NachoSupreme

Good to know, Im kind of a jack of all trades, I never took an inside job for long, it just didnt feel natural, For the aluminum, Im just looking at smelting a large quantity into usable blocks, cylinders etc for my milling projects, Free is good :), but the blacksmithing, well its always fascinated me, my great uncle on my dads side was a blacksmith and my great grandfather on my moms side was an artist who worked with a lot of different materials, I doubt if any know his works, but it is possible that some may. I have always had to make things work which were supposedly un do able since my boss was a bit tight , we always had to think on our toes and it did make mad, but also inspired me to make tools necessary for jobs and figure work arounds for impossible tasks. I truly want to learn , I had a teacher who told if you can learn one new thing every day, no matter how trivial or small then it was a very good day, I have always taken that to heart and try to always learn something new on a daily basis, this is an art and skill that will stay with me for the rest of my life, even if I never get that good at it.

I do apologize to the forums and moderator, if possible just wipe it and Ill call it a day, been a real bad year, I never make demands, but may be overly inquisitive, sorry for that, I have been dealing with Twitter and I DO take offense if insulted for being inquisitive, or just trying to learn from those who are learned in arts and ways others consider to be boring, I love nature and find the art of casting and blacksmithing to be not only an art, but something which has always fascinated me.

Greetings any and all, Im about to start a new project, Gas fired forge/foundry, its going to be a bit on the larger size, 50 gallon barrel, 2 layers of 1 inch regractory blanket, 1 layer of refractroy cement, I m trying to get some information how many burners I might need once the forge is finished, I hear a few saying to guestimate, but I dont trust that, thats why I am here, why so large you ask, well I have 1k pounds of aluminum , scrap prices suck right now, so I thought what a great time to make some blocks and cylinders for my milling machine, most likely some ingot molds as well. Am I understanding that a good portion depends on the cubic inches of the forge ? I also understand that ribbon burners are a better use of propane, efficiency and cost wise, and finally, I have seen two different setups for a ribbon burner, some using forced air, some using a venturi system which is hotter and which is most efficient. I do understand that the cubic inches are obtained measuring the inside diameter , width and height. I would also like to create a baffle system if you will, so if forging, I can lower the amount of space I need to heat, the baffles will be created out of refractory materials. so any and all experts in these areas are welcome to give me a heads up on what is what, if you are only going to criticize , move along , I have no need for BS in my life. Thanks in advance :)