Snakes the Clown

Many thanks! So I know I'm up to speed here, I have a piece of 12" dia pipe with an over all length of 14" to account for the two layers of Kaowool at the back. Inside diameter would be 8" then. And the whole thing runs on two 3/4" burners now. Excellent! I am researching info on the EZ Burner right now, I will be sure to post any more questions I have.

Hello everybody! A little background on myself: I have been working in my dad's welding shop for the past 9 years, and have been welding for 7 of them (since I was 13). Blacksmithing and forge work represents the more enjoyable aspects of this line of work and I hope to have my first gas forge running in the new year, funded by Christmas money. The main line of questions I have at this point relates to the volume of my forge and the type of burner needed to get up to welding temperatures. My idea, at this point, is taking a 9 inch dia. piece of 1/8th wall pipe, 12 inches long. I plan on welding an 1/8 inch thick end cap, and usinging 2, 1-inch layers of kaowool at the end and to layer the sides, plus a refractory coating. According to my calculations this will leave me with an internal volume of approxamatly 196.25 cubic inches (minus the piece of kiln shelf or fire brick which goes into the bottom. Question one: which burner would be suitable to heat this to welding temps and would it still be useable for general forging? EDIT: I want to make a burner which is powered by the pressure of the gas for the gas/air mixture process (venturi?), as I would prefer not to have to depend on an electric motor. Question two: I've read that the exhaust to input ratio is 7:1. How is the input determined? As I understand things currently, the input would be the 2-inch burner holder. Or would it be the area of the burner nozzle itself? Going with the 2-inch input, my 5-inch opening falls just short of the 7:1, probably a little bit more than I realize due to the variability of the thickness of the refractory lining, but in either case should not fall short by much more than a square inch too small. How crucial is the 7:1 ratio, will too big/too small cause the forge to loose efficiency? I have a fair amount of wiggle room when it comes to dimensions, so I could easily increase the diameter pipe used. Whew. It just seems to keep going doesn't it? Well thanks for reading so far, I hope you keep up, because I can certainly use all the help I can get. The second line of questioning I have regards the opperation of a propane forge inside a shop. I read somewhere that opperating a propane forge inside a building is illegal in North America. Is this true? If it is not, then what precautions can be taken, in particular to avoid carbon monoxide poisoning? My dad owns a fairly large shop with a large adjacent bay. Is it possible to negate the dangers of CO poisoning through airflow alone, given a large enough volume of the shop space, or is venting to the outside a necessity? Anyway, that's it for now, I appreciate you're time spent reading this long (and possibly confusing) post. Any and all advice welcome!