North State

Wow! Has it been almost a year since I posted? Well in some ways I fell like I have been dragging my feet. In other ways, I feel like I have been making some measured forward progress. I did narrow the length of the overall body by 4-5 inches. I also flattened out the forge floor and sides. Thus making the interior volume smaller by about 1/3. My thinking is that with less volume, I hope to be able to reach forging temperature quicker and with less fuel. I hope to be able to fashion an idle/full control valve so I will have to rotate my burners so I can arrange the pipe fittings. Maybe I can use one burner for standard forging, and if I need the second for welding etc, I will have it already in place. The biggest advice I can offer to the rest of the newbies like me, is read and take the sage advice of the forge veterans on the forum. Unfortunately, I began assembling my forge before I found the forum and what I spent a lot of time and effort making what would take about 20 minutes with both burners going north of 15psi. My regret and stubbornness has brought me right back to some of the advice found earlier in this thread with a much smaller design.

I'm not sure it helps, but my 3/4 NA's use a .033 might tip... so Irondragon's .036 should get you headed in the right direction, Binesman.

IgnrntNewb, I too consider myself an extreme novice. I see a lot of similarities between what you have shaping up and the one I built. Mine is 19" long, 7" dia and after the fact, I learned the sq.in. suggestion of 350. It takes both my 3/4 burners to get it hot. If I had it to do over I would build it shorter. As for securing your burners, have a look at the pictures on my thread and see what you think. They stay put and it doesnt affect the flame that I can tell.

Samj1425, any luck on the torch tip burner? Im kinda curious. On mine, I used .030 mig tips tapped into a brass nipple, which runs cross-ways through a 1"x3/4" Bell reducer. It puts put adequate enough fuel to accomodate the NA air intake. I suppose there is some room for dampering the air intake amd refining my flame, but with two burners, the complete firebox gets cherry red within 15-20 minutes. Would sure like to know if your idea has gotten off the ground.

Thanks, Buzzkill. Yes i think that was some of the chemical moisture cooking off as its been set up for a couple months before being ran this hard. I am either going to trowel in a forge floor to use up some reale state or cut about 2.5 inches off either end. If I cut the ends, i am going to have to relocate the hinges and latches. I havent heated up anything significant yet. As for my purpose, I plan on experimenting with seeing how different metals heat, move and forge. Then i plan on moving to small things like leaves, bottle openers, steak turners and maybe oyster shuckers as I live in a coastal town. Ultimately, I dont plan on forging a claymore or anything huge, but I definitely would like to forge a knife. Thanks again for all the help and advice!

Ok new video. For kicks and giggles, I fired up two burners and ran it for 20 minutes before I took this video. She's pretty hot, but the story will be told when I evaluate fuel consumption. 20191122_162337.mp4

Even as inexperienced as I am, I think that was well said Thomas.

Great advice, Thomas. Do you have a thread with pictures of your rig? Kraitok, my air tank was approx 11" in diameter and 19" not including the doors. I have approx 2" or so of wool/refractory inside which gives me something in the neighborhood of 7"x19" fire box. If i build another one, I am going to either do one that has more girth and less lemght or a square one. Said somewhere in this thread, 350 or so cu.in. is the sweet spot between using a single burner and not wasting excess fuel.

Alright then, best of luck I look forward to seeing how yours turns out. I would just advise to do what youre doing. This forum is a wealth of knowledge. Glean all you can. Dont be bashful about asking for help. On a side note, I got into a fight with an angle grinder today and after an 8cm gash and 19 stitches to the left forearm.(not forge related) I guess I will have time to tune burners and reduce the internal volume of my firebox. Above all else, please be careful. We are dealing with some dangerous stuff! For what its worth, I had on double eye protection, ear plugs kevlar gloves long pants and composite toes. Even with extreme precaution, things can go side ways.

EDL, thats hilarious! Yeah i was aware of the difference, but it seemed that Google wasnt so much. Anyhow, I have recieved a GOB (eastern North Carolina term) of great tips and advice. I like to feel like I have really stretched the more experienced member's knowledge more than their patience! Dobt wait til then to begin accumulating materials to build your rig! Good luck and if you need any help, IFI is the right place!

Sounds good, Tink. I intend to do the bypass circuit for that reason as well. I have some pipe fitting to do to arange my two venturi burners first.

Tim, that looks great! Is that with one burner? If so, what is the size? 3/4"? Also, about how much run time does it take to get your forge that hot? Nevermind about the size and number of burners, I zoomed in on your first picture and I think youre using a ribbon burner. Correct? Anyhow, how long does it take to get get to temp with it?

Thats exactly what i was thinking, Tim!

I was actually thinking of adding a semi-circle "wedge" to make sort of a flat "floor" to yhe insode of it... But I have some insulating firebrick that i am going to try first.

Ok cool i have an infinite supply of regular firebrick and about 4 insulating firebricks that are about 4"×8"×15". I should be able to work out some sort of plan with those.