Gas Forge

yoda4561

yoda4561

Joined
May 28, 1999
Messages
2,606
Ok, me and a buddy have decided to put together the time and money to build a forge. We were planning on a venturi type, and maybe a forced air depending on practicality. Any advice on insulation, what is used with the forced air forges, basic design, etc.. would be greatly appreciated. Thanx!
 
Dan fogg has a great web sight that has plans (i think). I'm sure it also has links to sights that do. Another hint. Just about every blacksmith sight out there seems to have plans on building gas forges from parts you can get at the hardware store for 100.00 or so. www.dfoggknives.com/tools.htm
I think this is right. It ought to get yu close anyway. Good luck
Happycat
 
I would also contact Tim Zowada. He is very helpfull and I believe makes and sells his own special refractory. Everytime I think about getting into making a forge I get more knife orders!! One of these days......
 
This thread sounds familiar...
Yoda you may have asked me for more info in
the past. I'm sorry if I didn't get back to
you. There is a very good description of
a propane forge on Ron Reil's web site. http://www.webpak.net/~rreil/minifor.html
The two best insulation materials are a
castable refactory which mixes and pours like
concrete and Kao-wool a ceramic fiber. the
ceramic comes usually in a bat 1" or2" thick
2 feet wide and not sure how long but several
feet. The advantage of the fiber is that it
is easy to place and once the inside is smeared with a very liquidy light coat of high temp brick morter. Tenax or satinite it
will cure over night. and this type of forge
will heat up fast. but will also cool down
rapidly. The castable will take about twice
as long to heat up, but will hold heat for
annealing purposes. I got two of the fiber
forges and one of the castable ones. It is
very handy. Ialso have a picture of one of my
forges that is run by a hair dryer the other
one is a atmospheric burner. The castable is
run by a squirrel cage fan. The one run by
the hair dryer is my welding forge the incomming air is preheated by the dryer and
produces a great welding heat in a hury.

goshawk

------------------
http://www.imt.net/~goshawk
Don't walk in tradition just because it feels good!!!!!
Romans 10:9,10
Hebrews 4:12-16
Psalm 91

 
I just helped a guy complete a modified Dave Gingery foundry. Instead of using charcoal, we used a Ron Reil EZ-burner. We found the venturi burner very simple to construct using pipe nipples and adjustment was easy.

He purchased a 20# propane tank to run it off of and we did our first aluminum melt in it last night. A #5 plumber's pot full of Al scrap melted in about 15 minutes or so.

Gingery's books can be found at Lindsay Publishing on the web and run about $8-15.

The foundry was a stainless stockpot with a 2" lining of fire clay and fine silica sand. We got some small cracks in the lining, but seem to have patched it up OK.

The venturi was made using hardware store standard pipe nipples. We needed a drill and a hacksaw to fit it, and a tap & die set to secure it. The burner construction took maybe an hour and we had it firing and adjusted in another couple.

I may build another, horizontally-oriented design for forging.

Good tips can be found on the rec.crafts.metalworking news group.

Hope this helps.

Mike
 
My partner and I have been doing the same with the Gingery books. Great series, we're going to try to build the lathe next. My partner has been working all week on a forge using Gingery's refractory recipe and firebrick for the main body of the lining. We've been using an angle grinder for the shaping of the firebrick, but it would go faster with a lapidary cutting wheel of some kind. We should know how it works this weekend. We're using venturi type burners from parts purchased from Home Depot. I'll let you know how it works.
 
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