jcornell

That should work.  I'm using something like this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-Regulator-Kit-0-30-PSI-with-48-Stainless-Braided-Hose-for-Cookers-/162096751521?hash=item25bdb823a1:g:ghkAAOSwAvJW9q8N

It's a 0-30 Bayou Classic - not the greatest, but it's reliable and cheap.

Current forge (#5) is Freon bottle with 2" kaowool with kiln wash, running with one Gensheimer burner.  The original paint is burned off around the mouth and around the pass-through tube, but the main body still has the lovely blue-green shade common to Freon bottles.  It's hot enough that I don't want to touch it after I've been forging for a while, but not so hot that I worry about it collapsing or warping the outer shell.

Recent work

Trimming the heels of a hot shoe (per Google search).

I know one smith using Natural Gas who has some sort of device that compresses it and raises the pressure.  I never asked how much such a device costs.

Okay, thanks.  Good to know.

Okay, I'll bite - if you're doing stock removal, how do you get scale pattern?

Dave is on Facebook as Dave Hammer.  I see him from time to time at local events, as I live in suburban Maryland and he lives in Northern Virginia.

were I in your shoes, I'd get some cast-o-lite 3000 and some superwool and kaolin and zircopax and a bottle of fumed silica.

I'd take the front and back of the forge off and rip out the castable and the kaowool (this step will require gloves and a respirator.)

I'd then reline the steel shell with superwool HT (my favorite insulating fiber).

I'd mix up fumed silica and water (about a cup per gallon) to use as rigidizer for the superwool.  Once it was decently dry, I'd put the burner in and cook the fiber to drive all the steam out.

Then I'd use the cast a cast-o-lite 3000 to make a hot-face shell inside on top of the now rigidized superwool.  You're shooting for 3/8" to 1/2" thick face on top of your superwool.

Once this is dry, I'd put the burner back in again and cook the refractory.

Then I'd wash the inside of the now cooked refractory with a mixture of zircopax & kaolin (4:1).  Let this dry, fire up again to cook the reflective coat.

After that I'd reinstall the bricks in front and back and start forging.

The fundamental problem of the design you've shown is is that the kaowool is protecting the cast refractory, which is backwards.  It's like swapping out a 30 amp fuse for a 20 amp fuse - now the wiring of your house is protecting your 30 amp fuse from blowing.

A common problem with this design of forge is that if you don't stuff some sort of insulation into the burner holder, the holder acts like a chimney, exhausting hot gas right into the air intake of your burner.  The hot gas has very little oxygen, so your burner sputters.  I call it "huffing" because that's what it sounds like to me.  Any design with the burner at Top Dead Center may have this problem if the exhaust gasses are going into the burner's air intake.  I'm on forge #5.  Forges 1 and 2 were of this design.  Enjoy the journey.

3 hours ago, timgunn1962 said:

The soluble stuff is more usually termed body-soluble or bio-soluble. I don't think it's intended to be water-soluble per se, but it will supposedly dissolve (quite slowly) in body tissue and should therefore present less of a long-term risk to health than insoluble fibers. I assume it'll be a few decades before there is hard information on the relative long-term health effects of both types. In the meantime, industry seems to be following a precautionary principle and going bio-soluble where practicable.

I think the body-soluble stuff had a maximum temperature rating around 2300 degF last time I looked into it, which left the insoluble stuff as the material of choice for welding temperatures. It was a few years ago and things may have moved on since.

 

 

Superwool HT is rated  for 1300°C (2372°F) (Per the manufacturer's data sheet) while Kaowool S (the standard version) is rated for 1260 c (2300F).  You have to get up to Kaowool SZr to get to 1425 C/2597F.  Good luck finding someone who carries Kaowool SZr.

Prior versions were not as robust, but I've been using it successfully for a while, although my latest build was plain old kaowool, because that's what I had on hand..

On 3/21/2016 at 8:14 AM, RDSBandit said:

I am building my forge here at home and am planning on useing a 5 gallon bucket for the body. And I have a couple of questions.

1) Is there a best brand of ceramic insulation? Like, will Kaowl wool give me the best results on forge tempature? Or are they all pretty much the same?

2) I think I understand the refractory cement a little bit. You put it on top of the ceramic fiber to help keep it from getting burnt up by the burners. But, does it also kind of act like a glue? If I am planning on putting two layers of one inch thick ceramic fiber in my forge, do I need to put the refractory cement on the very bottom, then between the two layers, and finally a third coating on the layer that will be exposed?

3) If refractory cement isn't the glue, then what do you use to keep the wool in place?

For the ceramic fiber, you'll look at temperature rating, density, and then you'll also need to pay attention to whether the fiber is water soluble (Superwool HT) or non-water soluble (kaowool etc.).

If you can, go with the water soluble fiber - it's less irritating and over the long haul, it's a little bit safer.

10 hours ago, orange said:

I thought about that, you'd think it would be easy to get a T that has various dimensions. My hardware cares alot of items but not that piece.

This is a brick building with nothing close to burn if it does catch fire somehow. It's not where I live at all. I am very cautious, but I appreciate the heads up. There is nothing in the building but old mill parts and the insurances won't cover it because it has a wood burner in it.

I have tried the forge a few times and its tricky yo light. It wants to burn in the T. If I get the bottom burning and turn the valve off then on, it lights fine. Is that something in my set up or is it the way these burners work.

The fitting assembly is supported, maybe you can't see it in the photo but there is no weight on the nozzle that goes into the T-burner. It might be that the i took the photo before attaching the support.

Jcornell,

I sprayed the inside of the forge with fumed silica and heated the thing. Should it look different after doing that?

I haven't noticed a difference. I have to get some more kawool and cover the inside of the door. Its getting hot and needs to be insulated.

 

I truly appreciate all the time and advice you guys have given me. I wish I could do something in return.

I posted a note for old bandsaw blades from our resaws. I think they would make decent damask type blade. If anyone wants them, just let me know and I will cut them to the length you want and mail them off to you.

Adam

It won't look any different, but it will be stiffer.

I'm using a $19 stainless steel rack I bought at a big box store - I've also seen BBQ grills repurposed as forge stands.  It's all a matter of imagination, safety consciousness and flexibility.  Whatever you do, make sure that it's stable.

Nice job, MonkeyForge - I didn't have a picture handy, but I know that the pipe nipple usually has a sharp edge (that's more narrow than the rest of the pipe) and the bushing usually has one as well.  Files and rotary tools are our friends.  

A ream that's the size of the pipe nipple (minus the weld) would be good, but usually a ream that large is a bit expensive.

The bushing may or may not have a sharp corner inside - if it does, this kind of messes up the air flow, which is a bad thing.  Some filework on the inside of the bushing will go a long way towards improving your flow, which means your burner will work better.

The expert here is Mike Porter (Mikey98118).  At certain sizes he's fond of taper tips (think Tweeco) or blunt luerlock dispensing needles.  

Carbosil is a trade name for fumed silica - I use about a cup per gallon of water - you can always use more.  I added food color from Michaels (for frosting) so I could see how much penetration I was getting.

Your Mig tips are way too deep in your burner tubes to get an effective draw of air - your design looks like the Dave Hammer design (kind of) but his gas tip is visible from the air intakes.  Your mig tips seem to be almost inside your forge.

You also didn't specify the insulation used, or if you're using any reflective coating.  Are you using a regulator?  What gas pressure are you using?  If you have a low pressure regulator suitable for a propane grill, you're not getting enough gas.

It also appears that you're using white teflon tape - this is a bad mistake if you're using propane.  Yellow tape is rated for propane, while is for plumbing with water.  Your front door is really big too.

Contact the Blacksmith Guild of the Potomac.

On 2/15/2016 at 6:26 PM, Mikey98118 said:

J,

You do know that you're in the wrong Washington, don't you? Why don't you move out here to the other Washington, and keep me company?

Oh yes, I'm well aware of that.

The only thing preventing my moving to the other Washington is that essential ingredient - a job.  I've been working for the same employer since 1987 - either I like it, or I'm not very good at interviewing for new jobs, or some combination of the two.

9 hours ago, FineEdge said:

I have a bag of zircopax, a bag of pure kaolin, silica and feldspar as well as some fire clay. My wife does pottery. Can I mix these in some combination to be an alternate to plistix or metrikote to coat kaowool or am I wasting my time?

I've used 4 parts zircopax to one part kaolin, and 3 parts zircopax to one part kaolin - they both work fine.  If you want to really get tricky, use rigidizer (colloidal silica) instead of water.  Easy to apply to rigidized kaowool, and once it fires up, it's reasonably durable.

Remember, your liner is a consumable - you will end up re-lining your forge eventually.

No, you're not wasting your time.

I consistently found when I was using one 20# tank that after about an hour of forging, my burner started getting less hot.  The problem was mostly solved when I bought a manifold and ganged two 20# tanks together.  Sometimes there would be visible frost on the tanks, some times not.

40# and 100# tanks are dandy, but hard to schlep in the back of my sedan.

14 hours ago, Mikey98118 said:

Frosty,

Dr. Frankenburner, designer of Formula One heating equipment ...

Is there really a Dr Frankenburner?

Kaowool + Rigidizer + hot face + high emission coating.

I do kaowool, rigidizer, and a combined hot face/high emission coating.  If I were doing production work, I'd use the cast-o-lite 3000 as a separate hot face.  My combination is a mix of kaolin clay and zircopax.

The rigidizer does a number of things - 1) it cuts down on the kaowool from shedding under use (not good for the lungs) 2) it makes the fiber _rigid_ which means that your hot face/reflective layer won't flake off.  The hot face protects the kaowool, and the high emission coating improves the efficiency of the forge by reflecting all that lovely heat into the interior of the forge.