How hot is my forge?

Aiko555

Aiko555

Joined
Apr 11, 2003
Messages
154
I just finished building my forge using a Zoeller side arm burner. It is 18" long 10" pipe. It does not seem to be getting hot enough. Steel is coming to orange but I need to hold it up near the burner.

How do I get an idea of the temp in there? When I was at the last NECKA Hammer in the 5160 steel was yellow-orange and moved around under light hammer blows pretty easily.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

PJG
 
I think it's a little much to expect a single venturi burner to adequately heat a 10" diameter 18" long forge. The side arm burner is supposed to be much more efficient than the Reil style EZ burner I use, but I think that may be expecting a bit much, however I haven't used the side arm burner yet. A single very efficient venturi burner would work great in say an 8" diameter pipe forge that is 12" long.

My next question is have you blocked off the ends of the pipe somewhat? When using a venturi burner you can't close the forge chamber off completely but you do want to make the openings much smaller in some manner.

Lastly, what kind of refractory are you using in the pipe? Remember when you are dealing with the ceramic wools it's the density of the wool you want to be concerned with and not so much the temperature rating, and you want a higher density wool. Coatings of some kind help as well, like satanite at least, which is fairly cheap, or ITC-100, which works great but is fairly expensive.
 
I'm using the side arm burner and my inside chamber is about 6" in diameter and 18" long. It is plenty hot.

What color is your flame? Is it pulsing?

Steve
 
My forge fire box is 6" X 6" 30" long with 6 side arm burners in it, this is the recommended number for that volume fire box according to info on the Ron Riel site. I am running #35 tweeko tips in the center 4 burners and #40 in the end burners. I have made doors for both ends with ports that are 3x2 1/2".
At 25 lb. pressure I get 2500Deg. Hope this helps. Gib
 
In addition to what the others have said, I'll throw in there that it may be your regulator...what is the maximum pressure you're using? Those red hat regulators that only go up to about 17 psi will only get an 8" x 12" forge chamber to about 2000 degrees with the side arm burner....so, just another thing to think about while troubleshooting the problem. Also, your forge volume is around 452 cubic inches after the refractory is in place (assuming you're using 1" thick ceramic fiber blanket), so you need to think about that in relation to your burner size.

:)

-Darren
 
You guys are great! I am going to shorten the chamber and put another round of Durablanket and Plistix in there to reduce the size. I am running a heavy duty regulator and although I wanted to keep this venturi I know IG is probably gonna call for addition of a blower of some sort. Do you think that might increase temp as well?

I have a nice blue flame - no pulsing and am running it at 18-20 pounds/

Thanks Again,

PJG
 
Hmmm, somthing doesn't seem right, you ought to get forging temps at 5 lbs. of pressure or less, at least that's my experience with the simple EZ burner. Perhaps it's just the large chamber, let us know how things work out.
 
Rio Grande sells plastic disks that melt at certain temps for lost wax burnout. If you want to get an approx. number.

Bryan
 
Guy, I have been told that all the pressure needed is 5 or 10 lb. but pressure is only part of the story, what is the size of the jet? The only way I have ever got welding temp. is to turn the pressure up on any forge I have used.
My forge will go down to less than 5 lb. but the temp is a long way from welding temp. In my experience there are a lot of factors in what determines temp. Gib
 
John Martins VERTICAL forge is about 18" diameter and 24" tall lined with kwool

The plumbing is a simple 2" pipe elbow ,gas line and a hair dryer stuck in the open end of the 2" pipe. Reaches welding heat quite handily.

Something is wrong with your set up. Ya got a pic???
 
I'm gonna work on getting some pics up here..... I still think that I'll reduce the size of the chamber. The burner fires real hot outside of the forge at 4 lbs pressure, so it's not the nozzle I don't think.

PJG
 
Gib Guignard said:
Guy, I have been told that all the pressure needed is 5 or 10 lb. but pressure is only part of the story, what is the size of the jet? The only way I have ever got welding temp. is to turn the pressure up on any forge I have used.
My forge will go down to less than 5 lb. but the temp is a long way from welding temp. In my experience there are a lot of factors in what determines temp. Gib
Click to expand...

Gib, my forge is a mini-forge made from a freon tank can so the chamber is about 10" long by about 6-7" in diamter. It has a double layer of 1" kaowool and is coated with ITC-100. A single Reil EZ burner with, if I rememebr right, a No. 58 drill jet apperture, running at 3 lbs. of pressure gets this forge to around 1850 degees F. Unfortunately while I can cut the pressure down to, say a half pound, (and it's huffing at that pressure) the temp only comes down to about 1700 degrees. It handily gets up to welding temperature from about 5 to 10 lbs. of pressure. The EZ burner works great but it's only seems adjustable, at least in my small forge, over a limited range of temperature, from say 1700 degrees to around 2200 degrees or so.

If I get off my butt here I will have a vertical forge with a squirrel cage blown burner soon, but it will be designed for forging operation only. Hopefully I will also have a workhorse general forging/welding forge soon as well and I want to use one of the very efficient burners that have been designed on Ron's website in it.
 
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