My first forge (pics and questions)

NDallyn

NDallyn

Joined
Jun 22, 2006
Messages
814
Finished up the forge on boxing day. It's made from a piece of 8"sch. 40 pipe, 18" long overall. I lined it with 1" koawool I bought from Ceramics Canada here in Calgary http://www.ceramicscanada.net/. They also sell ITC 100 by the pint if anyone doesn't want to have to order from the states. Very good people to deal with.

Anyway, my chamber is approx. 16x6" inside and is fit with a T-rex burner I bought from Rex Price www.hybridburners.com. So far I've hammered out 1 knife shaped object that is too full of hammer marks to bother finishing:D:.

For the more experienced guys, what type of atmoshpere should I have inside the forge (how rich of a flame)? What temp. color should I look for (red, yellow, orange)? What type of hammers should I look for as a basic starter set (all I have right now is a 3 lb. driller's maul and a 20 oz. ball-pein)?

Nathan
 
Looks good Nathan!

I tend to work at an orange heat for most forging. You're going to have to "fix" the structure of your setll during HT anyways, so you may as well make it easier on your arm and forge hot.

Work with whatever hammers you have available that you're comfortable with. Aside from practice, one major thing that will help your hammer marks is dressing your hammer heads. Put about a 1/4" radius at the edge of your hammer faces and polish the faces a bit (220 grit or so) so there's no major scratches to force into your work.

Welcome to the next phase of the addiction ;)

-d
 
The angle iron is there because I tacked it to the forge body while I was fitting the hinge and latch to the door. I just never bothered to cut it off.
 
you should get a light yellow flame coming out of the forge, if it's blue flame you are just wasting gas.

I like the forge it looks good..:D
 
I also like to forg hot. Yellow orang. But using a binsol tourch My flame is blue to white.
 
A fuel ritch flame tends to make less scale than an oxygen ritch flame.
A white/yellow flame is normally welding heat or even too hot. If you forge at welding heat you tend to get more scale (oxidation taking the outer layer of he steel to be forged) If you have not got someone close buy to go for a hammer in. DO some simple experiments. Forge at a lower orange heat for about 30 min. Then ramp up the heat to yellw for 30 min. Don't stare into the forge you can damage your eye however pull the steel out and either look at it of take some photos to compair as they cool down.While you are doing the experimting have at leat 3 rod in the fire about 5/16th (8mm) to 1/2 inch 12 mm. Do simple stuff like draw the rods into suare points then round points the platten the points then roll the poinys up with a pait of pliers or tong.

Whatch how the metal moves under the hammer. This will give you some basic hand eye co ordination so that when you make blades yourhammer blows will be going where you want them too and you will have some idea of how the metal moves when hit. Try straight down blows and try some pulling or pushing the head forward or back as you hit the steel. You will see how to stretch the metal like a piece of pizza doe.

After you have dne all this and played with the heat you will be able to judge for yourself what is good. Naturally 25 years experience will not come in an hour but you should start to get some confidence.

The other tip is to what how much flame is comming out the front of the forge. I have a venturi style burner. It needs to be pointing straight down the burner twist from side to side so that the jet of gas tends to hit the sides of the burner pipe and the gas air mixing , velocity do change. Straight down the center. I get a rawing hot flame out the front of the forge twist the jet left or right I get a soft fuel ritch flame out the front.

I get the best possible flame with the least gass. gas jet straight downthe center of the burner. I see how low of a presure I can get and still forge.
full power for forging is a waiste of gass. It also burs more steel into scale.

I don't know if I he made any sence but hope you get something from it.
 
Thank you very much Mr. Ellery! I have run the burner (a T-rex from rex price) at 1-25psi and it is very easy to tune the flame at any pressure.
 
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