Simple heat treating Forge

I

itrade

Joined
Jul 3, 2002
Messages
645
I just want to heat treat some 1095 I have for jigs (ie not blades at this time). The parts I have, so far are

20 Firebricks
500,000btu weed burner

Can I just stack bricks, place the burner in the side and be done with it?

Or do I need to buy kao-wool and all that?

Steve
 
You're one up on me with that one. I'd assume it would work. My first heat-treating experience was last week and I used a fish cooker to get the blade to non-magnetic.
 
Are they regular firebricks that you would use in a wood stove, or insulating firebirck? Either way they should work, but the IFB would be more efficiant. The weed burner will probably work, but the flame is big.

Ron Reil has a webpage devoted to forge and burner design.

His page is here
 
You mean something like this?
fire+brick+forge.jpg


forge+side+view.jpg


It will work just fine,it`s inefficient as far as gas usage is concerned but it will get plenty hot,mine was made by stacking hard fire brick lego style,no mortar or kao-wool,I left a gap in the side for the $19.99 harbor freight weed burner to blast through,an open door at the front and just a bit of gap at the back for the heat to flow out.
Empty pockets facilitate ingenuity dont they?
E-mail me if you have any questions.
scottbox1@hotmail.com
Scott
 
That's it!!!!

Thanks, I haven't fired it up yet, but I have the weedburner too close to the box from the looks of your setup.

Thanks Scott, BTW that have you been using it on? Looks like you've some Fowler goop in that cake pan.

Steve
 
I`ve found that if you bring the burner end out about 4" it gets hotter,the cake pan with the thermometer is my high tech edge quenching pan,I use plain old vegetable oil heated to 120 to 140 degrees,works every time.If you adjust the bricks on top of your forge to have 1/4" or so gaps in them you can heat up your high teck edge quenching pan on top of the forge while you are bringing the blade up to temp.The forge will get TOO hot so always heat treat at night and use a magnet on a stick to check for transformation temp.I think I use about 1/3 throttle on the weed burner knob to get the right temp.
I`ve used that old ugly inefficent forge to make all the knives on my web site: http://pages.prodigy.net/sjfulford
Take care and remember,steel does not have to be orange to burn your fingers.
Scott
 
That will definitely do it. All I have is about 20 fire bricks and a benzomatic heat shrink torch. I stack the firebricks up so that there's a about 1" sqaure channel through the middle, with a brick set on an angle at the back to partially cover the hole. Lets it breath but keeps most of the heat in. I don't use mortar or anything, this way I can move stuff around and set it up wherever or when ever I need it.
 
sorry, the pics arent showing up for me, whats a weed burner? is it the propane flame-thrower thingy?
 
Burchtree you said "My first heat-treating experience was last week and I used a fish cooker to get the blade to non-magnetic"

What does a fish cooker look like and how did you use it to get to nonmagnetic? Does it have some type of liquid in it that heats up?

Scott Fulford
i also can not see the pictures. But would like to :D
 
kenster,

Yup, it's one of those propane operated, energy transfer units. Sounds like a jet engine. I'm gonna try it tomorrow - can't wait.

Steve
 
It's a regular 24-dollar fish cooker that you see everywhere. It runs off a propane tank. I wasn't sure if it would work, but it puts out some serious blue flame, and it brought it to non-magnetic. If I get into more heat-treating, I'll likely build me something more efficient. Unconventional, I know, but I wanted to try some heat treating, and used what I had. Here's a picture of it:
61090.jpg
 
Did you just put the blade in the blue flame or did you use some type of liquid inide the cooker to get the temp to non-magnetic?
 
crap, i dont think i can afford any of those flame-thrower things, do you think a propane barbecue would work? maybe if i loaded it with charcoal briquets as well?
 
I took the pan off and used vise grips strapped to a long handle and held it over the blue flame like I was cooking a hot dog. I did a big knife and a little neck knife and the neck knife was done in no time.

The actual burner comes out, so I'm thinking that with some bricks, I could make a hell of a little oven with it.
 
Oh no, I just typed Fl*&$-Thr(*(* on the internet. Crap HLS Thought Police are going to haul my butt off to jail.

I updated my previous post.

Steve
 
LMAO :)
I've written it several times and they haven't hauled me away for questioning. I think they're still hoping I'll reveal the rest of the super secret plot. Never gonna happen. I wear a coal bucket brain wave anti transmittance device 24/7 :D
 
hmmm, ive always found my foil hat to be effective...but i am intrigued by your coal bucket brain wave anti transmittance device...

perhaps i will have to give it a try.

itrade, when you do get this up and running send me/post some pictures if you dont mind. i need to do the same thing as you and dont really want to mess around with Kaowool either...
 
post them here for all to see, as I'm interested too. Need to setup something small for heat treating sometime. THink I'm gonna try the 1 brick forge first though, just because living in apt. I have limited room. and need to go buy fire extinguisher sometime first. :)
 
As requested here a pic. It's basically the same as Scott's.

On top is an old fry pan with a temp gauge, water, motor oil, and a magnet on the handle. I'm making a file guide so I wanted the absolute hardest I could get. Somewhere on here I ready about quenching in water with oil on top for shock control. Again these were jigs.

forge.jpg


Thanks everybody,

Steve


PS IT WORKS :cool: :cool: Steel is really neat stuff.
 
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