My new 1INCHER ala TREX gas forge setup

[jsurgeson]

I am a knife-maker that recently ventured into forging and homemade gas forges and burners.
Although I have successfully heat treated my blades for the last 2 years in nothing more than
a "pile of firebricks" and a old style reil venturi burner, I wanted to learn to forge and
forge weld, so I could make pattern welded steel.

And so my bumpy journey began, with failure after failure, from numerous forced air, and venturi
burner designs, castable forge bodies that were too heavy to pick up and that drank more gas than
a 747.

Most of these attempts would not have been possible without the numourous amounts of advice and
encouragement from the fundi's on this site. So I thought I would share my end result and hope
that anyone looking to build a gas forge for the first time might find helpful. This is just my
personal experience and definitely not a "this is the way its should be done" as there are many
ways to achieve a good result other than this.

1. Forge size: A mistake I made over and over with my forge bodies was to try and make them too
big, small is efficient, light weight and easy to move and transport. Of all the designs I played
with I found the "freon tank" body to be the most suitable for my needs. The design is well
documented on this and other sites.



The box below is my tempering oven.

2. Burner design: after playing with both forced and venturi burners, and having reasonable success
with both, but never quite managing to get them 100%, to light easily, run stable at all pressures etc
I settled on T-REX look alike design, I call it my "1INCHER"
The design is standard in terms of shape, diameter, length etc, the only unique I have done is
instead of using a flare for a flame stabilizer, I have gone with a internal one, the idea, if I could
get it to work was to remove the need to replace expensive SS flares, as well as the need to machine a
taper some way or other with some degree of accuracy.









At 30kpa (4.3psi)
Mig tip size: .6mm / .8 / 1 / 1.2 (runs with all 0.5 - 30psi)
(.023" / .032 / .040 / .047)

I was amazed that this worked with all tip sizes, even out of forge.
The 0.6mm and 0.8 ran stable outside from 0.1 psi to 30psi, the 1 and
1.2 became unstable over 15psi outside but run fine inside the forge.

The 0.8mm heated to 840 degC in 15min's at 10psi but seemed to hang there, did not
heat longer to see how long it took to get hotter.
The 1.2mm got to 970 degc at 10psi in same time and also seemed to hang there, need to
fill my tank to see what happens at higher psi.

Some questions I still have:
1. Is this 1" burner with a 1.0mm tip too much for the freon tank size?
2. At what psi would you expect to heat this forge to weld temp (1300 degC)
3. At what psi would you use to maintain weld temp once reached?

[Rob Browne]

Can't answer any of your questions but would like to say your forge is an impressive bit of kit. Nice model for my venture into the world of gassers.

[jsurgeson]

Thanks Rob

Without a doubt, the freon tank design makes short work of a practical
forge that is capable of forging and welding.

Jeff