ToMang07

... 20210602_201424.mp4

I played with it a bit, only fired it the one time so far, definitely not dialed in, but saw in excess of 1800°F with no doors on. I have it coated with ITC 100 now and curing, so next weekend I'll get it dialed in. It had pretty even flame and it ran great at 1psi. Looking forward to breaking it in!

And other than paint.... it's done!

Welded up a hinge for the rear door, and lined it with ceramic wool then Castolite, it's curing. I think for the front I'll weld on a piece of angle iron and use soft fire brick for the door. It's coming along!

*I am not a pro* I *JUST* rebuilt my forge press, including a couple new hoses due to repositioned tank and pump/motor. All I did was double-check all connections were tight, filled the tank, turned it on and let it run for a minute until the sound was even/consistent. Then I moved the ram up and down full length of it, probably 3-4 times, letting it rest for a few seconds at the end of the run. Topped off the tank, 90% full. It's working great.

Truthfully I didn't want to play with it too much , I just wanted to make sure it will run, I have too much air, so I'm debating adding a "T" with another gate to bleed off air so I don't burn out the blower. But I wanted to make sure it will work before installing it into the forge. This weekend I will be welding up the stand for the forge and firing it up for the first time. Ended up not getting as much of an angle as I wanted for the burner the way it set, but I believe it will work as is.

Lol, got to looking at it while I was test firing my ribbon burner this morning, and thought it looked bigger than 5"..... it's a 6". Even more of a score!!!

It will burn! 20210526_061115.mp4

I'm still learning, but I do primarily bladesmithing.

That's a brilliant idea Charles... I may very well do that after I get an initial stand setup and mounted! Thomas, I posted both because people refer to them as either/both Post/Leg Vise. And as far as another thread, I spent quite a bit of time looking through them, and found very few pictures. And I've found the mods to be touchy about people digging up old posts, so instead of doing that I figured I would make my own. I *DO* like the idea of having it attacked to a water barrel, but I don't really need that much water in my garage, lol, maybe if I had more space!

My leading "plan" (if you can call it that is this: I have a 3/8" plate that is 24"x24" to be used as the base, and I'd take an old I-Beam I have, and mount it vertically on the back 1/3rd of the plate with a smaller plate on top to mount the vise too, then weld a smaller plate to the base plate with a hole in it for the post leg. This should give me enough space on it to be able to stand on it for twisting/wrenching on the work, while a large enough base to also be relatively stable. Also thinking about welding up a couple fixed casters to the back so I can tilt it backwards and move it around in the garage. They would be angled so they only roll when you tilt the whole contraption. (In red.) I also have a lot of big angle Iron I could use if needed to add to the structural integrity. Please forgive my MS Paint artistry, lol

Finally found one in good condition, it has 5" jaws and is a big sucker, in excellent condition! I'm honestly lost when it comes to mounting it tho, I don't want to mount it on my workbench, it's too far from the forge and press, that said, it's a tossup on which I want more..... stability or portability. If you have pics of your setup, please share! Wood, metal, and/ or concrete all at my disposal.

Longest I've seen is 14", but they had 3 rows of holes. I'm hoping the smaller holes will allow enough pressure to build to fill the whole chamber and distribute it evenly. It's an experiment, for sure! lol

Yeah, I suppose I should have spent an extra minute getting the model square.... I was more demonstrating where they get placed versus how deep, so my bad on that, I would have the burner face flush with the inner casting as well. I do have the burner cast. Of course, this is all experimental, taken from firsthand experience; advice; and research all discombobulated into what my brain filters into a myriad of confusing information, lol The burner is long, but skinny. I'm hoping the increased air flow from my blower will compensate for the distance the air/gas mixture needs to travel. I have a 3"/272cfm Forge blower, and a long 2" pipe with baffle to mix the gas mixture. The way I look at it is even if I need to run it at 4psi it's still running on 1/3 less pressure than my (venturi-style) small forge does.

So I finally have a burner cast, and the rest of the supplies for the forge are finally in..... took a month to get a bag of Castolite, lol Anywho, the last thing I can't decide on is the orientation of the burner. I have seen these 3 in 99% of the forges out there. (A, B, or C) B seems to be the best option, as it is the least likely to blow directly on your work, however it would be the hardest to cut and cast into the forge body. NOT LOOKING for debate as to the size of the forge. This is strictly about the orientation of the burner.

https://patents.google.com/patent/US1036155A/en

I have not If I get a chance to clean it up I'll check the patent number on it, but it looks to be the same as the one in this video.

It has been, good eye Goods. The last 3" or so was repaired with hard welding rod. But it was part of a package deal, and although I haven't done much to it it seems to rebound very well.

Hey look.... Twins!

So don't blast it with the 10lb? Lol I saw that, I just thought it was neat and figured I'd share. You can actually see where someone DID hit it with something big and did a poor job fixing it. I have some hard welding rod and was thinking about cleaning it up a bit. It's a neat piece.

Never seen one of these, acquired it the other day, just thought I'd share a pic!

More likely: politics.

Well, if I'm gonna build one, I might as well build one; and I want to be sure it's big enough to do anything I need to do. I figure a ribbon burner is hotter, and will distribute heat more evenly, and from what I can tell the most efficient burner design of the gas fuel forges. As far as the pipe.... I figure I can either do a cardboard cylinder and burn it out, or just cut a PVC in half and use duct tape to keep the refractory out, then just pop it into itself to remove from the casting. The water tank is only a ~12" diameter, and the air tank is about a ~16" diameter, so if I had 2" Kaowool and 1" cement it would still only have 10" of space at most in the middle with the big tank, 6" in the smaller one. Yes, it'll be longer, but That's one of the reasons I was thinking doing a longer, skinnier burner vs. a large block just in the middle. I'm not fixed on any design, but I only want to do this once, and do it right. I could do a smaller, more cost effective forge, however that is not my goal. I want to have one that is large enough and hot enough to do whatever I need.

So after careful consideration, the only NA forge that I was considering was the Chile Habanero, but upon further investigation they are looking at a 20+ week wait time. So, in the meantime anyway, my plan is to design and build a forge. I have 2 options for the body, one is an old water tank from a portable water pump, the other is an air compressor tank, being the much larger one. (25-ish gallon.) My thought process is to cut/clean/paint the tank on inside, then line with 2" 2600*F Kaowool. Then put the forge on it's end, plop a 8 or 10" pipe in the middle, and fill the rest with Kastolite 30. After that cures line with ITC100. Open to suggestions/criticisms. Now the burner.... I have found a lot less info regarding ribbon burners, however I believe I have enough of a grasp that I won't blow myself up. My thought is to build a 12-14" long by 2.5" wide burner body, cast into the Kastolite. I'm looking at a 125cfm blower that has both manual vents as well as it can be hooked to a variable speed controller. 2" piping from blower to burner, with some mixing blades. Still need to figure out where/how to pipe in the propane, but I have a 0-30psi regulator. As far as positioning the burner in the cylinder, I can't decide if 90* from the top (Horizontally) or 45* from the top would be better. I have nothing set in stone as of yet, but figured I would run my plans by some of you more experienced smiths and see what you thought. I appreciate the input.

I'm pretty exited, no modifications planned except securing it to a log well and wrapping a chain.... she's loud, lol