Drum forge WIP

[Phillip Patton]

Hey all,
I looked in the stickies, and couldn't find any tutorials or wips for a drum forge, so I thought I'd share some pics of the one I'm building.

The inspiration for this design mostly comes from Don Foggs site. There were some details lacking in the threads I read there, so hopefully this will be helpful to someone.

This forge is just going to be used for heat treating swords. Right now my oven limits me to blades 20" or shorter. This drum forge will limit me to blades 48" or shorter.

One drum is only 35" tall, so I had to use two:

I cut them in such a way that the two pieces fit together, like so:

Now a hole is cut in the top where the blades will be lowered in. Also, small holes are drilled in the top and the sides. These will be used to hold the kaowool in place.

I'm using old burned out heating elements to hold the wool to the sides and top. The coils have to be straightened out, then cut to the lengths needed:

More to come later...

 

[Dixieblade57]

This is interesting! What are you using for burners? How are you planning on measuring the heat and how are you going to control it?

 

[Salem Straub]

Cool, Phillip. Thanks for doing this, I've been about to build the same type forge for the same stuff. This should really help with that. I'll be watching for future developments.

 

[Phillip Patton]

This is interesting! What are you using for burners? How are you planning on measuring the heat and how are you going to control it?

I'll be using the thermocouple and controller from my salt pot to control the temp. I'll be using my regular forge burner for heat. I've toyed with the idea of installing electric coils and using this for tempering too. I can always add them later.

 

[Phillip Patton]

Cool, Phillip. Thanks for doing this, I've been about to build the same type forge for the same stuff. This should really help with that. I'll be watching for future developments.

You're welcome! This way you can learn from my mistakes.

 

[Phillip Patton]

Today I went and bought a roll of kaowool. $.95 per square foot. Seems like a good price.

Anyway, the next step is to cut the round pieces for the top and bottom. I used the barrel as a template:

Now put in in the bottom of one of the halves:

Now it's time to cut out the piece for the sides. My barrel is 22" in diameter, times 3.14 = 69", minus 1" = 68". You should do what I didn't do and cut the ends so they're angled, that way you won't get a wedge shaped gap at the ends.

Now put it in:

and then trim flush with the edge of the barrel:

 

[Phillip Patton]

The short pieces of wire are now bent in half:

and inserted through the holes drilled in the sides:

Now the long pieces of wire are threaded through the short ones:

and the ends of the short pieces sticking outside the barrel are bent over while pulling gently on them. This holds the wool against the barrel.

Same thing is done with the top half, except it has wires holding on the end piece, and it has a hole in the middle:

 

[Phillip Patton]

BTW, I ended up drilling the holes for the wires out to 1/4".

Now the inside is coated with a thin mixture of satanite. This makes it a little more durable, and keeps the fibers from becoming airborne and killing you.

It goes on better if you spray the wool with water first. Don't soak it though.

 

[Matt Brook]

Good stuff Phillip,

Subscribed.

 

[thegeek574]

my satanite equivalent has always been a thick paste. I put it on like a separate layer. hmmm.

 

[12345678910]

Only one layer of blanket ?

 

[SBranson]

Very good thread. Can't wait to see what kind of performance you'll get.

 

[Phillip Patton]

Ok, time to mount the drum on a base. I'm just using two pieces of angle iron tack welded to the bottom of the bottom half.

Make sure you drill the holes for the casters first. Now install the casters:

Then I cut the hole for the burner nozzle. I used a torch, and after the hole was cut, used the flame to melt a hole through the kaowool:

Now the top is set on the bottom. I may tack weld the two together. I'll see how stable it seems first.

Next I need to see if my controller still works, and make sure it's reading correctly.

 

[silverband]

Hey Phillip,

After you build me the camp knife we spoke about I'd like to
order a Rocketship from you, since apparantly there's nothing
you can't build. Great to see a true all around craftsman!

D

 

[efleming]

Hello Phillip,

This is looking very good. One question... Wouldn't you want to lay this horizontal to ensure you have an even heat for the entire length of the blade? I'm thinking out loud here but I would think that you would have a higher heat (rising heat) at the top of the drum. If you lay it horizontal, I would think you also would have a higher temp towards the top of the cylinder but, your sword would lay through a constaint temp heat layer. Putting your thermocouple at the height of the sword would ensure you keep proper temp at entire length of sword. Salt pots are different as the liquid salt transmits the same temp all the way through. An air environment will have to be handled a little differently. You might want to drill some temp probe holes along the length of the drum vertically so you can test out the temps at various heights before you use it.

Again, very nice Phillip but I cannot help but to think of the physics out loud. If someone has already experienced this, please chime in... My thoughts may be all wet (not the first time)

Eric

 

[Phillip Patton]

Hello Phillip,

This is looking very good. One question... Wouldn't you want to lay this horizontal to ensure you have an even heat for the entire length of the blade? I'm thinking out loud here but I would think that you would have a higher heat (rising heat) at the top of the drum. If you lay it horizontal, I would think you also would have a higher temp towards the top of the cylinder but, your sword would lay through a constaint temp heat layer. Putting your thermocouple at the height of the sword would ensure you keep proper temp at entire length of sword. Salt pots are different as the liquid salt transmits the same temp all the way through. An air environment will have to be handled a little differently. You might want to drill some temp probe holes along the length of the drum vertically so you can test out the temps at various heights before you use it.

Again, very nice Phillip but I cannot help but to think of the physics out loud. If someone has already experienced this, please chime in... My thoughts may be all wet (not the first time)

Eric

You might have a good point. I won't know until I fire it up how even the heat is. Others who have built them claim they heat very evenly. The reason I'm doing it upright like this is that long thin metal like a sword tends to bend like a wet noodle when you bring it up to 1500 degrees...

 

[efleming]

You might have a good point. I won't know until I fire it up how even the heat is. Others who have built them claim they heat very evenly. The reason I'm doing it upright like this is that long thin metal like a sword tends to bend like a wet noodle when you bring it up to 1500 degrees...

Looking forward to hearing how it works Phillip. If others have reported even heat with this design then it should work fine. It is looking great. Nice job!

 

[Robert.B]

Looking forward to hearing how it works Phillip. If others have reported even heat with this design then it should work fine. It is looking great. Nice job!

A friend of mine has a similar setup and the key to consistent heat was correct aiming and blowing pressure of the burners and getting a good vortex of heat moving through the chamber much like you would a horizontal forge...it does take tweaking to get it right and avoid a cool or hot spot but I think vertical stuff like this can have great results (especially for swords) if you take the time to prep it right.

I will be keeping my eye on this and saving the threads link for future reference. Great thread, thanks for posting it Phillip!

 

[JMJones]

You might have a good point. I won't know until I fire it up how even the heat is. Others who have built them claim they heat very evenly. The reason I'm doing it upright like this is that long thin metal like a sword tends to bend like a wet noodle when you bring it up to 1500 degrees...

If you decide to use it vertical, making a wire basket that hangs the lenght of the forge that they blade rests on reduces the blade bending considerably.

 

[Phillip Patton]

Well, I just fired this baby up for the first time. I had to make a new burner nozzle first, because the type I use for my forge wouldn't work for this. Not enough back pressure I think. I'll take some pics of the burner.

Before I use it, I need to make sure that my controller/thermocouple is accurate.