need your advice about starting my N.C. Low Boy Forge

D

DaQo'tah Forge

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Hi this is DaQo'tah...

With the help and advice of my friends here on Blade Forum I just got my very first real gas forge...GONE are the days of coal smoke in my lungs...

However; I got this NC Wisper forge from a guy many states away, and it did not come with a list of things to do to make the forge work correctly.

As I have never even seen a real forge before, and have never seen one started or running, I will now need a little more of everyone's advice...

How do you start a NC Wisper 3 burner Forge?

what setting on the regulator do I set for forging 1 inch steel?

any other advice on working this type of forge would be handy to me right now...
 
I don't know this make of forge. However one lesson I learned lighting mine was watch out if the flame goes out while starting.

I left the gas running for a few seconds then tried to put some more lighted paper in the forge to re light it. A flame shot out the front were I was stupid enough to have my face. A 42 year old with no eyebrows is a scary look.

Now I make sure I dont get in front of the forge opening I soak a bit of charcoal or cotton wast in methalated spirits or kerosene. I light that then place it in the forge then turn the gas on. I am not high tech enough to have one of those press button spark producers.

I'm sure there will be some other good tips. You May have to call the seller if no luck here.

With the regulator let the forge run for about 15 min to get up to working heat. Once up to heat then you can give a bit more or less pressure. Don't stare into the forge but you will be able to see the colour of the inside change as it gets hot. Forgeing your steel is a lot closer to red. when welding closer to yellow. That is very rough but it is a guide to start with.
 
I have a NC Knifemaker forge.....I dont use the electric starter....I just take a smaller piece of newspaper, light it on fire, stick it in the forge and turn on the gas. I start the forge at 5PSI...so it give a real gentle start instead of a boom!
 
I'm no expert here, actually in the process of building my own forge right now.
I think before you try to light it you need to sort of describe your set up (what hardware you have and how its hooked up) so that someone here can make sure you have all the right stuff.
For mine, I have a regulator on the tank and then a ball valve at the burner so I can shut it off quickly in an emergency. It also works fairly well to regulate flow. I set the regulator where I want it, about 3psi right now and then to light it I only open the valve enough to barely here the gas hiss, then sweep the flame of my snap start propane torch across the mouth of the burner. Once its lit I open the ball valve the rest of the way.
 
I've had one of the 3 burner Whisper Low Boys since 1998.

Before you turn the propane on, make sure you have the side door open. Leave the valve on the forge closed. Turn on the propane and set the regulator to about 5 or 6 PSI, then open the valve at the forge and click the electric starter. If for some reason it does not ignite, shut off the valve at the forge, and let it air out a bit. Once it's ignited, lower the side door. You can then adjust the flow if deisred. There's not much checking and adjusting to be done with these things. It's basically just light it and go.

Of all the things mentioned, one of the most important is have that side door open when you are igniting the forge. If you ever forget, the forge will remind you. When the gas ignites there will be a loud *whoom* and a column of fire will shoot out both ports. It will scare the heck out of you, and you won't ever forget to open the door again. :D

When you are done for the day, shut off the valve at the forge, and once again open the side door. Shut off the the propane at the regulator, then open the valve at the forge to bleed out the line. There will be just a brief hiss as the pressure is released from the line, then a soft *whump* as the gas ignites (in the still hot forge). Close the valve, close the side door, and call it a day.
 
Primos....

Thanks so much for the good advice,,,saved everyone from being out in their shops today , hearing a dull "Thump" out of the North, and thinking,,,,"DaQo'tah should have opened the side door"....


Now that I have you here,,,I have a few more questions....about the Low boy...

I have only a gas grill 5 foot hose between the gas tank and the forge,,,what do you suggest?. what did you run?

I see that my Low Boy has a open door at both ends,,,so i take it that this forge must sit in the middle of the room?

What type of bench did you set your Low boy forge on?

Now for the real questions:

The whole reason I went looking for a gas forge in the first place was to get my work indoors in the winter.

last winter , with my coal forge standing in a snow drift as I huddled to try to keep it going, was the pits!

I thought if I got a real gas forge like the Low Boy , from off the internet, I would be able to forge indoors...

But I have never even started this thing yet...I will be able to sit indoors correct?

Everyone warns me about running a gas forge indoors and the build-up of CO2 gas....I answer this with "I will just keep the door cracked"

Will that be enough?

and as I now plan to run my Low Boy indoors,,,,what hight limit must I have to the room to keep the roof from catching fire?

(The reason I ask is that when I ran my Coal forge in daylight I didnt see all the sparks, but then I ran it at night and saw the sparks going up to 20 feet in the air when I bumped the coal fire)

Now when you guys say that the insides of the Low Boy forge get red hot,,,,I have that plaster covered wool on the insides of my forge,is that the stuff that gets hot?...the plaster covered wool?

when useing the lowboy,,,how do I judge the heat temps?...the reason i ask is that I got some information that Ed Fowler keeps some of his steel when he is working it, inside the forge for 2 hours at 800 deg. How do I do that?

How do I tell when Im at 800deg.?

How do I know when I got the forge at the right temp?
 
Matt...

Here is how I got things set up,,,

Please look over this information , judge it with what you think would be the BEST system I could set up,(given what I got already, or could get easly),,and advice me what you think...


The 3 burner Low boy forge is setting on a wood table (2 foot by 4 foot wide, and over 3 foot off the floor), that has large wheels that lock into place.

The Forge is connected to the gas tank via-
the top of the forge has a place to connect to ball valve, after my ball valve there is 5 foot of gas hose. at the end of this hose is a regulator that has a dial on it. the regulater is connected directly to the gas tank ...

The gas tank sits on the floor inside a plastic dish that came with the tank to hold it from falling over.



and all of this, sits inside my shop that is about 40 foot long, 22 foot wide,,and about 12 foot high...
 
I have an NC Knifemaker (dual burner) and use a napkin or paper towel to light it since the piezo starter burnt out some time ago.
You may find that a small propane tank will freeze up when used in the winter if your shop is cold. I've aimed a kerosine nipco heater at it to help keep it thawed out but even that just slowed it down from freezing up, -- otherwise you may have to step up in tank size. I started to use two tanks and would switch when one of them froze up but I need to just get a bigger tank this year.
You will know when your tank runs out or freezes up by the sputtering noise the forge will start making.
 
Tmickley...

when you say bigger tanks,,,

I have two old tanks left over from the guy who used to own my shop,,,they stand about chest high.. and are as wide as the smaller barbeque tanks i got ready to use now,,,

If you do decide to bump-up to the bigger tank size,,,how would you get them filled?...the reason i ask is that if I were to try to fill a bigger tank, it would be so heavy that it would kille me trying to drag around,,,,and how would I make sure I didnt knock the thing over in my shop?

Now freeze up is something I never thought of yet,,,and I bet it will be a big deal soon here in North dakota....


I have the very same type of floor heater you got,,,and I will try to keep the gas tank warm like you talk about doing....


Here is a question:...lets say i fire up my forge with a full tank of gas,,,how long will one tank of gas last?
 
I would recomend getting a CO2, CO detector and keeping it in you shop unless it is very well ventilated. This way you will have something to rely on besides when your cats start to pass out.

WS
 
An obvious suggestion but if you have a new set-up, and even maybe once every couple of weeks, you may consider the old soap water trick on all the fittings.

I have a candle I stick in my forge prior to slowly turning the gas on to light it.

How about getting a hand truck and strapping the tank in it...then you can fill it up and still be able to move it, plus it will give it support so it won't tip over. Be wise to then run a strap from the wall to the hand truck.

That unit will be kicking out the CO2, a door being cracked ain't going to cut it...maybe putting a draft hood over it vented to the outside would be prudent. My forge is on the back patio so I have no CO2 problems.

I just have a propane tank from a BBQ and it is still about half full after probably 10 hours of use, and have no problems freezing up. I made the forge and only made one burner for it though...it's getting cold here also, got down to 65 degrees the other night! Burrrr... :p
 
65?...65 is cold?
today we got some snow,,,warmed up to the mid 30s...

so I knew it was now or never....

I tested all my gas line connections with soapy water, and everything tested good...

at about 1:30 today I started a small fire with some newspaper inside the forge, set the regulator to about 10# and opened the ball valve a crack.

the forge started fine, HOWEVER....the fire seemed to race back up one of the pipes and I hit the ball valve and stopped the fires...(No cats were killed during this 'event").

thinking it over, I could not understand why the fire seemed to run back up that one burner,,,so I decided to "try that again". to see if it would do that same problem again...

Started a 2nd newspaper fire inside the forge,,,opened the ball valve and the forge started to run....

this time I opened the valve a bit more,,,,there was no Blow-back up the burner pipe this time..

I heated untill I was sure nothing "bad" was going to happen,,,then turned off the gas and let the fire die out...


now in the morning, Im going to go for it,,,I will try my first forgeing heats with my new Low Boy Forge,,,but still this one little problem is a concern for me as I write this to you all...

Why did the fire race back up that one burner pipe and start to burn at the top of the burner where the air and gas mix?
 
The tanks you have will be fine. I just assumed you were going to use the typical BBQ 20 gallon tanks..
 
I am assuming that this is a venturi burner. If so there was not enought pressure in the line with the ball valve just cracked to generate suficient velocity of the gas. Or in english just not enough gas.

WS
 
The guy I bought my fittings from warned me about burning the lines. He said it would happen if the forge was trying to draw more than you were supplying it. Thats why it is imperative to have a regulator and not just use a ball valve.
I have my lines and everything set up the same way you described yours, and thats the same as all the other forges I've seen.
 
Okay!!!!!

I had about the best knife making day of my life!

And also a had a few mishaps,,,sorta a normal day here at the Daqo'tah Forge...

I was still not real ready to fire up my gas forge for real, so I loaded my coal forge one last time. My hope was to heat a knife tang a little so I could hit it enough to make it a bit thinner and save on my sanding belts.

Then My brother drove into the yard with his kid...6 years old and full of beans...and the child wanted to "help" Uncle Daqo'tah make a knife...

well,,,one thing lead to another,,,but that other thing was not watching the knife in the hot coals well enough,,and before I knew what was going on, I had burned the tang of my latest Load Shaft blade right off the knife!

So tonight at about 9:00 I started my new Low Boy gas forge for real,,,and started to heat my first rod of steel...

Now I didnt have a clue what to expect, all I knew about a real gas forge came from what I had seen in the BEARING TO BLADE'video by Ed Fowler.

My coal forge took a while to heat steel,,,but this LOW BOY is killer!..I cant believ how easy it was to bring 1inch steel up to temp. I had fun smacking the steel into shape with my 10# hammer.

The steel was forged to shape, then I did some quenching in cold oil that Ed has emailed me to try doing,,,then I did 2 different NORMALIZINGS and right now the blade is sitting in the turned off forge cooling off for thre next 8 hours.

There was NO PROBLEMS with the forge fire flowing back up the burner pipe this time...I took the good advice and turned up the gas on the regulator until I had the forge very hot,,,then I was able to turn the gas rate way way down.

I Had FUN!!!!!!
 
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