Whiskeymike

Ah! Good idea! I’ve been looking for an excuse to get an x-carve. I bet you could do some cool things for making the mold with one.

Dan, those pics are super helpful! Thanks so much for taking and posting them. How are you getting the holes lined up so well? I doubt it makes much difference, but yours look pro. i printed a pattern out from fusion, used drill press, even wore my cheaters and it still looks like a drunk monkey drilled the holes.

My bad. I had laid out the pattern with fusion 360 and had halved the number of holes I’ll actually run. Thanks for the spot check. Looks like I should be good. I’ll check out the thread. Thanks.

Can someone validate this is the proper process/timing for kaowool/kastolite 30/plistix? This is what I’ve gathered from this thread and several others, mostly in piecemeal, so please correct me if I got something wrong or can improve. 1. Layout 1” layer of kaowool in shell. Wet with silica rigidizer 30/70% ratio. Use torch to dry wool/melt silica. Torch time is ~15-20 minutes. Ensure entire wool insulation is rigid, otherwise repeat for that area. 2. Apply second layer, repeat above process. 3. Mix Kastolite 30 to thick peanut butter consistency. Butter wool with plain water. Trowel mix onto kaowool 1/2” thick. 25 min working time. Put in garbage bag, spritz some water in bag to maintain 100% humidity. Let cure 2-7 days. Remove from bag. 4. Bake in oven for a few hours or all day from 200-500 degrees. OR. Run torch on low to remove moisture for a couple hours. OR leave out of humid bag for a couple days and then run torch on low for a couple hours. When all done, run torch on high for 30 minutes. 5. Mix Plistix to sour cream/latex paint consistency. Brush on to Kastolite in thin paint like thickness. Let dry to hard coating which is about 1 day. 6. fire up forge/use it.

Cool, gonna go with the sleeve. Can always cut it off and put a coupler if it leaks out the sleeve. I’m going with the L brackets/angle so I can shim it up if it’s below the face of the forge. thanks. Hope to get it cast tomorrow. Hurry up and wait!

Not sure if this is a burner, narb or forge question.... any suggestions on how to mount the ribbon burner to the forge? Planning on L brackets attached to Ribbon burner and then it sits on forge. Any suggestions for filling a gap between burner and forge kaowool/kastolite 30? on Narb, any thoughts on using a slip on mount to plenum instead of screw on? Seems like it would be nice to pull burner tube out of burner when you want to avoid chimney affects. Obvious concern is that the joint might leak, causing an issue.

Yea, I’m going to go with Tig rod and see how it goes. I’m going with NA. If I end up having problems, I figure I can add a blower and cap the other side of the T. Do you have a theory of why smaller holes are better? In looking at the pro ribbon burners, they seem to have very small holes, but all require blowers. Concerns that we may get to a point of having to much back pressure for the NARB. I did some quick napkin calculations and at 1/8”, I’m already reducing hole flow area from the 1” pipe by 50%. I’d have to get them much closer together or go much wider to approach a similar area.

Thanks, I appreciate it.

About to buy an adjustable 30 psi regulator. Should I get an acme or pol fitting? Everything I’ve read is that acme is the new fitting but not sure if one is better for use with a forge. I’d like to be able to use a 20 or 100 lb tank.

No problem. In looking at Dan’s last pict again, if the sprues are 1/8”, it looks like his spacing might be 3/16 or so. Border looks about 1/2. I’ll mock that up and see how it looks

Dan or others, You guys have a guess at what the ideal spacing should be between holes? If I’m doing 1/8th” holes, should they be separated with a 1/4” of material between them? Worried that if it gets to less than that, it’ll become weak without enough structure. What spacing are you using? Factory burners are way tighter, but obviously they use finer material and much more refined processes.

Ok, back to reading. I was thinking psi didn’t determine CFM or volume.

Thanks Frosty. quick follow up. Is there a reason that lower PSI is desirable? Since PSI doesn’t affect volume of gas consumed, should I care if I’m running 2 or 10 psi? It seems folks like the idea of getting down to 2 PSI and I’m unsure why.

What’s the right size T for a 1” burner? Do I need to follow the 1”x3/4” pattern and get a 1.25”x1”? Or will 1”x1” be sufficient?

Sorry, it’s about 1000 posts over 3.5 years. I find a lot of it confusing and contradictory. There seems to be multiple build posts by others, so I thought some of them might be approved as good builds with the latest info. I’m a diy guy, but don’t need all the nuances. I’ll get back to reading the builds. Thanks

Is there a list of build threads/instructions, either official or not that are “approved” and reflect the latest recommendations from Mikey and Frosty?

Are there updated plans for Mikey’s burners or Frosty’s T burners? I noticed this thread has gone on for three years and unclear if there is an “official” update.

Thanks guys. I was hoping with the forced air going through it, it wouldn’t be that hot.

I’d like some advice on the most versatile gas forge shape for doing artwork. I generally don’t do knives and focus on things that are more flat and large as a foot print. For example, I’m taking saw blades 7-11” and drawing it into a bowl with a swage block or cupping tool. So it might start 10”-10” by 1/4”, but after forging it becomes 6’’x6”x4”. Other pieces are things like masks I’ve read the burner and forge threads. I’m trying to heed Mikey and Frosty’s advice of building the smallest forge that will work. I’m currently using coal forge and OA torch, but would like to use a ‘So far, the design that essential craftsman uses for his forge with forced air ribbon burners seems like the ideal fit. If there are ways to put larger items in a smaller forge, would love to hear ideas.

Pine ridge covers the size of the chamber in their FAQ. https://www.pineridgeburner.com/faq

Does the burner get that hot that it would affect the metal? I have cnc plasma and could cut all of the holes and shape. It could be welded Together to be air tight. I’m not against refractory, just trying to understand how it works.

Do you happen to have access to a good pressure washer? Good defined as 2.7 gallons per minute or more. 3 gpm or more is better. If so, Northern tool and others have a sand blasting add on that attaches and uses regular sand. It can be done in the grass and as long as it doesn’t have bad toxic coatings, it’s pretty safe. You can also use a pressure washer with a degreaser and this may be plenty if you don’t have rust or scale to remove. as mentioned, outsourcing it to someone is a great path. If you find a powder coater that will work with you, they sandblast the parts as part of the process. You’ll be amazed at the colors and finishes available. It can be surprisingly economical (you might find someone to do the elephant for $50-$75, especially if you are flexible so they fit it in when there is excess room in the oven.. It’s also very durable for outside use.(3-7 years of rust/UV protection) Might be a bit tricky doing it with the wire, but if you can rattle an it, you can powder coat it. best of luck.

Let's see your Oxy Acetylene Torch Holder/Gas Saver Stands. I'm about to build a stand to hold my torch and gas saver and looking for ideas. What do people use to hold the torch? I'd prefer to not clamp it in my leg vice.

I'm brand new to heat treating, so my knowledge comes from the dozen articles/posts I've read over the past few days. (so very little, and I'm still in that zone of confusion and not knowing what's accurate and internet conjecture). So the comment of temperature and timing was off the top of my head from one of the articles I read, but isn't particular to the metal I'm working with. I understood from reading that each metal will have a different temperature and timing and it will be different for normalizing versus quenching, etc.. But as you mention, perhaps an hour or two is the appropriate time line and doesn't need to be timed to the minute. It may be a detriment to myself, but when getting into something new, I do an extensive amount of reading and then pick the project to implement on. That process seems to conjure up tons of questions in the process. Sometimes it works really well as I recognize issues before they occur. In other situations, I find that I've over complicated it and if I just did it following a simple one page guide that I would have been further along in the process of learning. I appreciate the guidance guys. I'll give it a shot on a few pieces and see what happens.

Well, I guess I have two concerns. 1. is the time that it takes to get there. So if you have heat it to 500 degrees for 8 hours and you place the piece into a 500 degree oven, it will take some time to also get to 500 degrees. So I'm trying to figure out if you need to calculate this or measure it's temperature or something to accurately heat it for 8 hours. Secondly, it might have been a brain fart, but I was thinking that just because your oven is at 500 degrees, the steak inside the oven is not. I guess this is due to moisture, etc.. and may not be applicable to steel, but trying to figure out if the steel is automatically at 500 degrees because the oven is 500 degrees. Yep, exactly. Was just wondering how smiths deal with this and how they determine when it's the same. On the optical pyrometer, I have one. I think it maxes out at 800 degrees or so. Is there a trick to determining it after the upper limits of an OP is reached without spending a fortune? Perhaps i'm thinking about this too much before I get in to it.