Coffee can/weed burner rig

Tai Goo

Tai Goo

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Here’s my cute little weed burner rig. :) I posted it on another thread, but thought there might be some general interest in it.

The refractory is 1 inch high density thermal blanket saturated with cone 10 porcelain slip

The aromatic cedar splints make for a nice rich fire.

For forging…
DSCN2635.jpg


AND,… heat treating with the muffle insert…
DSCN2645.jpg
 
That is pretty neat. Its always interesting to see what people put together for little forges. What's with all the flames coming out though? For dramatic effect? Haha.
 
If I wanted to use the same concept for heat treating with a thermocouple in there what would you recommend?
 
Tai... I had a weed burner set up for about 2hrs and then took it down... the flames where shooting out 1.5 feet front and back. I wish i had known you better back then. Never thought about spacing the burner from the port and venting from the top, too. What is good about this set-up is there are no regulators needed. It looks scary as hell but it is pretty safe. I mean you can use those burners all day... that's what they are made for. No more dangerous than a BBQ.... well okay mabye a little more dangerous... but I've seen WAY more scarier home made LP forges than that.

My failed attempt...

080405044252.jpg
 
Tai,

That is a cool set up. Lowes also has weed burners aka forge burner.
 
Rick,

I was wondering what size muffle would be good and how large should the ID of the forge be with that set up?
 
Battle Creek Knives said:
does the muffle just aid in even heat?
Click to expand...

Yes, and you can create reducing atmosphere inside by putting a piece of wood in at in the back. I also use a splint in the outer chamber to shield the muffle itself. The muffle is a little extra long and sticks out the back to make room for the wood chunk inside. If done right, all you get is a little patina, but no scale or decarb.

If I wanted to use the same concept for heat treating with a thermocouple in there what would you recommend?
Click to expand...

Sure, or use some other method/methods for judging temps.

I've never used a thermocouple, but some of my students have. Rick knows better on that one.
 
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Tai Goo said:
Sure, or use some other method/methods for judging temps.
Click to expand...

Sure, I like what the little heat treating book says "The best way is to watch the color of the metal come to temp and keep an eye on the oven temp as well".

So I will watch for color, keep eye on pyrometer, test with magnet. Because after all if you only are looking at the pyrometer then you only know what it says, but your actual goal is to make sure your metal does what you want. Anybody who bakes cakes will tell you never go by time and temperature, always make your judgement on what you are actually cooking :)
 
AVigil said:
Rick,

I was wondering what size muffle would be good and how large should the ID of the forge be with that set up?
Click to expand...

You need enough space for the heat/flame to circulate around the muffle pipe. If your forge cavity is too small the burner flame hits the pipe too soon and you get inefficient combustion and hot spots in the pipe itself. The same goes for using a muffle with a coal forge... if it sits directly on the coals, you get cold spots. The weed burner suits a muffle pipe set up well because the flame isn't as concentrated but just as hot.
 
Tai, how come your forge has vanilla frosting on it?!?!? :confused:

:D

Super cool photos! Really interesting set-up too! :) :cool:
 
The frosting is just some porcelain slip that got on it. LOL

The refractory is so efficient that the cans never get hot. It's also such a nice light weight refractory that it heats up and cools down in seconds. So, you can turn it down between heats to save gas, although it's very efficient even with out doing that. It's nice to be able to bump the heat up or down so easy in general. It’s almost as “responsive” as a solid fuel forge.

Yes, the back of the muffle is plugged with a small roll of the refractory.
 
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That thing is nuts. But cool. It's odd, in the second picture down, when looking at the end of the muffle tube, if I cock my head to the right a little, it looks like there's a mask/face with a thin mustache peering out of the flame. Maybe I'm not fully awake yet...
 
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