Domnu

Just finished up a Diesel forge. Internally it is 450mm (17.7") by 250mm (9.8") and 180mm (7") in height. 2" superwool xtra as insulation and about 1/2" of refractory on top, the floor is made of a layer of k-26 IFB with a layer of hard firebrick on top inside the forge so the floor can be replaced easily. We used the burner from an old residential water heater. Compared to our big propane forge with about the same internal volume it seems to get hotter whilst being cheaper. Gas has gotten pretty expensive here. The Diesel forge runs at about 2 - 2.5l/hr with the prices here thats about 20% cheaper than the propane forge that runs on 2kg/hr and it is quite a lot hotter at that, I measured it at 1360C (2480F) yesterday with the temperature still climbing. Running it on Diesel as opposed to waste oil might not be as cheap, but it burns very clean and doesnt really need preheating

I am starting to get tired of the pool of molten scale that sits on the floor of my gas forge. When forgewelding the scale runs off the pieces and collects in the bottom of the forge together with som of the borax it then gets stuck to other pieces I am working on. i scrape out my forge from time to time and replace the bottom firebrick when it gets all too nasty. Do you guys have trouble with this aswell? I am wondering if there is a better solution, like cutting slots in the bottom firebrick for that stuff to collect in so my workpieces aren`t bathing in it or putting ceramic chips or coke in the bottom of the forge instead of firebrick...

I am thinking about making a massive one with the hinge all the way doen at the floor with 20cm jaws, but i will need to get the 100kg powerhammer going first. my master also have some crazy plans for forgewelding together an anvil, but that won't happen before winter is over and we can build a massive coal forge outside. I used 50mm square bar. 450mm for both arms. and yeah, i really need to watch out for the ceiling, I am a little too tall for this forge...

I am an apprentice at a forge here in norway, my master is called Ola Svensson I would be surprised if you have heard of him before though. I have uploaded a video with most of the forging i sadly lost some footage, but most of the important parts are there. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9YGd2SpMp88

I have used this burner for about 3 months, about 3-6 hours a day with a lot of forgewelding. haven't had any problems with ignition in the plenum also no damage from oxidation on the plate itself. here is a picture of one of the other burners with a homemade plate. It has been running for approximately 50-60 hrs including a lot of forgewelding and looks just as crappy as the day I made it.

I have experimentet a little with putting an expansion chamber with a hole-plate in front of a venturi burner. the chamber is 2" in diameter and the hole plates are simply reused stainless meat grinder plates. I have tried different plates with different hole sizes and so far most worked pretty good. You get distinct small flames from each hole. This setup is a lot more stable at really low pressures (stable below 0.1 bar in a hot forge on 0.6mm nozzle), it is quieter and the heat is more even in the forge. Not sure if this is a "ribbon burner" or something else but I really like these. the yellow flame colour in the pictures is mostly because of dust. it went away after a while.

I drilled out a hole in the nut matching the outer diameter of the screw, then i just put the screw inside the nut whilst the nut was hot and forged the nut around the screw in a swage. Made some really nice internal threads

My master had to leave for a week and left me with the simple task to "make something nice" while he was gone, so I decided to try making a vise, again...This one is a little smaller than the last one. 4" jaws vs the 6" on the last one. I really wanted to try making this style with upset corners after I saw a similar shape on one of Tom Latané's vises. I forgewelded in 1070 steel into the jaws. Another fun thing with this vise is the threads. Instead of turning them on the lathe I forged them this time, both the inner and outer threads. Really went a lot quicker than making them on the lathe. The screw is made from an old car axle forged down and then forged in a swage to make the threads. All in all the whole build took 6 days.

Hi, I am planning on forging an old school post vise from some 2" square bare i got lying around. when looking at old vises i always see the same points being severly worn, namely the nut and screw aswell as the contact point between the screw and the front arm. i was wondering what you guys think about making the nut aswell as a washer from silicon bronze. I was thinking about casting the nut, machining it out and threading it in the lathe. The idea being to reduce wear between the screw and screwbox as there is less wear between the bronze and steel vs steel on steel. I have personally never seen bronze parts used on postvises and don´t really understand why, in most other machines I have taken apart bronze washers, bushings and nuts are common. Any ideas?

Hi, I am kinda new to gas forges and was wondering what temperatures a good gas forge for general forging and welding should achieve. I just built mike porter style gas burners for my forge and tested them. I hear a lot of people saying they get a "white hot" heat in a gas forge. I don`t really seem to get that. It is more like a yellow color. I only ever get real white heats in my coal forge . I use insulating firebrick in the forge and the burners seem to work fine. The temperatures i get are around 1400 °C at 15psi with a 0.023" orifice as far as i can tell (measured with k-probe and IR-thermometer). Is that hot enough for good forge welding ( I haven`t really had time to try yet)? I do not seem to get the sparkling heats i sometimes get on the coal forge, but i figures that might just be due to a more reducing atmosphere. What temperatures do you guys get in your gas forges?