Jeff Tervo

Oohhh. Ribbon burners! I’ve seen those. What are the benefits of them? Are they more efficient than the more common burners?

What kind of spread do I want? I’m not sure I understand what that means. I was thinking I’d want an even heat throughout? That’s why I changed the dimensions to be as close to 350 cubic inches per burner. Or is that not beneficial to have an even heat with both burners running?

Hot spots: they’re bad right? They can cause burns in the steel if the material is left in the same spot for too long, right? How do I get away from having hot spots?

Whats an NARB forge? Lol. Sorry I’m new to all of this haha.

I’m a design engineer by day, so I think I’m using that and over engineering/using too much theory and math to make it as efficient as I THINK it will be lol. Why reinvent the wheel, right?

Well, I made some changes finally. Life got busy and this was put on the back burner.

@Frosty, sorry for replying the way that I was. Every forum I am involved in has different rules and that is one I will remember here.

I want a 2 burner forge because I don't want to be AS limited as I would be with a single burner. I want to forge weld eventually and I think I will be working with larger pieces in the future when I get that far. @VaughnT you're right, I don't want to focus on one thing (knives), I want to learn how to do everything from knives to scrolling to architectural pieces. I scrapped the side door idea for now. If I get the urge, or need, for something like that in the future, I'll figure something out. But for getting started, I don't need it. It wasn't going to be a wide open wall, as mentioned earlier in the thread, I just wasn't finished with my initial design when I made the rendering.

I have attached a (very rough draft) PDF of a 2D drawing of what I changed the size to. Frosty, you mentioned that those burners heat ~350 cubic inches each. This revision has 729 cubic inches. How far apart should I place the two burners? I've heard 7" O.C. apart from each other, but this design doesn't allow that amount of spacing. It has 2" of kaowool insulation around the perimeter and 3 K-28 bricks.

FORGE DRAWING.pdf

I just realized I had a brain fart in the previous post. Of course there’s room for two burners on this. I was thinking I needed 14 inches for the burners lol. Disregard that burner placement question.

17 hours ago, Frosty said:

Stop bowing Jeff, I'm just another guy who likes to play with fire and hit things with hammers. 

What I do and what you end up doing is just that what we do or did. Just cutting way back on the threaded pipe eliminates the main concerns. Just because I like copper tubing doesn't make it THE way to go. Following is my variable volume shop forge release .1 as an example of my gas supply method and of WAY more forge than necessary. The scissor jack lifts the lid and I can arrange the walls as needed to make the forge chamber. Each burner heats approx 350 cu". In the years since I built this I've only ever used all 4 burners at once maybe two times when there were a bunch of guys working. I've never needed to heat anything that wouldn't fit under two.

By dimensions you need to calculate the flame contact volume of the forge to provide enough burners to reach the temperatures you need. Remember it's easy to turn the gas down, turning it above maximum . . . not so. If those are 3/4" burners in a balanced chamber that'd represent 600-700 cu". forge. Having one wall wide open spilling heat, would make it more of a brazing hearth than a proper forge.

Frosty The Lucky.

I swear I replied this morning. Apparently not haha.

I’ll throw some dimensions on it sometime this week and figure out the cu” of the internal surfaces. Would you say to not go any larger than 700 cu” with two 3/4” burners?

Also, this design is still in process. I plan to add a third door to the side (the gaping hole in the side) and have it hinge downwards.

13 hours ago, WayneCoeArtistBlacksmith said:

Check out the Build a Gas Forge attachment on the Forge Supplies page of my web site.

You can get the url and e-mail addy on my Profiles page.

Let me know if I can help you.

Wayne

Will do! Thanks!

Yeah I visited the shop once back when I was in elementary school but haven’t been since.  

How old is your son now? Maybe I’ll know him if he’s around my age. That’s pretty cool that he’s been doing that though!

I looked at your picture, it’s hard to tell on my phone what houses are in the background.

Well, I wasn't expecting this! That's awesome to have a "neighbor" on here!

What side of the lake do you live on? I "grew up" on Elmdale Dr. (south side of the lake) and moved to the west side of town in 97.

I'll send you a PM.

Thanks guys! I messaged the seller last night and he didn’t reply after opening the message. Looks like I’m going to the railroad depot to see if they have any “junk” pieces of track.

I haven’t even started smithing yet and last week I told myself that I didn’t want to spend a ton of money starting out. I guess I saw this anvil and my eyes got big for it haha.

1 hour ago, Frosty said:

Welcome aboard Jeff, glad to have you. You can be a new blacksmith. . .  I give you leave.  

Have you checked out the Illustrated T burner instructions in the gas burner Section? That's as easy as I could think to make the things though I keep finding tweaks every time I build one.

I don't like that much threaded pipe on top of burners it has too much leverage and tends to knock the jets out of alignment. I use 1/4" copper tubing for the final fuel line between the burners and the manifold.  In your drawing the "manifold" would be right after the T in the fuel line. I put the manifold off to the side of the forge and lower to keep it out of the heat. I mount the individual 1/4 turn valves on the manifold. Copper tubing is flexible and doesn't have enough strength to  bump the burners or jets out of position. It'll take more heat than it'll get even mounted over a door so it's not a fire hazard. 

I put the main 1/4 turn fuel valve directly after the regulator on the tank. In that position you don't have to reach through a fire to shut the fuel off fast. Being able to shut the fuel off FAST in an emergency is why I put a 14 turn ball valve on the main line the tank valve can take several seconds to shut off even if you're pee your pants scared. Seconds can count a LOT where an uncontrolled fire and compressed flammable gas are combined. Yes?

Your concept drawing looks good, could use some tweaks and dimensional details to get right but all in all it appears to be a nice working forge. It's a BIG boy though, probably bigger than you'll use. If it isn't crazy too big for what you intend to do there's something disturbingly wrong with you. (JOKING! Everybody overbuilds equipment, even when we've been doing this long enough to know better.)

Frosty The Lucky.

Well let me start off by saying that I feel honored to have Frosty, the man himself, comment on my thread the first day here! After the countless hours of research I’ve been doing these past few weeks, I’ve seen your name and your burners a LOT! Lol.

So here is what I gathered from your reply. Correct me if I’m wrong.

1. Eliminate the excess piping before the T’s (where the mig tip goes) and mount them as well as the shutoff valves off to the side and down low. With the main shutoff right after the pressure reg?

2. Provide dimensions for a preliminary review.

3. Design it smaller  lol.

If I missed anything, let me know. Can you provide some photos just so I am clear as to what you’re trying to tell me?

Thanks again!

edit: yes I have viewed the T burner instructions. I actually used them for my design, which I’m sure you noticed lol.

I’m new to blacksmithing, well I WANT to be new. I haven’t started yet lol.

Anyway, I started designing what I’d like my forge to look like this past weekend. It isn’t finished as of yet, I plan to hinge the end doors so they open to the side and I will add a door to the side to hinge down flat.

What advice can I receive from the pros out there? Should I tweak anything? Also, what would be the best burner to use that requires the least amount of specialized fabrication?

Awesome! Thanks!

Thank you for the response. I was thinking it was kind of high, but I don’t really know anything about blacksmithing either lol. I will update my location for sure!

I’m wanting to get into the trade after watching Forged in Fire. Im sure you guys hear that often from new guys haha.

I started designing a gas forge over the weekend and I have a rendering of the progress so far. Could I post that in another thread to get some feedback?

Wondering what you guys think this is worth. The posting says it’s from 1903, 104 lbs and has very good rebound. Listed at $500. Is that too steep? In Michigan.