Bladebaka

Wow, been a while. Sorry about that. He piloted a Piper Super Cub, and ran a small guide service out of his lodge.

I'm wondering if the HVAC department here at my school has scrap ceramic blanket pieces. I'll have to check on Wednesday when everyone comes back.

Sorry about the language! The smackdown comment was in jest; I have a fairly thick skin nowadays, so lay it down as you see fit. As for tools, we have a manual brake, a metalworker (punch, shear, notcher, and angle cutter AIO but only on metal less than 1" thick) a large metal shear (IIRC it has a 10ft blade, with adjustable rake and depth aperture, good for paper to 1/2" plate), a miter bandsaw, a damaged bandsaw (some of these welders can't or won't read labels and instructions T_T) a portaban, disc grinders, wheel grinders, 7" and 4" hand grinders... And that's just the welding fab area. On the machining side, there's tons of manual and CNC lathes, several types of drill presses, a heat treating oven, some CNC mills... There's even an ASO. how does the ceramic board stuff hold up? I'm guessing since you didn't suggest it, that the rockwool is better or cheaper, or both? As for disassembly, that's a good idea, should be a breeze to add some bolt points to the shell; my only concern there is the rockwool not holding its' shape properly. I'm assuming your 6x6x10 is just an example; that sounds pretty big! I don't intend to be messing around with anything that needs space that big for quite some time. I do see your point with two burners providing a more even heat; I'd imagine that the burner angles would be opposites, slightly towards (but not directly) opposite corners? An evenly-sized shell of 10x10x10 with a rear door would be a 5x5x10 interior. Two 1/2" burners with a 20* angle on each, one facing towards front left, the other towards rear right. . . . In my head this is starting to look a lot like Sams' forge design, haha. Still reading through the Forges 101. Vertical and Clamshell sound like more trouble than they're worth. --CK

@Frosty This is why I posted here! I've been reading a lot of the Forges 101 thread, but grammar and a lack of illustrations makes it difficult for me to follow. Most of the "tutorials" I've seen use cut up gas cylinders, and after working as a gas refill clerk for a time, (and watching footage of welders repairing gas cylinders) that seems like the the most dangerous thing after getting an up close and personal tour of Chernobyl. As for perfection, I'm a welder-in-training! I screw up all the xxxx time, and I've received harsher brusqueness from much worse instructors. I came here to ask for help because I don't know what I'm doing, was getting conflicting ideas from all over, and decided to ask someone smarter about it all. Looking through the YouTubes again, I've discovered this video by Joe the Builder, showcasing his forge build. I think it's too large for me by far (and has one too many burners), but it seems well within my abilities to fabricate. Because I have access to all the neat toys in my engineering lab (as well as an awesome professor/boss who likes me) I figured I'd fab up the shell and such because it would be cheaper for me (squared designs are more visually appealing to me as well as having easy-to-work-on flat surfaces). I'm well aware that cheaper is not always better, and if I need to put off my intro to blacksmithing for a few months to save up money a bit longer, I'll bite the bullet and do so. I'm still working through the Forges 101 thread and the PDF on Waynes' site, but it's slow going with run-on sentences and low amount of visual aids. Thanks for the advice and smack down! --CK

'91 - 2000, not super sure where, but I was near Anchorage Baptist Temple. Spent a lot of time out in the bush with my grandpa at his homestead, near mystic pass.

Oh, I thought you were talking about carbon monoxide. I'm not really sure what effect the Stack Effect will have on a forge burner. I suppose a horizontal burner wouldn't be too hard.

Thomas, with the Tee burner design, would the chimney effect still happen? Latticino, I'd planned for the 1" blanket to go all the way around with the half brick sitting on top. With a forge this small, is the 2" necessary?

Hey all! I'm Bladebaka. Previously of Houston,TX (and grew up in Anchorage, AK), currently near Anderson, SC. I started out as a software engineering student, but during an internship with my dads' contractor at NASA (It was Houston, after all) I discovered that the high-stress environment and the lack of visible/physical progress was horrible for me. After the internship reached its' end, I (mostly) gave up on software engineering, and after moving out to the Clemson area (a friend in the area invited me out to be his roommate since Clemson is a great engineering school) I hit a snag. Couldn't get a job that paid well enough, and I wasn't able to secure loans or grants because I didn't have residency. Shortly after, I started messing around with a Gingery smeltery while working and waiting for residency, and around that time I came across a video on YouTube of Man At Arms building Leona's Zenith Blade from the video game "League of Legends", a character I loved playing as, which piqued my interest in blacksmithing. I had plans for breaking into the hobby, but I never found the money and time to do the thing. At the suggestion of a close friend, I started attending Tri-County Tech for a degree in Welding Engineering. At present, I'm about halfway through. I'm currently employed with the school in a work-study at the Industrial Lab with all the CNC and welders and fun toys that I'm allowed to use (after learning how, of course), which I'm currently exploiting to build my anvil and forge and such. So that's pretty much me! Nice to meet you! --CK

Hello all, I've been wanting to get into blacksmithing since Man At Arms made Leona's Zenith Blade in 2013. (I took a detour into metal casting first, then I got into welding...) I'm currently halfway through my Welding Engineering degree and have a work-study at my tech schools' machining and welding lab, and that comes with access to all the great toys there (5-axis CNC mills, CNC plasma table, like 80 welding rigs, etc) Anyhow. I'm trying to finalize my forge plan, but everyone and their anvil have different opinions on everything from size to whether or not Kaowool is better than firebricks, so suggestions and such would be much appreciated. I'd like to use a single burner (probably Frosty's Tee) and I'm thinking internal dimensions of 4"W 3"H 10"L would be more than enough for my first forge. I'm currently leaning towards the Kaowool (1", 24" x 12") with a halfsize firebrick from Tractor Supply as a platform for the work to sit on while its heating. I'm not sure whether or not there needs to be a vent in the design as half of the ones I've seen have vents, but the other half don't. I'm planning on having a "porch" on the front to set a firebrick as a door and have a place to maneuver the metal going in and coming out: Haven't decided on the rear yet, but I have an extra couple inches lengthwise to play with. I feel like the 4x3x10 chamber is sufficiently large for a starting forge, and should also help keep the propane costs down for me as well as ensure one burner can heat it thoroughly. My plan at the moment is to construct the shell out of either 11 gauge or 1/8 steel, cut either using the CNC plasma table or a metal shear. I could even fabricate a door, which could be better than a brick. Questions: Burner placement? Is top center going to ensure proper heat and air circulation? Should I put it on a side? What should I do about the rear face? Leave it open? seal it entirely? drill a couple flow holes? Brick vs. fab door? Thoughts and criticisms welcome. --CK