LeeHene

They are sized for bluebirds and similar. Assembled strong and true, held together with Titebond III and trim nails. They are available to be painted any number of different colors, by request. He's been selling them for $25 each. (We are making him cover the cost of material and supplies.)

Just an update, I went back to my previous burner that uses a smaller diffuser cone, but I placed the burner further up in the tube. It still sends gas and air down around the walls, but also allows some to evenly spread back to the center. (I think Mikey had suggested trying that a good while back. Works near perfect! (Sorry it's been a little while. My 13 year old boy decided to make money building bird houses. We're up to 28 of em' and still have orders coming in.)

Frosty, Thank you for the idea. To be honest, the shape does look awesome (if I may say so) and it does heat most of the forge very evenly. HOWEVER, at my normal working setting (valve positions marked based on my favorite burner) it still leaves a cooler spot in the center, right where I normally put my work. I've been trying to figure out how to overcome this and was leaning toward going one size down with the bolt head. If I can evenly modify the edge like you mentioned to help pull the flame in, that might just work! Pouring a floor with a smooth transition out of cast-o-light rather than using a cut-down firebrick would probably help some too. I'll still probably make another one. The internal spacer still blocks more flow than I'd prefer. ...I'm really getting nitpicky about it, but I already have a great working burner that's a pair of channel locks away to swap out of something doesn't work.

Frosty, sorry my comment about balancing flow with efficiency wasn't more clear. What I meant was due to having a less than stellar blower and a small forge, I'm having to strike a balance of spreading my flame out for the desired even coverage without causing a restriction that creates too much resistance to flow. The only way I can overcome restrictions is by increasing velocity, but that comes at the expense of efficiency because some propane escapes out the front before it has the chance to burn completely. It's not nearly as much of an issue if I'm running the forge at the higher end of the heat range, but for the majority of the work my son and I do with 1/2" or under mild steel, that much heat is not required and eats a lot of propane.

I cranked it up a bit. Thd picture doesn't do it justice.

Frosty, These pictures give a better example of how it fits in the burner tube. Mikey, I do agree that simplicity and repurposed parts would be excellent, but I've come to a point with my current forge and blower where nozzle design has to be balanced with efficiency of flow.

The insert goes inside of a 3/4 black iron pipe that I cut down to size. I squared the end and trued the inside on a lathe. The spacer for the insert started as a piece of steel round stock that I turned down to just barely fit inside the 3/4 pipe after trueing. While it was still in the lathe I drilled a 5mm hole in the center. I cut the rest of it to shape with a milling machine. The cone of the insert is a 14mm (I think) stainless flathead bolt that I turned down to just a hair over 5mm then pressed into the spacer. I'll try to get a better picture of the assembly tonight after I get home from work.

Thank you! I never can leave anything well enough alone. Last night I fired it up briefly but haven't had the opportunity to heat any steel. I hope the new burner will help reduce scaling caused by direct contact with the flame. That said, I might miss having a hot spot handy. I need to look into a better blower design. I've been using the same 12VDC blower for over a year. I do like using a smaller one but I wish it would maintain a bit higher static pressure. (Plus it vibrates a good bit.)

It's hard to get a good picture of what my eye actually sees. The ceiling and walls heat first and it slowly travels down to the floor and then closes in toward the middle. It's hard to get a good picture of what my eye actually sees. The ceiling and walls heat first and it slowly travels down to the floor and then closes in toward the middle. Sorry for the double text above. This forum editor is kinda screwy sometimes. Anyway, below is my burner insert. I made the mistake of poking it and it fell out. (This started as a test fit anyway.) Apparently it stayed cool enough to prevent discoloration on all but the bottom face.

Hey guys, its been a while but I only get to sneak into the machine shop at work occasionally. I finally got to complete the latest version of my burner design. I think it might be a keeper! Introducing... The HALO burner!

I'll give it a try!

Thanks guys. That last picture was with my previous burner nozzle design that I've been using. (The top brick on the front of the forge was temporarily removed for the picture.) The nozzle works well, but the bit of restriction it adds prevents my small blower from supplying the air needed for forge welding temperature. In a previous design, I had an additional 1" 90 to drop the fan input lower. That hurt output enough that I quickly changed back. The open nozzle I mentioned was requiring that much air and gas to keep the flame out of the burner throat. Recently I also tried a modified nozzle (that, oddly enough, I made with the forge) to kick the flame over to the side. I guess it did ok, but I wasn't impressed enough with it to bother letting the whole forge heat up. It seemed to really be concentrating the heat in one spot far more than my favorite nozzle. Maybe I should give it another whirl.

Hey guys, thought I'd check in. I'm still using that last burner design. I've tried a couple others, but for gerenal forging it heats more even and efficiently by far. It's also a whole lot easier to keep the flame anchored to the end of the burner while starting up. Due to the brief restriction at the outlet, I've never had the flame travel up into the burner tube. This afternoon on a whim, I tried using a straight pipe for the burner. I estimate it was able to get 100-200 degrees hotter (based on color), at the expense of having to constantly relight the flame and play with settings for the first 5 minutes. It also used a whole lot more propane. (I'd estimate about 3x more, based on regulator adjustment and air required to balance it.). Anyway, I just wanted to thank everyone again for your support and encouragement. Without the resources I found on this forum, I'd have probably given up early on. Oh, and that cheap little 12vdc blower that I got for $10 is still going strong. FORGE ON!

I completed my first knife this weekend. It was mystery steel from an undisclosed source. The heat treat turned out acceptable, considering.

Thank you guys. I realize the burner is a very application specific design, but maybe it can help others get decent verastility out of similar small forges.

Mikey, in life I've found that sometimes it's easier to think outside the box when one does not yet know enough to HAVE a box to think in. I could have never done anything close without the wealth of knowledge and experience that you, Frosty and others have made available on this forum. Thank you guys! Now I need to start working a lot more on my actual [lack of] forging skills.

Mikey, I experimented with raising the burner today. When I put it up inside the burner mount tube, it concintrated the gas flow straight down. In the attached picture, I have it up as far as possible without restricting the spread. I can confidently say that this little forge is probably as good as it's gonna get. (Zero dragon's breath either.)

Thanks guys, I was initially doubtful about the new design but it seems to work well over the full range of heat possible with my current blower. Up until now, I'd never been able to turn it wide open without getting cold spots from unburned gas. I'm glad the nozzle works because it was honestly kind of a pain to build. What to name it... My son said it looks like the beam from an alien spaceship, so how about BABB? (Blown Alien Beam Burner) I'll know I'm somebody if I see [even more] poorly made versions of it being sold on Amazon some day.

The nozzle is currently even with the refractory. (Other than where it has chipped on the left side.) No part of the nozzle was glowing so hopfully the flow of gasses is sufficient to keep it cool enough. I can try raising it more next time I fire up the forge.

I think I've worked out a burner that spreads out the flame to cover a larger area. Even when turned wide open, no cold patches on the floor of the forge like before. This is a first.

Back to my original burner, I added a 90⁰ and another 8" peice of pipe to get my blower intake down away from exhaust coming out of the forge. Now instead of four nice sharp jets coming from my burner they are a little blurry and there's a pulsing blue haze around them. All threaded connections are tight and sealed with gas rated Teflon tape. I figured the fuel and air would mix would be MORE stardy and consistent, not worse! Back to the drawing board. I think I'm wasting my time trying to make any further improvements on this forge. You can only make a wheel so round..

Hey guys, it's been a while. Today I found myself playing with a different burner design eliminate hotspots on the bed and even out heat for heat treat and such. (Plus I can never leave well enough alone.) This is just a rough trial. Next step will be making a diffuser in the lathe. Thought I'd share.

This evening I added an adjustable extending work rest to the forge frame. I think it'll be handy!

I decided to step away from knives for a while and focus on basics with regular steel. I'm having a blast now! Scale is now at a minimum. Two things have changed: I started running the forge a little hotter and use the small amount of dragon's breath to tune by. (Plus my steel reheats quicker.) The second thing (which I stumbled across) I've started leaving the rear of the forge open about 1/4 inch. For some weird reason, the opening helps the whole forge heat much more evenly. I've attached pictures of a simple spoon I made for applying flux. This was my first project, aside from a knife that's still in the works. Anyway, all is well and I'm thrilled with how it's running. I GREATLY appreciate all of your help!