Burner Placement & other general startup Q's

[69_knives]

If everything goes the way I've planned, I'll be building my burner today and annealing some spring steel today.

Q1; Most of the forge pictures I've seen have the burner placed at the side, blowing in horizontally or slightly upward, so I assume that is the best position. Is this just for ease of working with the burner or safety of not having hot stuff potentially fall on controls and hoses if it were placed underneath and blowing upward into the forge?

Q2, Does the burner have to be tightly sealed where it enters the forge? The forge will be fire brick so will I be able to just open a gap and stick it in there or should/must I seal it up. If it must be sealed will a wad of fiberglass placed as far as possible from the hot end work?


Q3; Forge or Grind? Obviously, if you use round bar stock, the answer is forge but if you have flat bar stock, say 3/16" do you still forge out your blades or simply grind them and just use the forge to HT?

One more; Does firebrick have a tendency to break at forge temps or is it pretty stable. I'm planning on two pieces of angle iron for the base which will support all of the brick and want to know if this is adviseable or not.

Any answers appreciated and thanks for reading!

 

[Will Leavitt]

Answers inserted:

If everything goes the way I've planned, I'll be building my burner today and annealing some spring steel today.

Q1; Most of the forge pictures I've seen have the burner placed at the side, blowing in horizontally or slightly upward, so I assume that is the best position. Is this just for ease of working with the burner or safety of not having hot stuff potentially fall on controls and hoses if it were placed underneath and blowing upward into the forge?

The burner should be place to blow at a tangent to the forge body so that it creates a "swirl" going around the inside of the forge body. Think of the center of the forge as the eye in the storm. This helps to eliminate hot spots and creates an even heat in the forge body.

Q2, Does the burner have to be tightly sealed where it enters the forge? The forge will be fire brick so will I be able to just open a gap and stick it in there or should/must I seal it up. If it must be sealed will a wad of fiberglass placed as far as possible from the hot end work?

No, I can easily remove the burner and it has a slight amount of play in the fitting so I can fine tune the "swirl". It will be more efficient if you have a tighter gap than just moving a brick over.

Q3; Forge or Grind? Obviously, if you use round bar stock, the answer is forge but if you have flat bar stock, say 3/16" do you still forge out your blades or simply grind them and just use the forge to HT?

I forge flat stock and round stock. I still have to grind after I forge.


One more; Does firebrick have a tendency to break at forge temps or is it pretty stable. I'm planning on two pieces of angle iron for the base which will support all of the brick and want to know if this is adviseable or not.

Dunno, never used firebrick in this application, sorry. I do know it will blow up if it's gotten wet then heated up.

Any answers appreciated and thanks for reading!