boosting propane forge temps

[ljohnson]

i've been working on a pattern welded steel project but my Whisper Mama forge just barely gets hot enought to forge weld. I'm working from my basement shop in a residential area so coal is not an option and am at about 5600' elevation so that might affect the heat output too.
Any suggestion for boosting the temperature?

[hdwarner]

i have two question, i would love to work in my basement what precautions do you take
number two is i have the same question as you concerning heat

[matt walker]

I've no hands on experience with it. But a friend uses propylene in a forge that wasn't getting quite hot enough for welding and was pleased with it.
Propylene - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Matt

[Paragon]

This if from Ron Reil's site talking about the Mongo burner

A Note about Economy vs. Efficiency: There are numerous comments in my pages about "economy" and "efficiency." They do not mean the same thing. As I use these terms, the economy of a burner refers to how much its going to cost you to run it. The efficiency of a burner, in the way its used in my pages, refers to how much air it can draw in due to the strength of the vacuum it creates in the intake bell or ports at a given gas pressure. There are only so many BTUs available in a pound of propane, and no matter what you do you can not get any more than that out. If two different designs of burners are both running with a totally neutral burn at 100% combustion, and maintaining two identical forge chambers at the same temperature, their economy will be identical. The Micromongo Burner can produce higher temperatures than the Reil Burner, but it uses more fuel to do this. If you lower the output of the Micromongo so that the temperature inside the forge chamber is the same as in an identical forge chamber heated with a Reil Burner, the fuel usage, or economy, should be the same. If they are not, then one or the other is not running at optimal tuning. So don't choose the Micromongo Burner because you think it will save you money, it won't. It will give you the ability to get the same economy as provided by the Reil Burner, but it will also allow you to reach higher temperatures than the Reil Burner can attain, but this will cost you more in fuel usage. There is just no free lunch. It is likely that overall you will spend more money on fuel with the Micromongo burner because you will probably want to use that extra heat range to run a hotter forge. You pay for what you get. Note: We were very surprised by the results of some recent side by side tests of the T-Rex and Reil burners. They both consumed about the same amount of fuel, yet the T-Rex was much hotter. We concluded that the mixing and fuel/air ratios in the T-Rex are superior, and provide a better burn, thus extracting more of the BTU heat value from the fuel than the Reil burner is capable of doing. The T-Rex is both more economical, and more efficient. It is more econimical because it can be run at a lower gas pressure, using less fuel, and obtain a comparable temperature in the chamber.

[ljohnson]

Originally Posted by hdwarner

i have two question, i would love to work in my basement what precautions do you take
number two is i have the same question as you concerning heat

my basement/shop is basically a concrete box with a steel form deck and concrete ceiling. I have a joke that the acetylene could explode down there and you would'nt hear it upstairs.

[habu68]

Since air is some 80% nitrogen and of no use to the heating of the forge you might want to look at a heat recapture device that channels the air entering the burner thru the dragons breath. Care must be taken not to add the spent dragons breath back into the burner as this will make the CO levels skyrocket.

two other things that can be done is to reduce the size of your door opening increasing the back pressure and reducing the heat loss to the dragon breath.

I'm at about 5280 ft myself and I had to ad a small blower and increase the fuel pressure to reach welding temps. I am using Ron Reil style home made burners and just added a blower from a dishwasher. I tune it with a can lid covering the intake. it just slips over the burner when needed. Here is a pic of the same blower on my coal forge.

Do You Have A CO Detector: don't let that concrete box you work in turn into a vault.

[Glenn]

ljohnson
Go to the top of the forum page and click on User CP
Click on Edit profile
Go to the bottom of the page and enter your location, then save.
It would be nice to know where in the world your located.

[Glenn]

There was a recent thread on using propane forges in a shop with open doors and still setting off a CO detector. If you do not have a CO detector, get on and use it.

There is no free ride, if you need more heat you need to use more fuel (burned gases). This can be done by adding oxygen for a more complete burn or adding more gas and oxygen.

If your short on oxygen from the elevation, then you NEED to check the CO levels early and often.

[sdalcher]

a small blower will boost your temperatures very well. It will infact cause it to melt 2000 degree refractory. I was having problems getting my foundry burner to a melting point for brass. Slip a small blower to feed into the inlet of the propane burner, achieved melt in under 3 minutes, and also succeeded in melting the refractory out of my furnace I was a little upset about ruining my firnace, but it was a grand experiment!

PS Please take every possible safety precaution in using any kind of flammable in an enclosed basement.. An Oh XXXX moment there could cost you your life or your house.

[imagedude]

I've used mini 24volt blowers with some success.