Mark K

After getting my railroad anvil and base built I had a bit of time to play. All is good until the hair dryer gives up. It's holding up well. when the forge is running the heat is manageable nothing really even warm to the touch. IT'll take a railroad spike to working temp from a cold forge in less than 5 min. reheats are under a minute and it looks to be hot enough to weld.

I found both of them. They are ~60 cfm and cost ~$80. I have a heater core assembly from a car. I may scavenge the fan from it. It's made for continuous duty and a 12V supply is easy to come by. Oh, and it's free :)

Thanks! ...now to google

I started lurking here a month or two ago. I took a couple of blacksmithing classes at Homestead heritage in Waco, TX. Great bunch of folks. I've acquired a Hand crank coal forge for work at the parent's farm. I live in Dallas and space is a premium so I decided to build a propane and natural gas powered forge. A pair of interchangeable burners for the two fuels. I have natural gas at the house so it's the fuel of choice. I've found tons of info on LPG but not natural gas. I tried a naturally aspirated natural gas burner similar to a LPG setup but had no luck so I decided to build a blower burner. I built the forge with 2" kaowool and fire bricks for the floor. I used a portable air tank for the body. It's long and about the right diameter. My burner works really well in testing but I want a better/adjustable fan the hair dryer actually has too much flow. I disabled the heaters in the dryer, constricted the input and added bypass vents to get rid of yet more air. Burner Parts: 2" black pipe nipple 4" long 2" hose clamp (to adjust air flow) 2" x1.25" reducing bell 1.25"x3/4" bushing 3/4" x 10" black pipe nipple 3/4"x 1.5" reducing bell (nozzle) 1/8" x 5" black pipe nipple 1/8" cap (for nozzle -- drilled to 7/64") I have hoses, adapters and such to attach this to the natural gas lie for the grill. the burner works well. It'll take 3/8" round to working temp in under 3 min in a cold forge. I'm worried about the longevity of the blower I would love to get it to work without a blower at all. Does anyone here have experience with this? Thanks!!