rlonstein

Didn't know about Fastenal, will have to check with the one close to me. Grainger also carries Schedule 80 1/8" black pipe nipples and was willing to sell me a quantity of one (I bought two).

I swapped the 20# for a 30# tank and kept careful track of my usage. I burned 7.3 gallons of propane over 8.75 hours (full tilt, no idler, kept freezing up near the end of the tank). The 30# Tank refill rounded up cost $23, so works out to about $2.63 per hour in fuel. Less economical than I thought, but still reasonable for the fun. I'm going to take MRobb's advice and plumb in an idler and see how my consumption changes.

You might be over-thinking this. You want something that is [A] stable and at a convenient work height. Try it and see. I brazed two pieces of scrap bed-frame angle-iron to mine (a single burner, freon canister shell) to the shell with the vee pointed down and brazed two pieces of flat scrap 2" wider on each end than the width of the shell body across the points of the vees to make feet. It raises the forge about 2" off my workbench. Good enough.

A lot... Charles Picard invented the acetylene blowpipe in 1901. The technique of dissolving the gas in acetone dates to G. Claude & A. Hess circa 1895-1897. Nils G. Dalen perfected a tank with porous material shortly after and invented an improved blowpipe in 1905. According to my 1943 edition of Oxy-Acetylene Handbook oxy-acetylene welding was in common use by 1906.

I bought three 6lb bags and used two bags to line the forge. If I recall, the refrigerant cylinder is 10" diameter and 17" long. Smaller than a 20# propane tank for the bbq. If I had used a bbq tank, I'd probably have run short on castable. It might be more economical to buy a 50# bag.

Looks good. I found the Plistix made a big difference. It cut heating time on a piece of 1/2" stock by about 40% vs. uncoated. Ramsberg is right about the adjustment, you'll have to readjust once it's in the forge.

Yes, that's the intake and at 1.5" it's really not enough for a 0.030" mig tip into a 3/4" tube. If I had access to a drill press, I would have done like Phil K. and Frosty do with their T-shaped intake. I may still hunt down blackpipe cross and double the intake just to see how it burns. NBlackMon96, take a look at http://ronreil.abana.org/design1.shtml and maybe buy the book by Michael Porter I referenced, http://www.amazon.co...s/dp/1879535203 I didn't follow Porter's design but between the two I got a good idea of what needed to be done. Good luck!

Wayne Coe sells it. He's on this site. http://www.waynecoea...blacksmith.com/ High Temp tools is another, http://www.hightempt...refractory.html I'm sure there are others (http://www.google.co...?q=kastolite 30).

I think what you have is a "mixing tube", see https://www.maxoncorp.com/Files/pdf/B-mix-lg.pdf I can't tell you any thing else about it though.

Something thing I learned (and I had been warned) is that large, bent, or odd-shaped pieces will not fit into the forge or will but only after fiddling the entry angle, etc. This isn't an issue with a open firepot. Wayne had suggested making a hinged cut-out on one side to accept larger pieces or to exclude most of a bend from the heat. Next time.

Hard to know, I swapped the 20# tank to the BBQ grill this weekend when I ran out of gas during cooking. I'd say I ran the forge a little more than six hours over a few evenings and burned over half a tank. I don't run with an idler valve so if it's burning, it's at full blast. I refill tanks at a local hardware store for $20 (for 17# of gas, not the 15# at a tank exchange). Probably works out to $1.50-$2.00 an hour which doesn't seem too bad in terms of entertainment value :P I'll keep better track after my next refill.

Don't forget box jellyfish. Just the exhibit on them in Darling Harbour aquarium was enough.

:blink: Wow. That is a deal.

I remember the most recent thread... it was a, uh, vigorous discussion and so were the older ones. There's always some topic that gets the fur flying, maybe someone can start a "removing the guard on my angle grinder" discussion :lol:

Yes. I stuffed the collar with scraps of kaowool when I was tuning it. For the record, I used a large punch to put a hole in the empty canister then filled it with water before mangling it. The MSDS (and the side of the can) say the contents are non-flammable but I didn't feel much like proving it.