Building a liquid fuel forge

Z

Zippiot

Joined
Sep 22, 2006
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13
I just finished the separate burner (ursutz type) but it leaks flammable liquid a little...so that may have to be fixed.
I am planning on making it multifunctional, it can sit upright or on its side. While upright it can be a salt bath or cruicible furnace, while on its side it can act as a forge. It is my first large furnace/forge and I hope it works.

Having some problems with my fuel leaking...out of the refractory! Maybe its too porous, might have to seal it with something.

Pics soon...once I am no longer ashamed of how it looks
 
i've often thought about making a liquid fuel forge. When you get the bugs worked out of yours, let us know how you built it. :D
Welcome to the forums!
 
Good luck and BE CAREFUL!!
It is my experience that flamable liquids are far more dangerous to handle than powders and gasses.
 
The reason I am trying for liquid is that it is practically free and so easy to get...
My last forge was coal powered and that got to be a pain...I had so much wood but making it turn into coal before I used the thing wasn't much fun, added days to the process
 
I get unlimited free WVO (waste vegetable oil) which can melt iron and steel if used to its full potential!

Also I have diesel kerosine alcohol and gasoline/white gas as backups. I know that gasoline/white gas isn't a great idea but its cheap, readily avaiable and has more potential btu's than propane
 
Well again, good luck and be careful. Flammable liquids can get out of hand pretty easily, as I'm sure you know. I'd be interested to see some pictures when it's ready.
 
I've never heard of a liquid fueled forge before, sounds interesting, you must remeber to post photos, i cant wait to see it. i hope you have some close ups of the burner.
brett
 
Interesting thing about a liquid fueled forge is that the fuel is usually burned in a separate area. Look up ursutz burner (it is spelled that way); an ursutz is a box shaped device that, once heated, easily burns liquid fuels that are hard to ignite. If I wanted to run it off of only gasoline or diesel/kerosine then a separate burner is not needed, but it doesn't hurt if designed well.

The design is quite simple, a forced air device shoots air into a box. The box shape stirrs up turbulence in the air. Oil/fuel is dripped into the air stream, it is vaporized by the moving air. Mine actually uses a separate vaporizer but it works without one :) The fuel/air are mixed thoroughly in the box, which if preheated (torched or fire built inside box) lets the fuel burn. It is shot out an opening and into a forge.

Design considerations:
The box should be lined with refractory, if not the metal is likely to be useless after only a few firings.
If not preheated the oil will not light on its own. I solved this simply, run it off kerosine diesel or gas for a few mins then dump the oil into the fuel tank.
The burner can be separated from the forge body, so one burner can be used to operate a variety of heating devices given that its output is varied.


When waste veggie oil is burned completely (hot enough fire) is leaves fewer impurities and bi-products behind than propane!!!! I cannot verify if this is true...just told to me by an alternative fuel scientist.


So lets recap...
My burner is separate from the forge. Runs off gasoline for a few mins before the wvo is poured into the tank. Tank has a needle valve on it and is attatched to a compressor in a vaporizer set-up. This vaporizer is positioned to face right down into the burner. The forge itself can operate on its side for standard knife forging, or upright for salt baths and cruicible melting.

Oh and keep in mind, I have no idea what I am doing :P
Knives are new to me, fire is not
 
less than 15 mins later I go to check out my design and drop it...smashed to bits :)

It was broken anyways gonna make a new one...just sets me back a little but not too long now that the basic idea is worked out

The ursutz can be a cylinder, mine is going to be just because I cant find any metal boxes or sheet metal. The cylinder doesn't make as much turbulence as the box but it works
 
Exactly like that one!
The box is a pre-heater that brings the oil up to combustion temp. Hold a lighter to some motor oil and see if it lights...it wont. But put it on the range to boil then try to light it...well dont do that you cant put it out so easily
Going back to orchard supply to get some cheap sheet metal so I can make a good burner not a soup can burner.
 
OSH is having a big sale this weekend, I could wait another week to get my sheet metal or piece soemthing together out of cans...
I think I'll wait, sorry to keep you waiting for progress guys/gals
 
Heading to the store today to grab myself some more refractory along with sheet metal.

It should all be put together by the weekend and the refractory takes a while to dry...Mid next week by the latest will be the firing up party!

So for refractory I need sand perlite firebrick and some kind of clay, do you think OSH sells that all?
 
I started one of these last year,It is still setting waiting for me to work the bugs out.I cant wait to see what you come up with so I can finish mine:D :D
I am still making Charcoal though,not that hard.
Bruce
 
Burner is near finished, I ran it for about an hour today (lost 2 pounds in sweat!) and it was working fine on one fuel but terribly on another...

Need to adjust the length of the pipe sticking out the front, it is far too long.

Gasoline was working the best, kerosine was pretty bad and diesel was the worst. I was unable to get the kerosine and diesel to burn inside of the chamber, so results were pretty bad for a while.

Didn't get a chance to take pic sof it running, had to baby it while running non gasoline. I made a primitive forge out of some garden bricks, all of them inside glowed red hot for about 3 mins after I turned off the fuel!

Ill run it again tuesday, tomorow I will be attatching the air system better and cut the pipe.
 
Sprouted a leak today after a 2 hour run, gotta seal it up and should be back to running soon.

Made a crappy garden brick forge and was surprized when it melted glass and bronze...and it is still hot 5 hours later with the top off the whole time!!!
 
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