BlackKnight0739

ThomasPowers is right, the size of the forge you want to make does depend very heavily on the size of the piece you plan on working with. If you plan on making small pieces, you don't want to run too large a forge, or you're just throwing money away in fuel. I am building my own burner for my forge, to answer your question, and I'm hoping that when I'm finished it'll do a touch more than simply boil water ;-)

ThomasPowers is right, the size of the forge you want to make does depend very heavily on the size of the piece you plan on working with. If you plan on making small pieces, you don't want to run too large a forge, or you're just throwing money away in fuel. I am building my own burner for my forge, to answer your question, and I'm hoping that when I'm finished it'll do a touch more than simply boil water ;-)

I don't know much about these models, but if you have the time or the wherewithal to go for it, why not make one yourself? I'm almost done with making mine out of an old propane tank, and I'm having as much fun making my forge as I do when I'm smithing. :) edit: Michael Porter has a great book on the subject of making your own burners and forges if you want to check it out! The book is called Gas Burners for Forges, Furnaces & Kilns.

Thanks! I had a really good teacher :)

I'm not sure if the general discussion is the right place for this kind of topic; if it's not please let me know :-) Anyway, here's my first attempt at forge welding, what do you think? Here's the finished product:

Is this similar to what you're talking about?

Budget Casting Supply and Anvilfire also sell some

lol I understand that feeling completely! Thank you everyone for the info on engineering supply stores, Grainger and MSC Industrial! I will definitely keep that in mind when I'm searching for more tools! I'm currently in the middle of trying to build your T-burner Frosty, I'll definitely post pics and videos when it's complete! I got a Reil burner to light successfully, and now I want to see the differences in performance for myself to see which I prefer. Thank you again for all the help you've given me so far, I really appreciate it!

No wonder you understand this so well :) Hammers were never my strong suit, I grew up a computer nerd. It wasn't until about a year ago that I took up anything more physically strenuous than a screwdriver for anything (other than while at work), so a lot of this is very new to me. I'm working on learning how to silver solder before I build a burner based on the ratios you gave me.

Thank you! These numbers were exactly what I was looking for! I didn't think to use Bunsen or Fisher burners as an example! How long had you and Ron been smithing before you met, if I may ask?

I'm a visual person, text alone doesn't normally help me learn anything; text with supporting pictures does. And I am doing research; asking experienced people is research, no? The only reason I'm asking the questions I am is because all of the pages I've found on the subject are pretty vague. The answers I've gotten in this thread are the most specific answers I've found as of yet :) So thank you all again for helping me out! Frosty, I have no problems with your being short, I understand where you're coming from! I'm in the Navy as a nuke electrician (which means reactors, not bombs so no worries about me on that end lol), and teaching people about my job was one of the roles I was assigned. After about the 300th walkthrough my enthusiasm was also run out. I understand the principles behind the venturi effect, we used it all the time in the Navy, from using a widespread water fog through a doorway to desmoke a room after a fire to venturi-based steam flow detectors. Update: I got the burner to light without chuffing, but it's too bright outside right now for me to really see the flame so I'll have to wait until it's a little darker for more tests. But from sound alone (and the shimmer from the flame) it runs pretty decent from somewhere around 5 psi to 25 psi (Got sent on an errand, so I didn't get time to play with low pressure testing). I'm going to play around with it a lot more, but for now I wanted to see if what I built was at all sound.

I'm starting with a .023 MIG tip, because I figure I can always go bigger if it turns out to be a problem :) Ron's designs and various modifications are all arranged in a very complex mess, I might have to go to ABANA with a redesign concept, so it's all organized and easy to follow (but I'm starting to ramble lol). After some crazy searches, Ron recommends an 1 1/2" x 1/4" tip, preferably a nozzle type tip. He recommends tapping and threading so you can easily swap out tips if need be while tuning, and then silver solder it in place to prevent unnecessary gas leakage past the threads once you figure out what will work best for your setup. He also said to increase the bell intake to 2" to compensate for the deeper inset. I found the thread pkrankow made of your design, I'll take a look and see what the differences are! The main reason I went with a venturi burner is because I understand the Venturi principle the best (and there's far fewer moving parts for me to mess up lol)

I read Ron's pages, that's how I got the idea to use a MIG tip (in addition to what Frozenforge said); Tweco is a brand name and the measurements he gave on his page are MIG wire sizes, so I figured it'd work just fine. I've also read on other forums that people use them as well. Are there other pages or places I can read up on venturi burner designs that you know about? Pictures would also help out, as I don't know a lot of the terminology yet lol so I may be looking up the wrong things when I try to Google it. When you're talking about the nipple extending the intake bell reducer degrading induction; are you talking about the brass nipple extending out, or the iron nipple he screwed on in lieu of a set screw? He does both at one point or another in the procedure, I'm just trying to see if I'm on the same page as you are :) Thanks for all the feedback so far! I really appreciate it :)

How would I know if the tip I have is too small for the burner body I'm using?

Thanks for the MIG tip idea! I happen to have a couple lying around, I'll just thread that into the brass pipe and be good to go!

I'm building a venturi burner using this guy's design here, and I've been able to do everything else in the design except drill in the jet hole that blows the propane into the venturi itself. His design calls for a #57 drill bit, which I can't seem to find any in stock at Home Depot, Harbor Freight, Sears, or even Lowe's (all of the tool shops within easy driving distance of me). When I looked up the thickness of a #57 drill bit (to see if maybe I could just use something close in size) I found that a #57 drill bit is 0.043" and the smallest bit that I have is 1/16, or 0.0625" Do you think .0195" is a big enough difference to affect the venturi's operation? I can maybe see it having a problem at extremely low psi, like 1 or less, but otherwise I can't see a huge problem. Am I right or wrong in that assessment? By the way, if this thread is somehow in the wrong area, please let me know; I'm pretty new here :)

Left handed, right eye dominant. This leads to some interesting situations, like it's more comfortable to hold a gun left-handed, but I can't shoot worth anything unless I do it right handed. I've since learned to be more comfortable shooting righty (not that I can hit anything smaller than a skyscraper either way lol)

Whim post or no, I certainly learned a lot from it! Thank you all for the feedback; even if the OP didn't use it :) Is it a good idea to use a gas forge to melt the metal for casting, or do you recommend making a furnace just for foundry? I'm not looking to make large pieces, just pendants and the like; so I think a forge ought to work pretty well, provided the metal is dry and I start up the forge slowly to evaporate any moisture there might be.

Hey all! BK here. I just started learning this fine craft, and I stumbled upon this forum while searching for advice on building my first forge. My experience so far with blacksmithing is an intro class held up in Vista, CA where we made a set of BBQ tongs (I won't use my other ones now, these work really well!), a steak turner (something I'd never even heard of until I made it) and a set of very simple blacksmith's tongs. All in all, about 20 hours worth of time max; so I'm an extreme beginner! But I enjoy it very much, and want to learn everything I can, not only about blacksmithing, but welding and machining as well. Looking forward to meeting you all!