Gas Forges

[ThomasPowers]

One other point---where is the makeup air going to come from? Good hood will require quite a bit of replacement air to come into the area or it won't work properly.

If you are drawing from the rest of the house and the rest of the house is drawing it from outside your chilling of the house may not be cost effective or appreciated.

I'd think of having a forge "enclosure" with a connection to the outside to try to keep from having to use inside air---you will still get radiated heat so your forge may end up as a net heat producer for the house.

[solvarr]

Hate to be a twit.
In alot of areas your home owners insurance will only insure a house that has 1/2 - 2 PSI devices in a house.

Friend of mine had to go through Loyds of London to get his house insured that has an armory in the garage.

You may want to look into this.

[sfDuck]

Thanks for the encouragement welder19, haven't given up just yet; just mulling things around some more. Where i come from theres' two counts to answer at this point, 1. I am manufacturing an uncertified appliance (forge) and 2. will my insurance company still give me house coverage if something happens? I've witnessed a couple of instant combustions, one was 3,000,000 Btu boiler burp and shake a ten storey building. We had to replace a chimney top for a 18" ten storey chimney an some splannin to the local fire dept. There was a fault in a new boiler and we had to have it go through its sequence to find the fault. The foreman and I were sitting astride it at the time. any way the point was I have waltzed with gas before. Thats why I am asking lots of questions and checking tables. What pressure do you run your LP gas on and what size burner oriface? Thanks ...........Duck

[djhammerd]

First question... Do you live alone in the building?

If not, what gives you the right to put others at risk? I would not, under any conditions, run a gas forge in a basement. I don't believe any amateur could assure safety, and a professionally installed environment would not include a homemade forge.

Even if you live alone, it isn't worth the risk. Also, don't get comfortable because there are propane appliances. The ones that are in general use in homes do not pump high amounts gases into the air (regardless of what they are). Those that might (costruction heaters, etc), are only supposed to be used in non-living environments and with extraordinary venting, and NOT for general heating purposes.

It isn't worth the risk!

[welder19]

What pressure do you run your LP gas on and what size burner oriface?

My gas burner in my melting furnace has a .023" orifice and I run around 25-28 psi, but I have another one with a #57 drill bit orifice (not sure of the decimal size right off the top of my head) and I run that one around 20-22 psi.
The .023 orifice I have is a mig welder tip, which can be bought in most hardware stores or Home Depot and Lowes. Trying to remember off hand, I think they have a 10-32 thread on them, so there easy to use by drilling and tapping a hole and then just threading the tip in, for those who don't have a # drill bit set.
There are all kinds of variations of homemade gas burners out there, I will try and post some links tomorrow, also one to a calculator.

welder19

[Frosty]

Mig tips are 1/4" - 28.

Frosty

[patrick]

I have a large home built propane forge that I use in my garage (it just looks like a garage, it really is a dedicated blacksmith shop). My forge is a 2 burner forced air model that can heat up to 300lb of steel at once. It is connected to a dedicated 100 gallon propane tank. I do have a regulator on the line coming in from the tank, but I don't pay attention to what pressure I run. I can tell you that when I asked the propane company about running a seperate line from my existing tank, which feeds the house, to the shop they said it could not be done since I needed much higher pressures at the forge than in the house. That may be a limitation of my set-up and not true for all propane arrangements.

From a "catch things on fire" point of view, the ceiling above the forge is 8' tall. I have yet to burn the cieling, but I can melt the sap out of the trusses. I do have Kaowool on the wall behind the forge since it has a rear port. I would be extremely reluctant to run any but the smallest forge in a residence for all of the reasons mentioned above. My forge is not small at all, but I have run mini-forges built from soup cans and a plumber's torch indoors. This will handle stock at least 1/2x1/2, but they are not convienent for large or long work.

Also be aware that leaking propane has caused housed to explode. We just had one blow up near me yesterday morning. Our house shook from the blast and we are several miles away. The local authorities did not have a cuase of the explosion as of yesterday morning, but I have heard rumors that someone attempted to light a propane furnace, had trouble and left the house without shutting off the propane. No one was hurt since the house was empty when it exploded.

I suspect that given the right precautions and attention to detail you could safely run a propane forge in the basement. But the risk of an accident is real and it only takes one mistake to have a serious accident.

Patrick