Charlotte

With the right sized tip and clean decent metal it is possible for the skilled to turn off the fuel gas and continue a cut with just oxygen.   That is really the secret of oxy propane cutting. 

The oxygen is the cutting agent not the fuel.  

However,  that is kind of a stunt that old timers  pull just to remind noobs that there is still a lot to learn,  Can I do it?  Only when the phase of the moon and the set of wind is in my favor. Still I like a clean cut that I get with propane as fuel,

If you go to their website and dig down they list both acetylene and Propane propylene  (alternate fuel gases) for the pipeliner.    I just checked that this afternoon before I posted.

I was going off an old piece of advertisement when I started to post and then checked the current number just to be sure. 

To follow up on Frosty's comments.  I totally agree with his opinion.   I neglected to mention that Harris products is now owned by Lincoln Electric.  So if you find a Lincoln dealer you will find Harris.  

Btw 4403240 is the Harris number of their Pipeliner  Outfit. Good for Propane and Propylene. 

As I said Victor will work but Harris is better designed from the start,  

Most of pieces are the same as acetylene torches.   Look for someone that is dealing HARRIS brand.  They are a company that has specialized in Propane/Oxygen torches and equipment.  I use Victor only because that is what my company sold when I was working there.

   The differences in Victor were at that time : Duel fuel hoses with end connections the same.  The orifice and mixing equipment for cutting/ and brazing, and heating.  The handle bodies were the same.  Essentially all I had to do to switch between propane / blazer/ MAPP/ and acetylene, once the hose was changed, was to swap the flame end connections.

,  

Oxy/propane for cutting/heating/brazing.   

5 minutes ago, ThomasPowers said:

I'd talk "proper" over with your local welding supply company.  As for cutting; yes that may be the top use of oxy-propane  with localized heating to be the second.

Welding supply companies really are the place to go for a proper setup.  Pressures, gauges, drill sizes are quite different.  Personally, I find is a little slower to start with propane but I think I get cleaner cuts.  My company used to fill liquid oxygen dewars  for people engaged in scrap cutting.  They used propane tanks and oxygen to do their cutting.

Mickey   sorry ,  hard fire brick is essentially transparent when you run the equations.   I was not talking about insulating castable.  The point being that the use of Kast-o-Lite is not the subject of the discussion.  Hard fire brick as a floor is a heat storage thermal mass.   Oh and btw It as the refractory Manufacturer's Engineer that run the calculations and we looked at a several different compositions of Hard Brick and insulation configurations. When you look at heat capacity of brick the differences between insulating brick and hard brick vary with the weight not the area.

My personal build is hard brick floor with satanite coating over layers of inswool. Interior is insulating brick covered with Satanite  surrounded by layers of inswool.   Why Insulating brick?  It is easier to shape and easier to replace than cast in place refractory.  It lasts a while if protected from direct contact with hot gas by mortar. 

I have followed Frosty's suggestion of using kiln shelf over the floor and found it works well saving wear and tear on the whole operation,  And no I don't  do pattern welding so my gas forge rarely gets to that temperature.

Now that is the only deer head that I would mount on my wall!

Read the stickies marked with green at the top of this forum section.  Then we can talk.  From what I can see and from what I read  You are not on the same page as the other people who want to help you.

My experience, and with the obliging help of an engineer from a refractory manufacturer,   I learned that  High mass refractories are essentially transparent when looking at heat conduction.  That is if one side is at 1400 deg F  the other side will be at the same temperature. 

There is a benefit in having hard brick or cast refractory as the floor and else where in a forge.  The primary benefit is durability  and stability as well as resistance to welding fluxes.

The benefit of Hard brick mass happens this way:   When cold metal is placed in a hot forge the temperature of the forge drops.  The metal absorbs the radiated heat heating it and some of the convection heat surrounding it.    The Hard refractory continues to radiate heat and the convection of the hot gas picks heat from the brick  so the total temperature drop is less and the temperature recovers more quickly. 

My conclusion was>>>>  Surround the hard refractory with layers of toughened blanket. Only use Hard brick and cast refractory  in areas where direct flame  or welding flux will cause problems. The Insulating blanket and the Hard Refractory should be sealed with a coating to prevent the High temperature carbon monoxide  present in the forge from attacking the material.  ( note:  Reading technical literature in refractory publications indicates that Carbon Monoxide at high temperatures shortens life expectancy of some materials)

Final word:  This is my understanding and my belief.  You will have to take the advice of others and follow your own thinking.

2 hours ago, JHCC said:

Oh, that all my puttering could be so refined!

Seconded and Raised by an OH! MY!

You do as well as a friend and church member I  talk with quite often.  He is a PHD.  teaching in an American university.  English is a peculiar language with so many borrowed words that many American speakers don't use a vocabulary above that of a 12 year old.

On ‎2‎/‎27‎/‎2016 at 8:42 PM, David Durman said:

............I was partial to using mild bronze because I have already ordered copper and tin ingots to make classic bronze for another project in the class; had the idea of sticking to traditional materials since I am already using one. Should I just order silicone bronze sheets and weld it? That seems like less complicated work but more shop-time-consuming. Additionally, unless I'm just looking at the wrong sites, ordering silicone sheets seem significantly more expensive than making my own bronze. Am I mistaken? Again, thanks for answering! .........

Bronze is sold by the pound so  it costs what ever the market is in metals.  As a life long  do it myself and cheap out  the commercial profiteer practitioner I sympathize with your ambition.   In this case I tend to believe that buying the material all ready prepared  would be the better choice. Preparing alloys and then casting them is not for the craftsperson in a hurry I've been told.  If you decide to go the casting route check http://www.atlasmetal.com/silicon-bronze.php  is the place to go.  Your instructor will thank you as I'd guess that he has had experience with casting silicone bronze.   The friends that I have working in bronze casting  rely on them for material.  They sell silicone bronze and  other copper base alloys as ingot or casting shot and cubes   Min Order is like $ 25  which at todays prices takes no time to reach for any about of copper.

5 hours ago, ThomasPowers said:

Trying to cast something that thin yet that sized is not a starter project!  Have you consulted your instructor for casting?  Brass can be temperamental with beating out thin stock. Do you have access to a rolling mill?  Alloy will make a big difference. 

That was my thought.  Silicone bronze is available in sheet form and is TIG weldable with argon although I would use low temp silver solder and use corner ornamentation to assemble  from two sheets top and bottom.  (Think two sheets of metal with corners cut so sides fold in to make the vertical corner.) A little chasing and  you have your box.

Looks very nice

15 hours ago, Frosty said:

The table is a lapidary table so would work with abrasives and a lubricant not paper. Dad had several when he was playing with lapidary stuff. In a rare cases he used rubber pads to cover the steel table but it was a rare occasion.

I don't know what this unit was actually used for but I suppose sharpening blades is a possibility. Are sheep shears straight edged? Unless that device has a cam to rock the blade it's going to cut, grind and polish straight and flat.

Frosty The Lucky.

That would make sense for lapidary work.  What about sharpening the blades of powered shears  They need to critically flat to work properly.   

Back in the day................ Actually not that long ago  to me but 1964 to you  I worked running annealing  and heat treating furnaces for a company that made boiler tubing for nuclear plants, and steel tubing that was used to manufacture bearing races and gun barrels. 

We used thermocouples and manual control to do the whole thing.     So Latticino's   suggestion is a very good one.

I have seen demonstrations using fireplace repair cement.  If you research this site you will find a number of different opinions on what is best to use.

Latticino  , thanks for the link.   It improves on the information that I had on the steel.

Main thing in electro plating is to get surfaces clean.  Not just soap and water clean but chemically clean.   This involves stripper solutions and different steps depending on what your terminal goal is.   I worked for a very brief time in an electro plating unit.  ( I left when I realized that the only thing between me and death or serious disability was my own and my coworkers awareness of the dangers involved #Before OSHA#)  You can do a semi job of throwing some copper  on Iron with out much effort.  but any thing more is serious study and a little expense.

hh1341   I do apologize to you.   It has been a long time since I visited Blacksmiths journal.   I did not know that it ceased publishing in 2010.  At one time DVD were available, or at least that is what I remember.  I did have those issue in paper back in the day but I gave them to a now defunct group when I divorced. 

Everything about that is masterful.   No, praise I could offer would do it justice.

14 hours ago, Frank Turley said:

In American English, you have made more than one "settee", accent on the last syllable.

Settee is the word that I would use.  It is what occurred to me.  However, that word is not commonly in use in North America.  That is very nice work

Dictionary def: A seat or bench with a back.

I remember seeing similar benches  in the entry way of wealthier relatives old homes as a child.

They have all issues in disk.

Fireplace materials are in general not suitable for forge materials.    Hang around and READ all of the stickies and the various threads on gas forges and their burners before you start planning your forge.    The very first question you will want to answer for your self is "Exactly what do I want to do with this forge"   The second question you what to answer is: "Who lives within easy driving distance that is blacksmithing"

You need to post your location.  There are possibly people that chat here near you.  There are state and national organizations with members around the world.  One of those may be able to give you access to smiths that are using gas forges.

Oh !  Welcome to IFI