Finished the forge

Rick Lowe

Rick Lowe

Joined
Jan 6, 2005
Messages
1,331
Thought I'd post these pictures for the folks that are planning to make their own forge. Gathering the materials took longer than putting it all together. The case came from scrap yard ($8), refractory and burner from Darren Ellis, steel for stand was work throw away, so I've got about $120 total in this forge. It actually was a lot of fun building. I had never welded anything before, but my son had given me a used wire welder and I managed to stick peices together. Everything is firmly welded, but the bead looks like Fido's butt. I smoothed the welds and painted, so it is at least presentable. Biggest thing is that it works really well. Very nice swirl, no hot spots. Keeps forging temp at 5lbs. of pressure. The forge bolts to the stand and makes it all very easy to move.

Bare case
100_2779.jpg


With Inswool and soft brick
100_2819.jpg


Satanite and 2 coats ITC-100
100_2839.jpg


Fired and running with steel in the fire
100_2840.jpg
 
What are the dimensions on your forge?? Interesting use of the inswool to create a round archtop inside the square tubing. I saw your burner at Wiggins place before you picked it up. How well does it work? ...nice looking welds for the first time to me...MIKE
 
I just love the scenery at your place too. I had that picture of your anvil as my desktop for a while. Sweet. Ahh the beautiful south.
 
Mike,
The dome effect was to get a better swirl effect and reduce hot spots. I just followed the good advice from guys on this forum. The forge is 12" long, 8" tall and 6" wide (outside measure). I used 1" Inswool, 1/4" Satanite and 2 thin coats of ITC-100. The burner seems to work real well, but I'll probably play with it a little. I picked the burner up a Bill's on Monday and just got it fired Friday. Sorry I missed you over a Wiggins, but I couldn't stay late Friday and had to work Sat. Got over there last Friday afternoon and forged one with Bill's assistance.
 
Looks great! I just put the first coat of satanite on mine and can't wait to fire that sucker up. I really like the handle on top really helps to have something to grab onto if you're going to be moving it.....
nice job!!
Ed
 
The reason I asked about your forge size was it looked to me that you were pushing the limits of the one burner. Darren must be conservative on his burner to area ratio.

Ive always used round pipe...good idea on the arch made of inswool. Do you have a feel yet for gas consumption with that burner??

Sorry we missed at Bill.'s We had a great time both friday and saturday. I was probably involved in helping make the hammer about the time you were there....MIKE
 
Lookin' good Rick. I noticed a glass of liquid refreshment in that first photo. Wrong color for tea, and I know for a fact that forge building and sweet drinks don't go together:D

See you this weekend at Trackrock.

Robert
 
Thanks for the comments! Mike, I've only run it about 2 1/2 hrs so far and can't really tell what the consumption will be. After this weekend, I should have a real good idea. It does keep good temp at 5lbs. of pressure, but I don't know how that relates to gas consumption yet.

The case is 1/4" steel picked up at metal scrap yard.

Robert, yup, that warn't no sweet drink. It was late in the day and I just added a little "branch" to remove any sweet taste. See ya at Track Rock!
 
Hi Rick,

Sorry I missed you at Bill's hammer-in, what a great little hammer-in Bill puts on, I look forward to it each year! Glad you found your burner and stuff there. :) You may need to tune the burner for your particular forge, I set everything at a mid-point position when I send them out. The two adjustments you have are the position of the flare on the end of the burner tube and the position of the burner orifice within the opening....you just loosen the compression fitting to allow it to move in or out.

Mike, Those burners are good for reaching forge welding temperatures for a forge volume of 300 - 350 cubic inches.

:)

-Darren
 
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