Ribbon burner forge

V

vikingGoalie

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Aug 20, 2019
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https://imgur.com/a/azaXGrT

I've built a ribbon burner forge, it's pid controlled.
Picture with plumbing is just a dry fit up and not in that is the needle and shut off valve that's on there in videos.

Very happy with pid and solenoid control.

That said my first ribbon burner, getting the flame dialed in is a little finicky. If I have a reducing flame I can't get to forge weld temps. Have to have dragon breath coming out some and even with I'm capping out around 2000 degrees. I have some itc 100 arriving soon think that will help. But while the heat being thrown out the door feels way hotter then mr volcano, that little forge can get to 2300 all day long.
I fooled around with different levels of air and propane but that last video where it says it's just over 1900 is about as good as I got it this time around. Any tips?
 
Are you only using that hand held temperature gun to checking temp? Those are not very successful for accurate temp checking. Better a TC inside the forge, not direct in flame.

Good looking forge, I've always been impressed with those ribbon burners and wanted to build one.
 
I have a thermocouple in the forge it's hooked into that gray not moint d yet box. Was using the gun which I find to be pretty accurate. To compare the gun temp to the pid reading. They are close, gun adds a little 50 degrees
 
The hotter/brighter the steel is, the less accurate the hand held IR guns are.

IIRC, when I set my PID controller on my forge, I had to open it up and flip one of the little white (there were 8 or 12 IIRC) switches inside to make sure it matched the sensor type (mine is a type K, IIRC). Are you sure you have it set up correctly?

Also, if you don't have any dragon's breath, you don't have a reducing flame. The dragon's breath indicates that there is more fuel than oxygen available in the forge, therefore the fuel doesn't burn until it exits the forge into the normal atmosphere.

I used Auber Instruments (auberins.com) as a good resource for understanding and setting up my PID.
 
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How fuel rich are you running the forge? Too much fuel will lower the temperature
I would try closing the back and front up, if that doesn't get it there fill some of the empty volume?
 
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I think ribbon burner forges can take a little figuring out. I'm a true believer. For example my favorite of two can run the same temperature with higher or lower gas/air mix(with reducing flame) . Once my forge is at for example 1900 and stabilized I turn down the air and gas, mostly for the sake of saving ga$. In the beginning I really kept track of where my gate (air flow) valve was, say how many turns from closed. One caution when I go too low with the air I get backfire, sounds like a 22 going off. I remember the first time it happened my wife ran outside, wondering what the heck was going on. As far as your temperature controlling solenoid I always keep that really low. I stopped using ITC didn't seem to make that much of a difference. After I figured out the forge. Mine takes about five minutes to get to fifteen hundred maybe seven or eight minutes for welding temp.
 
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I coated with itc, I also futzed with the settings more. But I do notice a difference with the itc, I got up to just over 2000 in something between 10 and 15 minutes
After I had to do some actual knife work and not spend all my time fabricating. So while working a bit I hear a mini boom sound out of forge while I'm working the billet.
Come to find flame goes out, boom reignites. Oye. I didn't troubleshoot as it was a bit unsettling and just cut the gas. Will troubleshoot next session.. was kinda loud when it reignites I'm not super worried my burner plenum never got hotter then 120 right where it goes into the forge body. Pipe was just outside air temp. I definitely am only around half on the air, and just over half on the gas. I'm pretty happy with it just gotta get it dialed in.
 
I think I saw two solenoid in the gas line? That pop sounds like a gas solenoid shut off momentary for some reason removing gas so forge when out, then turned back on allowing gas to flow. That would cause a nice pop.

Glad to hear things are coming together with the forge.
 
Ken H> said:
I think I saw two solenoid in the gas line? That pop sounds like a gas solenoid shut off momentary for some reason removing gas so forge when out, then turned back on allowing gas to flow. That would cause a nice pop.

Glad to hear things are coming together with the forge.
Click to expand...
yes, I have one solenoid that is tied to the main power so no power, no gas.
second solenoid is wired to SSR and controlled by the PID.
I put a bypass switch in so that I can toggle that second solenoid to just always be on, which i had toggled.

could it be the solenoid malfunctioning? it would have to be the first one if that was the case. I have a bypass around the second one so it cycles from 100%-30% when trying to maintain a temp.
seems to work rather well. i'll do a video with a test. but seemed like i was keeping pretty darn close to my set temp.

One disappointing thing is i'll have to re-do my door. I simply did a box of angle iron, piece of sheet metal on the bottom and then kast-o-lite 30 filling it. I watched someone else do that and mimic'd.
Welp the whole square piece of kastolite just fell right out as I was wrapping up. only pita there is casting a new door out i have to wait a bit for it to cure. I'll be less dumb this time and put something for the kastolite to grab on to.

while maybe i made this to big. I love this amount of space. I had an 18" long billet and i could put the whole thing in and shut the door, nice very even heat the whole length (go-go swirling action)
 
What could have happened to cause the pop would be as you said the main gas solenoid malfunctioning by cutting off for a couple seconds to allow the flame to go out, then gas flow again.

BUT - all in all, it does sound like you're getting it working good. It is a big forge, maybe that's part of what's making it hard to reach welding temp, but at 2,000 you're getting close
 
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