Re do this forge or junk it? pics of practicing grinding

B

bryce

Joined
Mar 27, 2002
Messages
407
here is my forge my dad made for me a long time ago

looks to be made of two layers the burners never worked quite right i think he used the wrong kind of reducer.

my question is should i rebuild it?

New burners (reuse the old tubes maybe?)

the inside is 8 x 8 x 21 so its pretty huge i could easily add another layer of refractory and make it smaller

the burners are sunk into the refractory and its lined with wool my dad made all kinds of stoves and burners so he probley did that part right

in the pics i removed a bunch of the sheetmetal screws so it looks like its broken but its not

also included are some of my screw up knives or soon to be lol

they are all just regular 1014 bar stock i just wanted to practice and now i know i need more hehehe

anyways

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Ps i have a couple dozen more pictures of screw up knife like objects now some of them I practiced both hollow and flat grinding on i figured why not :D

Thanks for anytips,
Bryce

btw it only let me post 10 pics at a time so the rest i will add later
 
Alright time for a fresh start i think im going to try and get a piece of 10x10 square tube from my old work tomorrow
 
ah, id fix it up. fire it up and see if the outside gets hot. i bet you can touch it with a bare hand. i would go to the trouble to get some muratic acid and strip the galv to use a nice shaped forge like that. i like it. keep at the grinding too, practice practice.
-Lou
 
I'd also suggest changing your plastic busket under the grinder to something that won't melt or start on fire... sometimes enough dust and metal grindings will build up at the lip, and that stuff is really burny when given the right spark shower!
Looks like a great shop! Well lit, lots of space... too cool!
 
Just take the tin off and place it in another metal container and fill the voids between your refractory and the new container with kaowool. Looks well lined and solid. Jim
 
The burners look kinda funky, did it actually get hot enough for metal to move easily?
Follow the advice from ib2v4u, get rid of the galvanised, the rest looks good. Nice grinder, I'm jealous. If you want to kick thinks up a notch at some point you could always add a blower burner to that shell. Keep practicing your grinds.

-Page
 
Thanks guys, im going to take it apart and see how it looks underneath

my dad did invest alot of time and money into it, I should at least try

I should post a pic of my garage before you would shit your pants you couldnt walk into it it had so much stuff in it, i couldnt stand in there with out causing some kind of avalanche hahaha

I will change the bucket I have a keg I cut in half made from aluminum,
I figure one will be the lack tub for once i get a running forge,
the other can go under the grinder but I need to prop it up a bit for that.

now for the burners they never worked to get any real heat, but I had a low pressure regulator my dad tryed but he did things his own way he even had some electronic safety for the gas installed.

Then again I was 15-16 I didnt know much about this stuff. he wanted it to be safe for me to use without blowing up the whole area.

I will figure out what im going to do with the shell the refractory is all good though, my dad designed wok kitchen's he knew alot about making bbq's as well i rember he made one that was about 10 feet long and you could cook a whole pig on it.

but regardless i guess it didnt transfer over
 
it was made to run on Propane
why do you ask?

I headed down to my old work and found a 12x12x15 square tube
i think that should work good but im looking at the prices of all the pieces and it seems like the ones on ebay will cost damn near the same amount with no labour but they might not be as good

I ripped the forge apart the shell came off easy it was lined with wool,
i got the refractory out
 
the question regarding propane vs Natural gas might have been raised because those burners look a lot like old Natural Gas furnace burners.

I don't know the BTU difference between running NG vs Propane, just know those burners look a lot like the base unit on my Farris Gravity Fed furnace.
No clue how well they'd work with propane, though it is something to consider that the burners may be set up for a different fuel.
 
interesting to know

my dad gave it to me with a propane tank im pretty sure he reused some parts from around the shop to build it

maybe i should try running it with natural gas?

I took all the surrounding kaowool out from the shell I could put it inside and make the chamber smaller and try running 2 burners

maybe she will work yet!
 
i think propane is a little hottter. but my big trough forge is natural gas and has the same kind of fittings i suppose. i would use that refractory shell and put a new burner on it. no sense making a new forge when you have a cool octagonal one like that.
-Lou
 
sounds like a plan,

I have a whole weekend here and im only working part time too so im gonna be devoting alot of my time to knifemaking/getting my shop 100% up and running

right now this is my ONLY goal in life im serious about that lol

i have no distractions besides the computer
 
Rebuild the burners as needed. I would make a whole new set of burners,with a blower.Clean up the forge and give the outside a good coating of refractory paint. The outside should never get hot enough to vaporize the galvanizing. If it did, you would have big problems. I would be willing to bet the outside barely gets warm when running. The biggest enemy of this forge is the size. It is made to heat a lot of chamber space, which requires a lot of fuel. It will probably be a great forge, but it will never be an economical one,gas wise.
Stacy
 
one trick i use in my beast of a forge, that normally spins out gas meter like crazy, is i kick off two of the four burners, and fill up cubic inches in the ends of the forge with hard fire bricks. that way it heats faster with less fuel, and i have the option of a bigger forge should i need it. i agree with stacy, the outside should be fine as far as the galvanizing goes. as long as your aware of that potential, just keep an eye on it when you bring it up to full heat and see how it goes.
-Lou
 
Alright here are some new pics

I found this blower in my closet think its practical for use on a forge?
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I got a bit of dirt on the wool but there is plenty of it or im sure i have enough useable stuff there to make the chamber smaller or i could use some firebricks either way

although usually its the opposite of what everyone else does lol
it should work

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stack bricks for doors, or iv seen simple wool doors on expanded sheetmetal backing you can just lean on the ends, and move from a crack open to all the way to adjust air flow and such... im jealous, im looking to piece together a propane forge soon, and you have a good start :)
-Lou
 
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