Gas forge makers

Sam Salvati

Sam Salvati

Joined
Aug 6, 2007
Messages
5,060
Since the shop is going into storage, I am looking to downsize. Frist bit of equipment I am gonna get is a good gas forge, I been shopping about and would like to know if anybody can help find more than I have already found. So far I have looked at

Tim Z's

Darren E's

Larry Zoeller's

Diamond Back ironworks

Chile Forge

NC tool's knifemaker's or one of the whisper forges

I want to weld in it, I do want solid cast refractory instead of the wool. So far Tim Z's looks the best, I think Kevin uses one, as does Rick (not definately sure though). I don't want a forgemaster, those burner ports are like wind tunnels. Leaning towards a blown burner more than an atmospheric for the less fuel option.
 
Talk to Darren Ellis. He can give you the advise to build one with castable lining (It is as easy as pouring concrete).His Cast-o-lite 30 is superb for a welding forge. Unless you are making a monster forge, it won't cost a lot either.The shell can be as simple as a 5 gallon paint bucket, or whatever. I know a guy with your abilities and ingenuity can do one easily.
Stacy
 
Of the ones mentioned, I've only seen Darren's and the NC in person. Darren's seems to be a quality forge designed by a knifemaker. The NC I've used didn't seem built quite as stout.
 
Sam

I don't know if you remember the little bottle forge I was running at Ashokan, but it wasn't hard at all to make, runs on next to no gas for forging heat, and can hum up to temps that are just plain too hot if you forget to turn the burn down once it gets warm inside! Absoloute control of atmosphere and fuel economy is a really hard to beat mix!

Anyhow, it really isn't difficult to make a good forced air forge once you get some basics down.

I learned to make a forge mostly by reading on the sites of Darren Ellis, Don Fogg, Kevin Cashen, and Tim Zowada. I see that you've started with Tim Z and Darren Ellis and some others that I didn't run into until after I had one built, so you're definitely off to a great start! Try Don Fogg and Kevin Cashen's websites, and I think you will find that your understanding of gas forge construction gets really very rounded out nicely.

IF you have any questions, try getting ahold of Delbert Ealy. As you know he's a great guy, and he gave me some fantastic advice about an earlier forge building project.

I would warn you about two things in advance. I don't know where I read it, but it turned out to be true even though I had read it in advance and was thus forewarned... Most people build threir first gas forges WAY too big! You're an experienced smith, so you know how long a section you can work in one heat, but don't overestimate the "other" dimensions you'll need for a good forge. For example, Del once told me that he casts his forge bodies around soccer balls!

The second thing I would wanr you about is castable refractory. This is a less common, but not rare mistake, in that many people use too much castable for the interiors (like I did). The problem there is the castable is not much of an insulator, but rather has a very high thermal mass. This means it takes a lot of heat to get it up to temp. If you cast the inner liner too thick, you may end up waiting a half hour to get your forge liner up to temp!
 
Oh, btw, if you do decide to go the forced air route, you can get a great deal on a blower from Yeoman Machinery's Ebay store. That's where I bought mine. He's a decent guy to deal with and he has way too many of these blowers!
 
Thanks George! I'll take you up on that some time for sure, I wish I had more time to travel.

While I would like to build it myself, I am fast running out of the place and access to equipment to do so, I have no problem buying one.
 
as far as darren is concerned i love mine,and the chili forge we used at the abs school seemed to take a long time to heat,and wasn't too popular,but that could just be that we were used to the forced air ones there. not knocking the product just an observation.
 
I recently bought a 2 burner from DiamondBack - have only used it three times. It is vastly superior to the home-made 1 burner freon tank I was using. Haven't had any success welding in it yet. But, that's probably because I don't yet know how to forge weld. Maybe I should do a search on, or start a thread for, forge welding.
Good luck
Jacque
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top