# of gas.....

I'm pretty happy so far.
 
The burner comes in much like a b on it's side. Yes, a tangent. We played with the burner a bit to see the way the flame comes in and the flame swirls around the inside of the forge nicely. The couple of pieces of steel we put in before SWMBO shut us down had nice even color.
Greg is going to add a special touch to the forge in the next few days.

We were able to run it for 3 hours with no freezing up with the small tank.

Anything I should do differently?
 
Score card...

  • 10 for ample use of steel, bulk and mass
  • 10 for lots of valves and wires
  • 10 for a kick-butt adjustable stock holder
  • 10 for over the top hinges
  • 10 for the weirdest front door seen yet (just wondering, why aren't those bricks turned sideways?)
  • 10 for TC and PID computer usage
  • 10 for tight temp tolerances
  • 10 for low fuel consumption
  • 10 for stirring up the neighborhood with nigh-time pounding (of steel that is)
  • 10 for artistic value of recycled sewing table
  • 10 for partnering with a friend
  • 10 for posting pix on BF
  • =====================================
  • For a total out-of-the-park score of 120% GREAT !!!
 
Brian Ayres said:
The burner comes in much like a b on it's side. Yes, a tangent. We played with the burner a bit to see the way the flame comes in and the flame swirls around the inside of the forge nicely. The couple of pieces of steel we put in before SWMBO shut us down had nice even color.
Greg is going to add a special touch to the forge in the next few days.

We were able to run it for 3 hours with no freezing up with the small tank.

Anything I should do differently?
Click to expand...

Heck you had it up to temp, ran smoothly and consumed little gas. NOPE nothing you should be doing differently.
 
Thanks guys!
No Chuck, got my 8" wheel tuned up Monday. Should have 5 blades ready for heat treat by Sunday.

Thanks Phil. Maybe I'll see if I can pop a blower in the box of stuff I'm sending you?
It is heavy!
The front door came about because that was the only scrap at my shop at 11:00 at night! Thought it'd be a cheap guillotine door. :D

If I had it to do over, I'd make the opening exactly one brick wide with a similar rail for a firebrick at the back.

I'm glad I made the back open, Greg ground out a couple of 20"+ or so choppers in 5160 that will need to pass through the back door!

I do have a 3 phase blower with it's VFD that's just begging to go on a forge...:eek:
 
Ha, ha, ha...I thought the whole idea was for the brick to go laterally. Can you trim them to length?

Sure, if you can fit in a blower that'd be great. Can you get a piece of two of the 2x3 angle iron and pyro-ceram in too? :D:o:rolleyes:
 
Phil Dwyer said:
Ha, ha, ha...I thought the whole idea was for the brick to go laterally. Can you trim them to length?

Sure, if you can fit in a blower that'd be great. Can you get a piece of two of the 2x3 angle iron and pyro-ceram in too? :D:o:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

I'm picking up 30 pieces of Pyroceram in the next week, so, sure. I'll get a priority mail box and see what fits!
 
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