Chad J Posted March 15, 2009 Share Posted March 15, 2009 Hello everybody The Problem: I made my own gas forge out of an old water tank, its 16" dia by about 24" long. lined it with two layers of 1" kao wool and some 3/8"- 1/2" refractory i had on hand and two 3/4" burners venturi style. it started up fine and couldn't get to forge welding heat(or so i think). I've already tore it apart and rebuilding it, i was going to add two more burners and after reading on placement of the burners, i dropped them down about 4" from top dead center (seemed like a nice round number). (they seemed to work fine but while I'm redoing everything might as well drop them down.) reline the inside with 4 layers of 1" kao wool and i ordered some itc-100 to place about 3/8"- 1/2" layer for sturdiness( found out the hard way about flux being very corrosive to fire brick and such:rolleyes:) in an effort to close up the volume of the bore. My question is this: does adding more layers of kao wool effect the ability to keep heat in? or should i find a smaller dia pipe (or build a square one)? Any comments and suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Chad Jorgenson Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saintjohnbarleycorn Posted March 15, 2009 Share Posted March 15, 2009 just learning myself here, but what I have found out after 2" you are getting near the point of diminishing returns, some have recommended it. Most say with two inches the outside of forge doesn't get hot, so that tells me that you might not get that much more. I am thinking that it is too big for two 3/4" burners toforge weld. If you look at some old posts you will see the appoximate cu." for the burners. let me know if you find out different. thanks. kevin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted March 15, 2009 Share Posted March 15, 2009 Your problem is one of volume. Each 3/4" burner is good for about 300 cu/in Guys needing to positively have good welding heat drop the volume to 250 cu/in per burner. If you have the extra kaowool there's nothing wrong with using more layers to reduce the volume but the extra insulation will make an insignificant difference. Calculate your volume and use the appropriate number of burners. Frosty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chad J Posted March 15, 2009 Author Share Posted March 15, 2009 I wish i had done more research on this then what i did:rolleyes: but live and learn. And what both of you guys were saying is what i had found here on IFI and other sites. I just didn't know if i should be trying another avenue of approach. Thank You Gentlemen for the Help. I appreciate it. Chad J Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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