should I buy this forge?

Dakota 11 said:
i am in process of making the freon type forge found at the hybridburner.com website. my main problem is getting the burner i have been waiting 1 month so far and hope to hear from rex soon regarding getting this burner made and delivered. From the last email i had, he was out of the country and should be back in next few days.
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Check out Darren Ellis's site-he has all the things you need at very reasonable prices.
 
Well, I'm sure the 'hyperburners' are efficient and hot.

May I suggest that those intense blue flames are NOT what you want when pattern welding -- especially when doing delicate welds or using thin stock.
 
For now I am only looking to anneal some large files to turn into knives so they should work good.
 
I monkeyed around with several different venturi forges and I finally built a blown one from IG's tutorial. The square chamber will not allow for a tangential swirled flame. Thus you will get un-even heating. That leads to many problems. Just the heat pitting alone will drive you insane with the extra finishing to get rid of them.

That forge would be fine for horseshoes but not at all for knives. For that price you could build three of IG's forges.
 
I still say build your own. I used IG's plans, and have never had a problem. Thanks IG! Low cost, not hard at all to make. Perfect for anything from forging, anneling, HTing, and supurb for the pattern-welded stuff.
 
I would ask the guy to built it with the burners entering from the side on a tangent. Really no extra work for him, but a way better forge for you.

OTOH, the T-Rex is the most versatile and accurate burner I have ever used. I use it for heat treat, and using a dygital pyrometer (NOT a controller, I do it all by hand) can very easily hold just about any temp I want +/- 2 degrees F.

That said, I have built every forge and every burner other than the Rex, and am happy with them all.

John
 
Basically put, building a forge yourself will help you to understand what is really going on with the forge inside and out. You can customize to suit your needs and save money and time. Sure the first one will go slower, being a learning curve thing but you'll be able to build the next ones (and you will) quickly and easily.
Instant gratification is never what it's hyped up to be. If you really get into the bladesmithing gig you will enjoy the intimacy with your forge that comes from building it yourself.
 
kibuddha4 said:
I still say build your own. I used IG's plans, and have never had a problem. Thanks IG! Low cost, not hard at all to make. Perfect for anything from forging, anneling, HTing, and supurb for the pattern-welded stuff.
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Your welcomed. What blower did you use????
 
I constructed my forge from a 5 gallon air tank I bough from Sears for $19, insulated it my 2" of kawool and coated it with ITC100. Construction was pretty quick and easy.

I emailed Rex at hybridburners for a burner a month ago and haven't heard back yet. So I decided to use a side arm burner from Zoeller forge in the mean time. It required almost no tuning out of the box and reaches welding heat quick at around 7-8 psi (My forge is around 300 square inches). Larry Zoeller also carries alumina firebricks seem to be pretty resistant to borax and makes a great floor.
 
I'd also recommend the side arm burner, if someone didn't want to set up a blower. The chileforge pics are sidearm's. Very simple to set up and not much point to 'tuning' them. I've found a simple choke like on the intake of the chileforge burner lets you turn down the temp and run a very low pressure if that's what you need.
Take care, Craig
 
The Chile forge looks/seems to be really cool. I dont think I'm gonna go for the little square forge. Like you guys say, good for shoes, but not really knives.

I was thinkin about the chile forge or the ellis forge.

I'm just not really in the position to build a forge. I just want to plug it up and go, and concentrate on my knives, and not tinkering with and fussing over building a forge.

Any other pre fab forges in the 200-300 dollar range?
 
I built mine with a recipro saw, hole saw, angle grinder, drill and a couple wrenches. A welder would not charge very much at all to weld the burner pipe coupling to the shell. I am going to build my neighbor one here in few weeks.

I came home from work last week and found a 20 gallon air compressor tank in my driveway. I get in the house and my neighbor calls and tells me I can have half of it for a smelting furnace if I help him build a forge with the other half. That way he would not have to use mine anymore. He has a K9 cutoff saw so it will be much easier to cut that tank in half.
 
I'm new to this too. and just spent most my fund on a bader 3 and a few
other items. surface plate,height gage, etc..
I would like to have a forge my self but think I will build it and work on
buying a nice electric controlled oven to learn the heat treat end first
then move into the forging.
Just my thoughts and plans
Look at wayne goddards plans they don't look real tough and cheap,
cheap to fab. ++ wayne has been very helpful to me with any questions.
I think learning to heat treat with a forge is a few days/years down the
road for me.
Tim S
 
I'm new to this too. and just spent most my fund on a bader 3 and a few
other items. surface plate,height gage, etc..
I would like to have a forge my self but think I will build it and work on
buying a nice electric controlled oven to learn the heat treat end first
then move into the forging.
Just my thoughts and plans
Look at wayne goddards plans they don't look real tough and cheap,
cheap to fab. ++ wayne has been very helpful to me with any questions.
I think learning to heat treat with a forge is a few days/years down the
road for me.
Tim S
 
There is a way to get more even heating from an overhead flame forge. Since knife blades are flat, height is not a problem with most forges.The forge in the link has a 6.5W X 4.5H chamber.Take a piece of 1/16" stainless steel about 8" wide and one inch shorter than the forge chamber. Bend it into a "house shape". Cut or grind openings along the sides.This will divert the flame and cause the center of the chamber to have a fairly even heating.You could use mild steel and thinner sheet metal, but stainless will last a long time.This adapter will allow much better HT when using the forge to heat for quenching.
The idea is to have the peak of the diverter about 1" below the flame ports. allow about 1" on each side for the flame to swirl.The steel diverter will heat up and radiate an even heat to the blade below.
Stacy
It doesn't describe too well,so I'll scan a sketch
 
Alan Molstad said:
So Psycho, what did you end up doing?
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I'm still looking actually....

I've changed my thoughts from the forge I posted from ebay....to a cylindrical type forge with the half-cocked burner setup to make the flame curl and have more even heat.

The one thing that hasnt changed though is my laziness and lack of tools/resources. I want to spend 200-300 bucks, hook the thing up right out of the box, and get to heat treating.:p
 
Ok,,,I just want to tell you that there are few things as fun as getting to do forge work.

Man - steel - fire,,,
It's a lot of fun.

I started out with just a home made coal forge that I powered with a blowdryer and it was a ton of fun. I used reg BBQ stuff so the sparks were all over the place, but it was fun!
 
psycho78 said:
The one thing that hasnt changed though is my laziness and lack of tools/resources.
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About that, here are my views...

Before I got my Belt Grinder I had all kinds of advice from people who had finished building their own grinder .
They all told we how easy to was to build my own beltgrinder, and how cheap it was.

But the problem was at the time.....that i just didnt have the time to do that type of stuff,,,
I wanted to learn about making knives, not learn about making beltgrinders!

So I went on-line and got a nice little beginner beltgrinder from Grizzly and Im very VERY happy with it.
Im so glad I got it, I was able to grind out a knife the same hour the guy dropped it off at my house.

HOWEVER....now that I own my own grinder, and I see how they work, Now that I understand how the belts go over the wheels, and how the wheels line up with each other...Now that I see what goes into a Belt grinder, I now see just how easy I 'could' have made my own....

I never would have made my own, and I have no plans of ever making my own,,,But I do see how they are not that much of a tricky thing to have made "if" I had had some idea before hand.....

My guess is that a forge is about the same...
I own a nice forge I got off the internet, and when you get right down to it,,,there is not all that much to them...no moving parts...just a box with a few pipes on top ....

I would NEVER feel the need to make my own, as Im very happy to pay $280- $350 for someone else to make it for me,,,
but I see the point in the guys who enjoy making stuff to have made their own...

Not my cup of tea, but I see their point.
 
I do too. I see the point and I appreciate people who build their own stuff... But I've been putting this knifemaking thing off for so long because of financial problems/college and things like that. Now that i'm done with school and have a decent job that affords me to buy extra toys now and again, I just want to jump right in and do what I've been dreaming to do. Making knives. Not forges.
 
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