I fired my forge last night to get a feel of it's limitations. I've fired it a few times before to test it's functionality and tweak it, but last night it stayed on for about an hour.
Basically, there is a 6" long cylinder with 1" thick walls made from castable refractory. The inside is coated with itc. The wool was wrapped around and it was inserted into a steel can. Uncoated soft brick is used to close the ends. I will eventually replace with hard brick and coat with itc.
It takes about 20 minutes to really get going, and stays glowing for about half an hour after I turn the gas off.
The piece of metal I used in the test was hot bar stock 20" long x 2" wide x 1/4" thick.
It would get right in between orange and white, but not what I think would be welding temperature, which is what I eventually want it to do for me.
Overall, the forge works great besides for that one detail. Does anyone have any ideas or tweaks to boost the temp?
BTW - I was running about 5 psi from a 10 psi max regulator. I can turn it up, but I fear I might melt the aluminum conduit. I will be replacing it eventually with something more suited.
Thanks!