I recently saw a ceramic tile propane gas forge. It is interesting, but I know little about them. It did seem like it took a long time to heat some 3/8" rod in comparison to a coal forge, and maybe a good gas forge. But, it acted like a coal forge and the people who used it liked it very much. They said its good for heating small areas, but not large or long pieces. They said they replace the tiles about every four years and use it every day. It doesn't smoke, which is good for the neighbors and complaint list. It was reported to be big in Europe, but not here. The Flamfast, in the UK, want alot of money for one. It's not easy on the pocket book, and reading different forums, it seems people have tried to make their own but have had problems with type of tiles, and amount of gas and air mixture. Any body with experience with them, I would appreciate your comments. Also, is there any company in the USA who handles these forges. the people who I talked to said they got their tiles from Germany. Not good for easy replacement.

Pictures? Links? :)

I think he's talking about these: Gas Forges: Metal & Heat Treatment Equipment: Flamefast We had a thread about these recently.

Yes, the thread is about flamfast forges. Does anyone have experience with them?

Hi Dave,

Do a quick search for "chip forge" or just look back it wasn't long ago. I think some pros and cons on those from reading the thread. Interesting some of the experimenting folks have done.

Dave

Hey Dave, I used to live in Simi for a while, between the 71 Sylmar quake (lived in Sylmar until a couple days after the quake) then I moved to AK in 72.

Small world.

Frosty

You wouldn't recognize Simi Valley today. It's got a mall on the north side, and lots of homes, etc, etc.

I just took a look via satellite but it's been too long, I remember generally where we lived but not the street name. I remember we were south of the freeway near Eldridge and Royal but it is all built up.

And I thought it was crowded then!

Frosty

I have an older model the flamefast ds250, its perfect for someone who has a few hours per week to forge and doesnt have time for messing around with coal, turn it on, it heats up in about 15 minutes, when finished turn it off and home. They are expensive new, all kinds of safety stuff as the flamefast models are used in schools. I got mine for around 250euro from a school that was trading up to the latest model due to new safety requirements.