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The need of a small-ish 350 in³ single burner that can forge weld,maintain optimum forging temperatures and travel well sets the parameters for this project, lets see what Mr. Murphy can do to discourage me , shall we? First, you gotta have a flame. finished, more or less, two Frosty burners and fired them off. One is as smooth as the xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx and the other is a bit ragged. I suspect that the gas tip is slightly out of alignment and I think I can correct that problem. I used Klutch .035 mig tips as they will work in my machine as well, they are only 3/4" long rather than the 1" twecos . I wish I did not have to use quite so many fittings to get what I wanted but if I make the adjustment bolt a bit shorter it won't be quite so extended, a jam nut rather than a regular 1/2-13 will free up some room as well. I can probably take off an inch give or take. this arrangement makes it pretty easy to tune on the fly the 3/4" couplings have been internally tapered at 5° and it does seem to have a positive effect on flame. Tried it from 6 to 15 PSIG with a stable flame throughout. I am surprised at how easy this was, I believe that with all the parts on the bench, even with all the machine time I could build 4 of these in less than an hour and a half. Not I need some malleable couplings that can be welded to the skin for the pyrometer and something suitable size to hold the burner in place, strangely enough not something available at the big box store. Any critique on the flame geometry? I figure the real proof is in the forge. I am impressed by the amount of heat these things deliver. Wow! Now for a box to put one in.

Hey guys. Sooooo I decided to just go ahead and buy a ready-made forge to speed the learning process along. Got it in the mail today. It seems pretty sturdy, the main tube did get a little bent in transit, but nothing I couldn't mostly fix or deal with. The burner it comes with seems pretty straightforward, not sure what design it's based off of, but it looks serviceable. The major issue I have at the moment is that, while it does come with a regulator and hose for connecting a propane tank, the regulator is designed for some strange European standard and I need two absurdly specific little components to make it compatible. Also, the measurements on the gauge are in Russian, and I don't recognize the symbols. I think I might just end up going downtown tomorrow and buying a Bayou Classic or something close, just because I hate having to change things I don't particularly understand. I already coated the kaowool with some ITC-100, spritzed the wool down with some water first and then mixed and painted it on. Tried to cover any and all exposed wool. Not entirely sure I did it completely right, and I would have liked to add more kaowool, but I'm working with what I have at the moment. A couple pictures: They were also nice enough to include a pre-cut firebrick for the forge floor. I have a couple as well, so I'll probably be able to use those for closing up the back end a bit. I'm very excited, Now I have some very visual progress towards being able to hammer some metal out. I just wish all the provided instructions for the regulator weren't in Russian. Ah well. So, there you have it. I'll probably update this once I can get some gas and a regulator.

Hey fellas. Sooooo I got my propane regulator in the mail today, went down to the hardware store and bought a few parts to go on it and hooked everything up for a test burn. Now, before you all start pounding me over the head with crosspeins for using a five gallon bucket as a forge stand, I know it's not great or smart, this was just a short test, pounded out a little piece of angle iron (at least I think it was angle iron- might have been steel. It was welded onto one of the blocks I purchased with holes drilled in it), just for fun and personal satisfaction. Nothing caught fire, and I was grinning like a madman the whole time. I'm wondering if I ended up setting my burner a little too high in the holder, or maybe even too low. I had a bit of a hard time judging the tuning of the flame. The light outside was probably a factor as well. I might pull the burner out and see if I have an easier time that way. I wasn't originally planning to hammer anything today, which was why my (very temporary) anvil setup looked like this. Not exactly ergonomic working conditions. This pic was taken after I took all my gloves and tools inside and stuff. I'm just letting that piece of metal air-cool. Hand for scale. It got kind of mangled, but since this was literally my first time hammering hot metal, I wasn't particularly bothered that it still just kind of looks like random scrap. I have much to learn and I'm not going to rush into any particularly ambitious projects until I feel like I at least know a little more about what I'm doing. Anyhoo, just excited to share this with you guys. My buddy might be coming up next week and then we can get properly set up and maybe start making some actual tongs to use; those vise-grip pliers are short and really annoying. Cheers fellas.