Forced Air Burner Forge Build

Jennifer P said:
nice work.. Being its been 6 months or so is there anything you would change now?
Click to expand...

First thing I would change is to go with 1'' wool in two layers instead of 2''.... rookie move there.

I think there would have been some advantages of constructing a smaller diameter burner? Not sure about that one. This forge gets extremely hot. I have to run it on 1/4 to 1/2 of a psi with the doors open and a muffle pipe to do any heat treating. I've contemplated getting one of the smaller burners from Atlas knife and tool to utilize for heat treating and use the blown burner for forge welding, etc.

If you're going to be using this forge to make basic knifes and such, I'd probably advise buying one from Atlas based on other reviews. My cost would have been cheaper or at least around the same if I bought a forge from Atlas. Just my opinion.
 
So I've had the chance to use this forge for a bit now. I'm finding that it's difficult to run cool enough to heat treat in easily, which is one of the main things I'm using it to do.

I was contemplating building a 3/4'' tube Venturi burner (Frosty T Style) to insert into the burner hole for heat treating... then use the forced air version when forging... Do yall think this is an appropriate option or could I modify my forced air burner (Pics on page 2 of this thread) to run cooler. My current burner has a 1'' tube; would reducing this size further make a difference?. I'm able to get it down to 1/2 psi after startup.

My though process is that with a larger burner tube the efficiency is diminished at lower volumes of propane. By decreasing the size of the tube and thus increasing the velocity of the propane and air; the smaller tubed forced air burner will work more efficiency at sub 1 psi pressures. Not sure if that's right though...
 
Many forges and their burners won't run well at HT temps. The solution is to used a heavy muffle pipe, and if needed make a smaller burner, either blown or venturi. This is one use for a too small blower - use it to make a small flame blown burner. Another option is to buy a small 35K burner from Charles at Atlas. They are really low cost and work fine for HT in a full size blown forge.
 
It's funny you brought the Atlas burner. That was an option I was considering.... I'm still kicking myself for not pressing the easy button and buying his forge from the start... The one I built will be good for tomahawks and Damascus, but it's a little overkill for my current needs.
 
Can always give it a try. I can attest to the burner tube size being finicky. On my larger burners, the .82" ID burners great from 2-20 PSI, .95" burns OK from about 5-20 PSI, and 1.06" burns phenomenally from 10-20, but will barely stay lit from 5-10.
 
The forge chamber is around 5.5'' in diameter and 13'' long. I was thinking of trying out your 30K 0.82'' burner to run at the lower temps... If it doesn't work out maybe I'll buy one of your knife forges for HTing 1084... Thanks for the reply.
 
I used a plumbers torch in an Atlas mini the other day for heat treating, because I didn't have a 30k burner with me. It worked great at keeping the lower temp for HT.
 
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