Wrench53

Here you go, guys. The small tube is from the gas valve. The blower sucks gas and fuel in. The oval with the rusty screws is the gas orifice, this one is for Natural Gas. Side note, that orifice is the only thing you have to change to convert it to LP. The screen frame is actually stainless and it looks sintered to the frame. Frosty, you can see the funky slotted collar that connects the blower and manifold. 

Buzz, yes the fiber metal can be removed. It’s held to the manifold by 6 bolts. I’ll check to see if the frame can be separated easily and let you know. 
Frosty, the blowers that come with the unit are 24v and connect to the manifold in a pretty unique way. Connecting to that setup would challenging with the tools I have. I’ll take some more pics tonight and post them.

You’re welcome Buzzkill. I have 3 more of these old units that I’ve salvaged so I can sacrifice 1-2 to the forge gods in experimenting. I ran it for about 2 minutes and the fiber metal was cool to the touch 30 seconds after shutdown. I’m going to see if Navien has the temp rating for the fiber, the housing is aluminum.

Hi George. I’m in Central New York. Yeah, that blower is horrible, but it’s what I had. It does have a rheostat but it’s cheap xx xxxx. I think it was the cheapest blower I could find.
Frosty, the burner came out of a Navien NCB 240 combination boiler. That was the first burn and I was messing with the gas and the blower. At standard household gas pressure they run around 97% efficiency and it’s just a small panel of blue flames. It’s designed to fire down through the heat exchanger. They’re reliable, if they’re serviced annually. https://s6e1619fceb451b6f.jimcontent.com/download/version/1512634722/module/11899834199/name/Navien Gas Boiler NCB-Service-Manual.pdf

Also, the metal mesh was cool to the touch 30 seconds after shut down.

Hello all! I’m a plumber by day, and as such I install and replace a lot of in demand boilers. I took the fiber metal burner plate out of a 200k btu combination boiler and made this. This was the first iteration and test. Not sure how it will hold up in a forge or furnace, but hey, fire!

I got this anvil from a neighbor for $50. It weighs 155lbs. It was their great grandfather’s who was a farrier in Central New York. Any help is appreciated!