Mini forge

H

hellgap

Joined
Dec 17, 2008
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I am building a mini forge . Its inside the house hopefully its ok .I just started on it today my friend had some thick wall pipe its 1/2 inch thick and inside has a 4 inch opening. I welded some 2x2 angle on for legs at either end and made 2 round doors that will be welded to a hinge to open . The 2 holes will be cut in the pipe and then 2 small 1 1/4 inch pipe welded to that handles of rebar for the doors and a 1 1/2 inch rectangular viewing window. I will use 2 propane soldering torches for my heat source. I will make a better one in a few months it takes time to get all the stuff soft furnace bricks are hard to come by.the holes for the torches will be on opposite sides of the pipe and 3 inches apart in the center area of the forge. Any sugestions to make it better. I have no refratory brick or cement yet and where can i find insa wool . ALL SUGGESTIONS WELCOME THANKS KELLYW
 
Just make sure you have plenty of ventilation. Running a forge indoors is generally frowned upon because of the CO2 and fumes that they put off. Not to mention the fire hazard. Keep the extinguisher handy.

--nathan
 
I forsee a blade shape being burned into your floor when you drop a hot piece of metal. What's wrong with the patio? This reminds me of people cleaning their car parts in the dishwasher, or building an engine in the livingroom.

Ceramic wool is easier to find than soft fire brick. Most fireplace shops carry 1" wool because they often wrap the outside of inserts with it. I built a forge with ceramic wool from a fireplace installation shop and it works very well.
 
patrick and blalongi thanks for the help and advice will i need 2 torches and this pipe is 4inch diameter so if i use 1 inch fire matt that will still work fine here is my forge i finished it today.
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Kelly, you're right, you DO weld ugly :p

Looks like a nice forge, I'm not sure about the 2 torches in the middle like that but I've never run a small forge like that.
 
You will probably need two torches, I'm assuming JTH-7s, because a 4" pipe won't leave you much room for a chamber after you install the kaowool and coat it with satanite or watered down furnace cement. The walls of the forge will have to be very thin in order to make it usable, which means it won't be very efficient and retain heat.
 
Oh, and I run a single JTH 7 in a double coffee can forge and am able to do most anything short of forge welding.

They are only $29.99 at Lowes.
 
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hellgap, if interested I have about 50-100 sq. ft. of k-wool, and 2 cases of soft firebrick.

email me if interested.

andrew
 
Hellgap, you will need to get some ITC-100 to seal the kaowool. You can get it all from Ellis Custom Knife Works.

Good design. I would have made the burners come in on the same side so they won't be fighting each other for swirl. You may have a cold spot in the middle.

I second the JTH-7s. That thing is less like a propane torch and more like a small jet engine. It packs a lot of power for such a small size. Get a propane tree and hoses and run it off of a 20lb tank. Anything less you will be dissapointed with.

I run a single JTH-7 in a stacked brick forge and I can easily forge weld with it, but it has a pretty small chamber.
 
thanks ya all thats what im going to get i dont think ill need 2 torches my inside area will be like 2 inches x 12 once i put the wool in my inside diameter is only 4 inches a little to small i didnt know that the wool was that good that i didnt need to have thick walls or i woulda built a bigger one. Also my friend has all kinds of big stainless pipe he said i could have a 18 or 24 inch diameter piece but i think thats a little to much and its to hard to weld for me.Oh ya the JTH7 was what im looking for for a torch where do i get an adaptor for a 20 pound tank . thanks kellyw
 
I forgot to thank WILL for the compliments on my welding lmao .I never used the rod my friend gave me and i didnt know what i should set the welder so 20 min later i figured that ill just go get some 7018 and make nicer welds lol. I might even give up on this forge and build a better one slightly bigger to accomidate the propewr amount of insa wool and do it right.I ll tell you WILL i am fussy on my workman ship . If i dont like it ill start over and redo it right.I think a old 40 pound propane bottle would be a good forge.kellyw
 
With a chamber that long, one torch burner will not get the forge evenly heated, in my opinion. I think you should go with two or look into a forced air solution. As far as the walls, they really just hold things together, I built a forge with just the ceramic blanket and satanite once, I simply smeared satanite evenly across an entire bit of blanket and then rolled it up.
 
I don't know about forced air in a forge this small. I would worry about having a really hot spot where the flame enters. You'd probably have serious scaling issues in the center of a very small chamber with a forced air burner.
 
I can get ceramic blanket 1 inch from a friend for knothin well a beer at the next hockey game maybee 2 lol. I looked up the spec s and it looks better than K WOOL .I could be wrong let me know it said ceramic fiber blanket 1800f continous run and 2300 f max. the K WOOL was like 850 c thats about 1400f let me know if i was lookin at the wrong stuff and if this ceramic blanket will work. KELLYW
 
hellgap said:
I can get ceramic blanket 1 inch from a friend for knothin well a beer at the next hockey game maybee 2 lol. I looked up the spec s and it looks better than K WOOL .I could be wrong let me know it said ceramic fiber blanket 1800f continous run and 2300 f max. the K WOOL was like 850 c thats about 1400f let me know if i was lookin at the wrong stuff and if this ceramic blanket will work. KELLYW
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That stuff we spoke about i believe is actually called Cerablanket, and is made by Thermal Ceramics. It is 2'', but splits into 1'' easily, and is 8# density

This stuff in my opinion is a better product than the actual k wool
 
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