15 replies to this topic

[jtcweb]

I picked up on of these to burn weeds. Has anyone tried using it as a burner for a forge.

[MattBower]

I haven't, but it has been done. Tai Goo uses (or has used) one of those things.

http://img.photobuck.../weedburner.jpg

Notice how he has a really reducing atmosphere going. I don't know if maybe that's intentional, but I do suspect weed burners aren't designed to operate well with the kind of back pressure you'll find in a forge. So I don't think it'll be ideal. And you really should have some way to control the choke, in order to control the atmosphere in the forge. But yeah, you can make it work.

[edge9001]

I've seen several YouTube videos where people hav said those types of burners make a good forge, though I've never tried it.

[VaughnT]

I asked the same question some time back and was told that they wouldn't work for knifemaking because they have a very oxidizing flame. Don't know what that means, but I stopped using it for knives b/c the common thought was that it was bad.

It definitely likes to choke out if you get it too close to a wall or the like, due to back pressure.

[MattBower]

VaughnT, on 27 August 2010 - 01:53 PM, said:

I asked the same question some time back and was told that they wouldn't work for knifemaking because they have a very oxidizing flame. Don't know what that means, but I stopped using it for knives b/c the common thought was that it was bad.

That makes some sense, but it's not necessarily an insurmountable problem. I think Tai often throws a little wood in the forge to keep it nice and reducing. Whatever he does must work, because I've rarely if ever seen anyone whose blades look as nice, straight from the forge, as Tai's do. The stuff he does freehand with a hammer and anvil blows me away.

[ThomasPowers]

"Good Forge" for what? What's an acceptable forge for some things might be quite poor indeed for other things!

[HWHII]

jtcweb, on 27 August 2010 - 11:26 AM, said:

I picked up on of these to burn weeds. Has anyone tried using it as a burner for a forge.

Yes I have. I put two of them in a 24" Dia STD Pipe 24" long. They worked great but they really suck the oxygen out of the forge. You have to leave both ends some what open otherwise they will choke them selfs out. I built this forge where I used to work. I needed to preheat some very large trunions made out of 6" solid round and 2" plate. I had to preheat them to 500 degrees before welding them and maintain that heat while welding. It took about 30 min. to bring them up to temp. After the job finished I played with it heating up some larger pipe pieces and it would bring them up to a bright yellow. I wish I would have taken a picture of it. It had a full round door on one end a clam shell door on the other and lined with 2" of Kaowool. I asked if I could have it and they just giggled at me. I use theses weed burners alot in my shop for preheating and heating parts to put patinas on. They are also great for roasting green chiles.

[dagr8tim]

Not to drag up an dead subject, but I've been playing around with the weed burner idea too.

Could you compensate for the lack of oxygen in the chamber by adding a forced air setup?

I'm looking at the picture posted and wondering if I could build something like that as a starter forge.

[MattBower]

If you're going to add forced air, you don't need the weed burner in the first place. Forced air is dead simple. Blower, propane bottle and a few standard plumbing parts, and you're done. The weed burner would be superfluous.

[Francis Trez Cole]

I use my weed burner to light my coal forge works real good

[Shag Nasty]

for the same amount of money you could build a Venturi Burner. I just built a 1" for $20 but I did use a weed burner that I had in the garage for a pressure adjuster and I tried to use the jet but could not get it to work so I used a motorcycle jet that I had on hand.

[Phil Krankowski]

I was thinking I need a weed burner...for burning the weeds in my driveway!

Other than setting things on fire weed burners are not very helpful. They are designed to have no back pressure, so they work poorly for most anything else.

Phil

[ThomasPowers]

Sorry I missed this back then: They are NOT sucking the O2 out and choking, by their nature weed burners almost always are too oxidizing and using them to heat metal usually requires them to be retrofitted with some sort of choke to keep from over scaling your work piece.

What they are very sensitive to is back pressure---after all they were designed to work in open air conditions.

And what he said! For the cost of even a HF weedburner you could go by the re-store and buy enough plumbing parts to build several *better* burners for forced air use. Shoot a simple needle valve for gas into a pipe with a couple of bends to mix it works for a forced air burner. Aspirated are much pickier in their construction.

[Radeo]

Shoot for $20, I built a 3/4" modified side arm burner, and it will take 1/8"x2" to just short of welding temp in open air w/o a forge in just a couple minutes.

[pike3e]

Francis Cole, on 02 October 2010 - 01:31 PM, said:

I use my weed burner to light my coal forge works real good

Me too. Starts the coal fire very quick.

[Klammer]

When I first started knife making I used one of these and some fire bricks to make a simple forge for heat treating. Create a box with fire bricks with an opening in the side for the burner and let it rip. Would get a piece of 1084 up to quench temp in ~2min. I did not experience over oxidation etc. Actually worked fairly well for the cost.