Cool mod for gas forges

ardenwoodforge

ardenwoodforge

Joined
Apr 23, 2004
Messages
22
An air curtian to keep the heat off your hand while working a piece in the forge. I saw one on a big commercial blacksmithing forge, and thought it could be scaled down for the home shop folks. I put this one together with a hair dryer and a section of 2" rain gutter down spout. I put a crude 1/8" by 6" slot it it right at the forge opening. I hooked it up to my horseshoeing forge (NC Whisper momma) and by golly it worked just fine. I was running the forge at about 7-8 psi with both burnners going.
 

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Scott, That's a very cool mod fabrication!!! (pun intended :D ) Thanks for passing it along and including the illustrative pictures that makes it all very clear.
 
That's a cool mod, Scott! (pun not intended :footinmou )

I have been using a muffin fan I ripped out of an old piece of electronic gizmo-somthing-or-nother-whatever. I never did figure out what that was, I think a server maybe. Anyhoo... I used a big pipe clamp and a threaded rod to position it to blow across the dragon's breath. Worked fine, but man, I like your idea better. Its like an air knife!
 
Very nice, I heard about that the first time from a freind of Ed Halligan's. Like Peter/Don said though, just hadn't gotten around to trying it yet. Thanks for the tip.
 
Will the pipe ever get hot enough to melt the hair dryer?
 
I really like this idea Scott! It's back to the shop and to my forge and see what I can come up with. As hot as it gets in Uvalde, Texas, I don't need any additional help from the forge, and this air knife (I like that Jeff) is just the ticket.
 
Daniel Koster said:
Will the pipe ever get hot enough to melt the hair dryer?
Click to expand...

Daniel,
As long as the hair dryer is running it should constantly be cooling the pipe. I would not use this particular arrangement for any legnth of time though. I just quickly put this together as a temporary test (took me 15 min to do)to see if it would work on a small scale. I did not run it for more than a half hour (No melting problems for that time) because I had to get the hair dryer back to the house before "She" missed it. :eek:

If I was going to make it a regular attachment to a forge I would definatly have the air source further from the forge to prevent any heat build up. The big one I saw used bleed air from the forced air burner assembly.

I would definatly recomend a pipe with at least .0625 wall thickness, and have the air blower set away from the heat.

Scott Thomas
 
I thought of something guys: Would there be any concern for this fast moving air to affect the metal as it leaves the forge? I realize the withdrawal would be quick, but that's a lot of O2 being added right at the opening. I need all the help I can get when making Damascus billets, just wondering if this is a consideration or not.
 
how about hooking up a foot switch to the motor? that way the motor would only run while the foot switch is down, which would be while you are in front of the forge, let off the foot switch before you pull out the steel.
 
I have ran with and with out cant tell that much difference in what's its doing as to the steel when to me once its out in the open its exposed to air any way that brief slip though the air curtain want make that much change
the way I have built mine is to put a ( Y ) in the pipe from the blower to divert air from the blower to a vent at the mouth of the forge ,
one half goes to forge the other to the mouth, air flow can be set with a damper , and they are nice
 
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