ForgingChaos

Hello using both burners. After a lot of reading I am still unsure if I am getting the correct temps. I am heating metal and working it. I read that you want to heat to red and no further then I see forged in fire and they're working metal effectively at orange/yellow almost forge welding temps. I'm definitely not getting that hot I'm not seeing yellow in the material. I am going to try moving the burners up. As someone else pointed out they are getting burned on the ends. I am still going to try to get the mixture right I think. Going to make a third attempt this afternoon to get it as hot as possible. Thanks everyone.

Thanks. I actually got it for $65 on eBay. I was just bidding on a chance and won it. So I figured I'd give it a go. This is the model: Commercial link removed per TOS. After I posted yesterday I did get some metal moving. I cranked the propane and the regulator (up to 20psi) and fiddled with the air intakes until I could kind of hear the harrier jet engine and got my 5160 up to cherry red. It didn't seem to want to get any hotter than that. I didn't push it any further. I was just happy to find a situation where it was heating. It got my metal hot enough to work, but never got to yellow, so idk about forge welding. Thanks for your post I think it is just going to be really finicky to get it up to the correct temp. Once I have found the setting I might be good. I'm also doing this in my garage with the door open so there's a slight breeze towards the opening of the forge I am not sure if I am having issues because the oxygen mix is uneven. There's basically three adjustment points on this unit. The first is the burner tube and how far into the forge it is inserted. It goes almost to the "floor" at the bottom, and way above the insulation at the top. I have it set about 1.25" out of the insulation with about 1.5" room beneath it. Maybe it needs to be further down? Or just poking out from the insulation? Idk The second adjustment is the air intake which is actually really clever the tube has multiple air holes and depending on how you spin the slide you can expose more or less and then go up and down for more or less oxygen too. I tried to keep them both the same. I am really just not sure how to tell if there is too much oxygen or just enough....and which one burns hotter? The third adjustor is the regulator and that is simple enough.

I bought a CastMaster Elite 2 burner. Hooked it up to a brand new 40gal propane tank but I cannot tell if it is working properly because I can smell propane when it's on and there are no instructions for the air intakes (how open should they be?) And for how to adjust the burners in side(should they be as low as possible?) Should the propane be on full? It has a regular to dial in but I don't know how to tell when it is working properly....

I did read that grinding the hardened was a bad idea, thanks! I don't think it needs any attention to the face right now as it is in great condition, and honestly I doubt I will be very hard on it I am still very much a beginner. Yeah I have been looking for an upgrade for awhile. Finally expanded my search area on FB/Craigslist and this showed up. Seller was a really nice guy, and had upgraded to a 200+ (I didn't get exact weight but it was big) Peter Wright. I chatted with him a little about the Mousehole, mentioned its age (1820-1829) and he seemed surprised, didn't know that much about the history, just that it was a good anvil. Thanks. 200+ years old currently and still looking great! I am in the Northeast USA. It wasn't really about the money or the deal for me, I just wanted to find an upgrade I could feel proud of. It was easy to price anvils generally, but there weren't many other Mouse Hole Forge anvils for sale in any of my searches (a few similar sized on ebay and other specialty sites for outrageous $800-$1600+ amounts). Saw one on Craigslist in Nebraska with a big well in the face and chips off the side for $600 and decided to just buy this one.

Thanks. Rebound feels good but I haven't done the test yet. Paid $400 for it with the hardy tools. Based on what I could find online (not a ton honestly) it seemed like a very fair price. Nice guy too.

This is upgrading a basic 60lb vulcan. It is ~103lbs, in very good condition for its age. Very flat top, horn is still in great shape too. According to my research it is a pre-1830 Mouse Hole Forge. The hardy hole is 3/4", so he threw in some of the nonstandard hardy tools he made...a cutter and a spring fuller.