Levi Prince

Ok....would it work to make a new forge out of a 20 pound propane tank? Line it with kaowool and refractory. I don't know if that would be closer to the right volume. I saw a video of a guy making one like that and it looked quite good, except he just had exposed kaowool, if I made that design obviously I would cover that with castable. If that would be the right volume, what should I do for burners, the design this guy uses in the video, or would a tee burner work better. The only problem with the tee burner is that you can't regulate the air, but maybe that doesn't matter as much as I think it does. Also, if you had a 500$, 200 pound cylinder of concrete and wool and steel, what would you do with it? It seems a shame to throw it out, especially when it's such a good insulator. Any uses I could have for it?

Here is the link to the video: 

Thanks a lot for the info, I didn't know you could only heat so small an area. I really do want this to work without having to make an entirely new forge, so would it work better just to cut it in half? And here are pictures of my burners, so if they are salvageable please let me know, if not I'll make those tee burners if those will work a lot better. Im sorry if I sound like I'm ignoring your guys advice, it's just that I've spent a bit of money on this so far and I don't want that to be wasted, so if i can make my existing forge smaller and just remake the burners that would be best. Believe it or not, where I live in canada, I can't get any of the popular castable refractories unless I pay a small fortune on shipping, and the best I can get here is 2800 degree stuff from a pottery place that's 80 bucks for a 50 pound bag! So that's why I want to salvage this forge.

Well I don't need to price up the forge, Already built it haha. It's a 100lb propane tank lined with 2" of kaowool and half an inch of 2800 castable refractory (I can't buy kastolite or any of the good ones where I live, and the shipping is nuts). I would like to not have to start over from scratch, seeing as how I've spent a few hundred bucks on this forge already. I was looking at making swords and large axes so that was the reason for the size of the forge, but If I really don't need to make it that big, could I just make a refractory plug to put in the middle to "shorten the forge" when I don't need the full length? Also, I suppose I could cut it in half and just have two 18" long forges so I have a backup Also, when you say 3/4" burner are you meaning a true 3/4 of an inch because I'm using "3/4" inch pipe but it's actually a lot bigger than that. When I was blowing air through the forge with a hairdryer and only running one burner, it got a 5 inch section of flat stock up to a dull orange in about 3 minutes from cold. But if I do need to make new burners, could you supply a parts list for those brass fittings and whatever size Tee I need?

I do have a drill press but it tends to wander quite a bit so some of my holes end up crooked. I also have a mig welder as well as most conventional tools. The forge is pretty big, 9” diameter by 35 and I’m running it off a 100lb tank. The forge is actually made out of a 100lb tank too. but if you want to show me some plans I could tell you whether it would work for me or not.

Thanks for the info! Ill try to get pics tomorrow. Do you think there's any way I could fix this, or do I have to start over? Also, is there a specific design you think I should follow? It's a much bigger forge than any I've seen on other people's plans, so It would need to be a design that would work with multiple burners. 

Hi, I'm new to forging and just building my first propane forge. It's a big one- about 2500 cubic inches. I made venturi style burners (3 of them), figuring that would work. Problem is, outide the forge they work pretty great, but once installed the flame is very weak  and often just oxidizing, even though I can control the amount of air going in. I'll post videos, but here is the info anyways. The burner construction is as follows. Straight from the tank there is a high pressure regulator with a hose that leads into 2 tees in order to split the assembly into 3 branches. At this point the pipes are 3/8, but they lead through 90 degree elbows and reduce into 1/4 to go into the burners themselves. There are ball valves on all three. I threaded the pipe nipples and put it through a bracket which is welded to the reducer on the top of the burner. A disc is threaded onto the pipe so that it can move up and down on top of the reducer in order to control the amount of air going in. At the end of the pipe there is a cap with a 0.035 MIG tip for a jet nozzle. The reducers themselves are 1-1/4 to 3/4, the burner shafts are 3/4 by 8. Currently they are just being held in the forge by 3 pipes welded to the body that the burners just sit in, I'm wondering if I need to make the pipes bigger and just use retention screws so that there is extra space around the burner for air getting into the forge. Here are the videos of the burners outside of the forge, as well as inside. In the videos of the burners installed in the forge, I am using a hair dryer to blow more air into the forge and you can see the flames immediately get better. Any help would be appreciated. Do I need to change to forced air?

https://drive.google.com/file/d/19G5r9ooaupDswwOTEb7V86BOxJCLwvaf/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1I3u6BKHZkke4ReYdSmcobE7I1L23mcue/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_NdbDASkVa0yWP81iZXV_j_EZYY8fb-W/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1d_ENhJzxfnhyX8lo3VjfN7li14zRJ0JR/view?usp=sharing