ebay forge opinions

Might be a good starter forge, I do not like the way the burners are directed onto the work. To much oxidizing atmosphere. However the liner is rated to 3200f. I would call and find out how it holds up to Flux.

Chuck
 
Very wierd,, I bought this same model from this guy and it arrived this past Friday night.. It works awesome ! very hot... it even opens from the top on a hinge so you can do mtce or cleaning... If you want a ready made forge with no messing around ... then BUY one !

I started to get a list of everything I needed to make a decent one and then called around to get the soft firebrick and once company wouldn't even ship it because they have had too many problems with them breaking.. Once I realized the cost of getting all the bricks, steel, tubing, fittings... and since I just bought a wire welder and am pretty bad at it.. I just went ahead and bought one... .. Get one, you will be happy....

Also, if you are good with welding and have access to cheap or free steel, and can get firebricks locally... you can build one a lot cheaper.. but then.. will it work ?

Good luck !
 
For the same price you can build a large welding/heat treating forge and a smaller knife forge. Your better off making your own forge than buying one.
 
Many bladesmiths don't like having burners blowing straight into the forge. Like Chuck said, it hits the steel with the highest-oxygen part of the flame and also creates hot spots that make it harder to heat treat in.

That's why many like a cylindrical interior and a burner entering at a tangential angle to create a swirl to keep it more even inside.
 
Yep, im waitin on my Ellis forge...should be here before the weeks out
 
Burton said:
http://cgi.ebay.com/BLACKSMITH-LP-GAS-KNIFE-MAKER-GENERAL-PURPOSE-FORGE-NEW_W0QQitemZ200185108452QQihZ010QQcategoryZ13869QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Does anyone have an opinion on these? Am I better off trying to build my own?
Click to expand...


Burton,
Scrounge around for steel tubing! About 8 inch should suffice. I suggest building a much longer tube to build the heat in and a good face(fire brick or something) to help retain the heat in the forge. I think you might find a bit more satisfaction building your own!! I suggest wearing a mask when handling inswool/kaowool and you need to be carefull when working with galvanized steel(yes I weld it but I wear a respirator or a mask and remain upwind).
I spent about $117 for all the inswool, satanite and ITC-100 and have basically built two forges (a 24" and a 14") and have plenty inswool left over!! I bought the galvanized steel 8" tubing from a scrap metal place for $6 and spent $18 for the burner.
I had all the tools and stuff already so I can't price that for you.

Good luck, and let me know if I can help!
 
Stefanj did you make your burners to? To me that seems to be the biggest problem with building your own forge is getting the burners made right.
 
I have made my burners out of 1 1/2 inch to 2 inch plumbing pipe, a barbecue regulator, 1/4 inch pipe nipple and valve for the propane a floor flange to mount the blower and a squirrel cage type blower. I have 2 blowers, a 150 CFM I got for 60 bucks from centaur forge (turns out the same blower is cheaper from Grainger) and a 350 CFM I got from Grainger. Turns out both blowers are overkill, once I got my design worked out I probably only need 50 CFM which I could probably get from a hairdryer. The beauriful thing about forced air is that you can adjust your airflow and gasflow independently . It's really a brute force approach to tuning, but you can simply decide "I need more volume" in which case you open up your blower a little, or "I need more fuel" until you have the right flame at the right volume for what youre doing. BTW I have so far built 4 forges and maybe spent $360, 130 of which was on the really big blower which turned out to be unnessesery.

-Page
 
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