dhughes

I'll keep that in mind, thanks. Thank you sir, I'll keep at it.

In my first round of troubleshooting I did try stuffing up the cavities around the burner as it fits in the port, preventing cold unmixed air from getting sucked in. It's possible that the Mizzou lining around the insulation at the port opening is causing turbulence or reflection of air; it's kind of cracking away because it's so thin anyway... I'll remove it and coat with ITC. That's inspirational to hear regarding your helium tank forge. After all this work, I want a white hot forge too! Yes, when I try these different suggestions I'll keep to a scientific schedule of one thing at a time. When the weather clears up I'll take some pictures of the results of different changes. Thanks for all the help so far!

So do you not get that heat conduction problem with a shorter tube too? I followed Frosty's rules to the tee (he he) until just recently when I replaced with a longer tube; it should be noted that before with the 6" tube, the temperatures were no different but there was more backfiring behavior. As the forge got hotter it would need more like 8-10psi to stop backfiring. The nozzle of the burner is indeed recessed quite far back, perhaps 1/4 inch into the shell, while the insulation + mizzou extends about 2.75" past the shell. I guess it could go further back; I'll experiment. That's interesting about the temperature of the mixing tube being cool to the touch... there's definitely something different happening there then. Mine gets hot enough to vapourize water instantly. It sounds like I need to try a few different burner designs with variations on the jet intrusion distance / air opening position.

It's 3/4", and thanks, I'll experiment with larger tips. The tube is 8" long. I did start with a 6" tube, but invariably the heat from the forge would conduct up to the burner nozzle and it would ignite in the Tee chamber, sputtering unless the regulator was turned way up. The longer tube I have found solves this unless the forge has been running for a long time (hours) and then I can wet the burner intermittently to cool it off. The air regulator mechanism is something I wanted just in case it fixed the problem. Typically I keep it all the way open now, as fiddling with it doesn't improve much. I could stick a 1/2" tube on there give it a shot too, if you think that's more appropriate. Thankfully that hardware is just a few dollars! Heh, I'm beginning to appreciate the thought of a coal forge more and more. But I feel there's hope for this gas forge, since lots of folks seem to have more success.

Ah yes, this is true, I can hardly see any colour when it's direct sun. But I've seen the colour at night, it's certainly orange. The metal is nothing like the colour or malleability I see in forging videos. And seems to lose all colour in 5-10 seconds, where in videos I see orange colour fade out in more like 40, starting from a bright yellow. This makes even normal forge work a bit frustrating, to say nothing of welding! I shall take pics in dim light when conditions allow. It gets glowing orange after a while, perhaps 20 minutes.

Hello forgers, I built a forge this summer according to a large amalgam of advice of this forum. And following that, I was able to get a pretty good forge out of it, so to that extent, I am deeply appreciative for all who extended this advice. However despite best efforts, I can't get a forge temperature that heats my steel above orange heat. Here are some of the variables that seem to affect heat: elevation is about 175 meters mig tips are 0.025" insulation is 2x 1" ceramic wool lining is ~3/8" Mizzou to protect wool Mizzou has 3 coats of ITC 100 internal volume is approximately 176 in³ entrances covered or partially covered with brick when heating pressure is typically 2psi for normal work, tried up to 20psi but still don't get yellow heat Thanks in advance for any help or suggestions. Daven