Welder74

Thanks again y'all I'm redesigning it after a lot of reading. And more reading, alot of these I would like to respond to but they post are year many years old. Some new ones help too.

Awesome work I too am trying to build a forge, a forge pretty much like yours it's in the "insulate or not to insulate " topic but it's cut down now. Anyways about yours I love it I wish I had done exactly what you did I like the space you have. And I'm not sure on a door, but your design looks like it will work really well.

Should I make little stands for the brick so it don't squish the insulation? Or do I just make it out of thinner brick and put some little like rebar stands to hold up the brick and what happens when they get hot. Anyways I didn't cut it down yet on the outside but I cut it open and reconfigured the brick and made it a two burner forge with half the space it gets hot but I still can't see it getting to welding temp am I just not being patient enough or am I doing something wrong? I rebuilt my delivery system for the propane too, its not as complicate now, but if you ask me it don't look as cool lol. I want it to work though, dont care about looks. Well I guess I do cause it killed me to cut it down, but I have everything to build the exact same thing if I need to, I might be on "FORGED IN FIRE" some day LMBO. But again I sure thank everyone for your help so far and sorry if I'm asking questions that have already been answered. I also put pics of my burners the jets are from oilfield natural gas high pressure heaters. They have an extremely small hole, to small for low pressure propane so I drill them out to 3/64 , and one right I drilled 1/16. WAY TO BIG for propane and my house natural gas dont have enough pressure. And the other pics are of the new cut down forge. Give me some feedback guys on what y'all think. Again I have not insulated yet. SAVING UP FOR KAOWOOL.

I want to make knives but only with Damascus so I have to learn to forge weld. Being a welder for 23 years I've got a grasp on it, but I'm always ready to learn and forge welding being the first weld ever made I want to be able to do it. I hear that a man can sell well made Damascus billets so if I don't like making knives I can always make billets just to sell for fun not trying to get rich. Again on the insulation should I make little stands for the brick, so it don't squish the insulation?

After reading a lot and trying to do the best job I can I'm gonna cut it apart and cut it down to a two burner forge with insulation and I change the 2" brick for 1" and as far as the shell I'm stuck with 1/4" plate or bigger, nothing is light weight in the oilfield, and it's all Scrap anyway. So my only question I couldn't find an answer to is, do you make 1" stands to put brick on or do you squish they insulation down with the brick? The reason for making it smaller is I'm only wanting to make some knives so later I can always build a bigger forge. If I need to. Thank you so muchyour you guys are awesome help, hope I can help y'all someday, I too am a highly certified rig welder, that's all I've ever done, if that can be of any help.

Wow y'all know what your talking about and yes time to read read read, i built it so fast I didn't even know what they was made out of so I used what I had 1/4" steel and fire brick. So I reckon I'm gonna have to make it even heavier now I already weighs bout 200lbs, glad I didn't use 1/2" that's all we use at work. But Frosty thank you again I'm gonna do my best, to not cut it apart, part of me want to do it all over from scratch but I'm already done except welding it out, so I'll look up the allumina ceramics and see what I can find. I think I need to make it smaller anyways I'm only making knives.

Thanks guys I can cut the Tacks but what size insulation should I get and is the insulation your talking about and replace the brick. If I don't do this will it ever get to forge welding temp. Wow the kaowool is expensive I have a friend that works at acme brick here in abilene and got the brick for$1 a piece and can get all you need by the way and the burners I'll send someone some and see what you think . All the burner stuff is next to nothing for me except the bell reducers.

Thank you for your time and answers I will and have and it looks like I'm cutting it apart.

I didn't insulate my forge and after it runs for 15min I turn it off and it starts to heat everything up and 4hrs later it's still to hot to touch what should I do? I guess cut theTacks and add insulation. But what size?? And my iron won't get yellow hot welding temp.

Ok I'll look. I guess I can cut it apart ,it's just tacked and put some insulation, but won't the fire brick smash the insulation down?

Wow it looks a lot like mine. I'm new to all this too I have turned it on and heated up some railroad spikes. It works good I just don't think it's getting hot enough idk. But I didn't insulate and I should have cause 4 hrs after shut down it is still so hot you can't even touch it. If you look at my burners I made the jets from oilfield heater treater burners and they work awesome they already have the perfect hole in them but I opened them up to 3/64.

I built a forge my first one from pictures and from watching my favorite show forged in fire. I'll send pic everything seems to be working but I didn't insulate it and it get really hot after I turn it off. And I dont think it's getting hot enough. I've never even hit a piece of iron yet just had fun building tools for knife making. I build a very nice 2x72 belt grinder also and I'm in the middle of my power hammer

Hey guys I'm new to all this but the building part. I built my forge , anvil and 2x72 belt grinder. But I don't know if my forge is burning right it get really hot after I turn it off. I didn't use wool insulation just fire brick and 1/4" steel plate. Should I insulate it??? Will I hurt it if I don't?? And will my metal to be forged get hot enough weld?