tlreif

I am clean shaven. It used to be mostley because I didnt have enough facial hair. It seems when you get older and balder the hair moves down! LOL But i did try a beard for the first time last winter. I didnt like it much. Pubic hair belongs in other places on the body. Not on the face. HAHA

Please listen to southshoresmith. he is giving you the right advice. it needs a blower with a gate valve to regulate air flow. It sounds to me like you really dont know much about this. My suggestion would be to find a local club to get the help you need. Before you hurt yourself.

Hey thats looking good! Now its time to put it to work! Do you have the forge built yet?

Thanks. Yea the openings is kind of an intersting story. By this time that I made the forge I had become involved with the local club. and in talking with the "old Timers" they assured me that I could leave a large opening in front and not lose too much heat. So when I was testing with the temperature probe I was able to get to forge weling heat at 10 psi. I just knew it could do better so I went with the 7 times the area of the burner tube for the door opening. Now I added about 20% to that number and I came up with the door acrordingly. the pressure to get the same heat was now 4 psi. much better! And then the opening in the back I just simply cut it out so I could put that many parts in at one time. I have a piece of the insulboard to fit in its place when I dont need the long through hole. My whole purpose was to build a forge that was efficient as I could and be as funtional as I could for my needs. I hope this helps. Oh and by the way I havnt made the doors interchangable but I have thought about doing that very thing.

Yes I coated it with itc-100 after curing the satonite. I mix my itc-100 really thin like the consitency of paint and then brush it on. I do several coats seems to work well for me. Thanks for your kind words.

Let me begin by telling a little about myself before we get into what I have for a forge. I have been dabbling in the art of blacksmithing for a little over 6 years. I have worked with metals pretty much all my life. My father taught me how to weld with an acetylene torch when I was 10 years old. I got into the blacksmithing side of things because I built a Marines theme headboard for my son while he was in boot camp. Word got out that I had made this and a guy out OKC has marketed it. Now you say so what does that have to do with blacksmithing? You see I used a rose bud to heat the elements of that first headboard. I soon realized that this was not going to an efficient way to heat the metal. I began my search for building a gas forge. And of course I was led to Ron Rails web site. Since I knew nothing about this stuff I took everything I read as gospel. I built my first burner. It was the ez burner from the plans he provided. I followed the plans verbatim and the burner worked flawlessly. I read in one of the posts that the ez burner would not work in the wind. Mine worked but had a lot of what I would call kickbacks. I left enough threads in the bell to screw in a 2-inch nipple and this worked much better. Not perfect mind you but acceptable. So I had a burner the next step was the forge to put it in. I built a brick pile forge. Only I used regular firebrick. It got hot but I felt it should get hotter. So with some more internet research I discovered insulating firebrick. I did all this by the way not knowing that there was a local blacksmith club. That would have been very helpful! So I had a forge I then purchased an anvil from harbor freight. And off I went pounding metal and playing around. My next forge that I built was the Freon tank forge from Mr Rails web site. Again I followed the instructions verbatim and I had an even better forge. Still using the ez burner. Then I got to reading about the t-rex burner from hybrid burners. It looked cool especially with being endorsed by NASA! (LOL) I bought one and put it on the forge and it worked very well. I got to look at its construction and realized that hey I can make that! So I dimensioned it out and now I make my own. By this time I had discovered the local club and began getting involved. It has been a good source of info. My latest forge is based on the Freon tank but I used a helium balloon tank that was given me. It is a full 12 inches in diameter and the length is the same. I made the doors as such that I would have the full 12 inches in length. The chamber volume exceeded the volume one burner can handle but under 2 so I put 2 burners in it. I would liken that to putting a 383 in a s10. It has Plenty of power. I have a kiln shelf for the floor with 2 inches of kaowool all the way around. I tried a liner called satonite. I was having trouble keeping the ITC-100 in the Freon tank forge. I was trying to be careful but sometimes you get too big a piece in there. The satonite works great but it takes about 15 minutes to get up to temp. I can reach forge welding temps easily at 4 psi. according to my gauge. I know this because I have a high temp thermocouple and have measured the temps. Well that’s about it check out the pics and we can discuss what I have done. I guess one point to all this is I didn’t question what I read mainly because I didn’t know any better and I have had very good luck. Not too many problems.

oops one more thing. I dilute the itc 100 so that it is pretty thin. then I paint it on with a paint brush. the result is a smooth finish and an efficient forge! You can always paint more than one coat.

Hey Robert. I was reading your post and I think the reason that the burner works great out of the forge, and not in it is the hole that you cast needs to follow the 1:12 taper. It looks to me that the wall of the forge is 3 to 4 inches thick. the opening by the time it get to the forge chamber should probably be at least 3 inches maybe more. Im not a math guru but you get the idea. The forge shell you have poured looks nice. I believe if you opened up those holes you would be surprised at the results. I haven't tried my burners at altitude but Im betting they would work great. Also for the forge floor I would get a piece of kiln shelf for that. I use them in mine and they work well. You can insulate under it with kaowool and you wont lose the heat that regular fire brick will suck out.

You can use High temp paint. It will work just fine. I powder coat mine and just the base has dulled no other visible signs of heat. I will be posting some pics and a thread on what I have done with my forges.

A quick note on the t-rex burners. I make my own knock off version of that burner. The reason for the larger air intake (By the way it is 1 1/4 pipe.)is that you have an increase in velocity. The club I belong to makes a similar burner to yours and side by side at same pressures the t-rex burner has a flame that is much longer. I like to have my tip even with the bottom of the intake slot. Also the burner flare is highly important. it must be a 1:12 ratio. Without this you may be causing this problem. It definatly will effect the stableness of the flame. I am no super expert but this is what I have found