Brian D

I find that the anvil height is most comfortable for me when I can stand beside the anvil, with arm relaxed to my side and with hand shaped like a fist, my knuckles just rest on the top of the anvil. Do whatever is comfortable for you. I imagine that it also depends on your posture and stance when working at your anvil.

I would be concerned about the Burners getting very hot from chimney effect. Do you use some sort of plug inside of the forge to keep the heat from blasting up the burner tube when the burner/s are shut off? I have an Idler circuit set up on my new 3 burner forge that I designed myself. I can take some pics or draw a diagram if you would like. I like to use 2 ball valves and a needle valve for mine to get a very simple, fast and repeatable method to get to idle. The needle valve also offers a fine control of flow compared to cracking a ball valve. It is flow of fuel you want to control for the idle circuit, not pressure.

That is good to hear. I will keep an eye out for them on here. Always good to know of a few around locally to bounce ideas off of.

I don't understand the question. Are you asking about propane consumption rate or heat up time?

Thanks for the kind compliments! I have not been able to measure how hot it gets, I don't have a pyrometer that will measure that hot. I have been able to forge weld mild steel in it though. It does a good job of that!!! It is a pretty even heat. I do have cool spots on each end right by the end doors. but I can deal with that better than having cool spots in the interior of the forge from excessive burner spacing. I think the spacing is about right, but I may have made the forge a little long. I can always add more refractory to make the volume a little less.

Thanks for the welcome. I have some pics of the forge posted on another thread. I'll copy it here and see if it works. http://www.iforgeiron.com/forum/f7/my-new-propane-forge-10253/ enjoy.

Thank you sir! It's good to see a fellow Utahn. I see you are a bit south of me. I am up north in a town called Hooper. (due west of Ogden) Thank you very much!

I have not figured out fuel consumption definitively yet. I started with a 30 pound gas cylinder and did all of my testing and tuning and hooked it to the forge for the initial firing and made 1 set of tongs and I was out of propane. I now have a 100 pound cylinder hooked to it. It may not be far off from your F250. I could get some consumption figures and let you know, but it is not extremely fuel efficient. I think I can get it a little more efficient with some more tuning. (orifice size and pressure) It gets up to working temp pretty fast, within 5 min. I have thought about reducing the volume a bit by adding another layer of fire brick on the bottom. This way I could keep it a little hotter between heats with the idle circuit. I have not used it as much as I would like. I have to build a stand for it. The utility table that it is sitting on now gets really hot if I run it very long.

On the Tee that I used, it is a 3/4" X 1 1/4" X 1 1/4" where the 3/4 NPT end is concentric with the opposite end that is 1 1/4 NPT. This made it easier to align the jet tube. I built several different styles as a prototype. I liked the simplicity of the "Reil" style burner (with a reducer bell on the end of the pipe) I also tried a couple of different variations of a sidearm burner with different size tees and even wye's. I settled on the sidearm style due to it's extremely good manners when burning and consistency. I did have to add a 45 degree fitting in the burners to slow the velocity down, and make it behave a little better. I used mig welding contact tips for nozzles to make it easier to try different sizes of gas orifices. I use the forge outside underneath a covered patio. There is always a slight breeze if not a wind through there. I needed a burner that was not affected a great deal by wind blowing past the intakes. These sidearm burners create a very good suction and turbulence on the intake and they are very stable.

Thank you! I built my own burners from scratch. I used some ideas from others and had to modify them a bit to fit my forge. I still have a little tweaking to do, the igniter does not work as well as I like and I still have a bit of minor tuning to do. But I am able to weld in it and I think it will work out dandy for me. Thank you for the compliment!

I looked at the Diamondback forges and was tempted to buy one but I built my own instead. I probably ended up spending more money building my own instead of just buying one of his. (I spent around $200 in refractory material) Oh well, there is a lot of satisfaction in building your own the way you want. When you get using it, let us know how it works out. I have a friend who is interested in purchasing one.

Hello, I am a new feller around here and have recently finished making a new forge. (my first) I will try to post a few pics and would like to hear what you all think of it.

Hello all, I stumbled across this site while just browsing the internet today and decided to join. I have a little background in metalwork and machining. I worked on several dairy farms when younger and still in junior high and high school and learned to work on equipment and make impromptu repairs. I also took welding and machining and automotive/farm mechanics courses in school. Shortly after finishing high school, I worked as an industrial maintenance technician / machinist for 11 years and was very fortunate to learn the trade from some very seasoned and knowledgeable folks. I have currently spent the last 9 years working on an engineering team for an automotive safety products company. I, along with my team members are responsible for maintaining, designing, and improving production machinery and processes. I feel very fortunate to be able to have a career that I truly love and enjoy. I became involved with shaping metal on the anvil through horseshoeing and shaping horse shoes. I spent many years learning how to trim and shoe horses by traveling around with several local farriers and helping out. I still shoe my own horses and those of a few friends, but do not offer these services "for hire". I learned to enjoy working with metal at the anvil, and have decided to pursue this a little further. I have just recently finished building a 3 burner propane fired naturally aspirated forge, and I am very proud of how it turned out. I have managed to make a few projects already with it and have even made a few forge welds with it. (just playing around with old horse shoes) I figure I will just linger around here and pick up some tips if I can and just enjoy the company of other folks who love to beat on hot iron. Oh, sorry for the long winded intro.