WARNING: Really sorry for the long post, however I would really appreciate if you took the time to read through as this is pretty much every question I have about forges rolled into one.
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Hey guys,
Been piecing together my ultimate forge over the last month. I hit a bit of a road bump in needing to know how to weld but I got all that sorted out and am now prepping to cut my material and go ahead with my forge design. I made a scale model of it in Sketchup and I was really happy with it at the time, but now I'm not so sure.
I have already made my burner. It is a forced air burner with a 1" through pipe. I plan on creating a 12" long ribbon burner attachment for it, although this may change if I change the dimensions of my forge.
After using a makeshift paint can forge for a while I realized a couple things.
1. Forges use a crazy amount of fuel, and I should probably be trying to mitigate that.
2. Steel plate and such that may act as a table around the mouth of the forge will, despite not being in direct contact with the flame, warp very easily.
3. The concrete I have is very hard to lay and essentially has to be cast. It does not work well in just laying it down by hand without a way to keep it in place while you tamp it; It will just fall apart otherwise.
4. My burner doesn't heat NEARLY as well as I was led to believe by all of the forced air fanboys out there. I am skeptical as to how much of a difference a ribbon burner will make.
With these things in mind I am becoming increasingly wary and skeptical of my "ultimate" design and would like to ask you guys for suggestions on how to improve it. At the end of the day, I want the forge to be able to accomplish forging blades, from small knives all the way up to large swords, hammers and other hand tools, axe heads, and smelting aluminum in a graphite crucible. I may want to forget about the smelting capabilities if you guys think it will be too much of a burden though. I am planning on lining the forge with about 2" of Kaowool and about a 1/4" of castable refractory (this was originally modelled as 1" of each, but I have since realize that I need no more than a thin layer of castable).
I have pictures of the model as well as the model itself available for download here:
Imgur
Sketchup Model
This is what I'm wondering:
1. I realize now the hinges will likely not hold the door up reliably and if they do they will likely break through warping and rusting -- what is a better solution for doors? I have seen interesting hinge designs with bars and rivets, as well as others with pulleys.
2. Is it worth even having doors? I've seen designs where people just lock in some firebrick at the bottom with some angle iron and it just slides across like a door.
3. Have any of you ever felt the need for an opening at the back of your forge larger than mine? (4" wide 2" high)
4. Will a single ribbon burner with a 12" long manifold be able to reliably heat the size of chamber I have designed, regardless of how much propane it takes?
5. If so, will this take a tremendous amount of propane to do so?
6. If the burner won't heat this large of a chamber, what is the largest I could reliably heat?
7. I have the height of my forge designed quite high as I wanted to be able to fit a crucible in. Do you guys think it is worth the extra heating cost, or do you think I would benefit from bringing the height of the forge down?
8. If so, what is an ideal height for a forge to do what I want (mostly just blade work)
9. Is there any benefit to having a long forge like this? Should I decrease the length of the forge? Perhaps the same benefits, if any, would be had with something even yet shorter?
10. On my paint can forge I have an unsupported piece of steel plate that it sits on and this has steadily warped quite easily. Will the welded piece as shown in my model do the same, or will it hold up?
Sorry for the long post once again! Thank you everyone!