Prices for fuel

[SirGunn]

I've yet to build my first forge (the last piece in the puzzle) and I was wondering if gas is cheaper to run than charcoal? I'm already leaning toward going propane but I was wondering if anyone could give me some numbers about the price of gas/hour or something else. Maybe how long the average tank lasts and how much it costs for a refill. An even better quote would be how much a forge costs to run per month of casual use. Thanks in advance!

[Willis]

I can refill a 20lb propane tank where I live from between $14.00 to $15.50 depending on which hardware store I use.
The amount of gas used really depends on how much you forge and how many burners your forge has. I use a one burner gas forge, it suits my needs.
A lot of forging will use a lot of gas.
I also use a charcoal forge. I make my own charcoal. If I want a hot fire I add a double handful of coal to the charcoal. I've also used and keep a supply of seasoned hardwood chunks 2-4 inches for some things.
Bear in mind that this is a hobby for me and in a pinch I'll even use dried corn cobs or charcoal made from bamboo. I live in FLorida.
Do not be afraid to experiment and find what suits you.

[Dodge]

Last time I had my 100# tank filled it cost about $70. If the 80% fill holds true, that's almost 19 gallons of propane @ about $3.70 a gallon

[Spears]

I have a propane/propane appliance store a couple miles away from the house and I pay a little over $80.00 for 100lbs. My NC whisper daddy 3 burner can go through 2lbs in a continuous hour so turning it on and off during intermittent forging makes it last awhile. I think coal would be more versatile in forging but considering the cleanliness and ease of push button ignition I gladly pay for the propane. Something to consider might be a close by supplier. With the price of gasoline these days there can be a definite cost factor in getting the fuel to your location. Good luck. Spears.

[Jack Evers]

Different forges and people difference make anything a guesstimate but a pound per hour of burn per nozzle and a dollar per pound cost would be ballpark. Go out to the shop for a couple hours with a two burner going half the time approximately $2.

[poleframer]

Last time I had my 100# tank filled it cost about $70. If the 80% fill holds true, that's almost 19 gallons of propane @ about $3.70 a gallon

I just filled a 25 gal bottle, they put 22 gallons in it here. think it was $58
I have a little coal, but I've been burning dry (silver) madrone chunks, get steel hot enough to melt, good enough for me, I can cut it here :)

[ThomasPowers]

Depends on the details; is your charcoal free? (I sieve the ashes from the woodstove and save the charcoal for the forge, I also will build a fire and transfer hot coals from it to the forge---I don't like burning wood in the forge directly but I love using charcoal!

However my primary fuel these days is propane. I do hope everyone knows that getting your tanks refilled tends to be MUCH cheaper than doing tank trades at a store!
I figure I spend about US$2 an hour on propane running the forge pretty hot; pretty cheap entertainment---I also will often have a major project and a minor project going on at the same time. The minor project is often a trinket that goes into the "feed the forge pile" stuff I sell and plow the money back into propane.

Now around these parts is an abandoned coal mine where there is still spilled coal around the roads to it and some folks I know scavenge that for forge fuel.

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

Depending on your coal prices, you may want to look into that too. I can get coal for $130 a ton currently. That would be a ton of forging at my current rate-slow :(

[KYBOY]

For any tank 100 pound and smaller your looking at about $4 a gallon or very close to it.$90 for a 100 pound tank. $40 for a 40 pound tank.neither of which last very long considering roughly 75% of our projects requires a lot of forge welding.Cheaper if you have a contract and 100 "gallon" or larger tank.
Need less to say, we forge with coal a lot :blink:

[Chuck Fraser]

I started out forging in 1976 when I lived 70 miles up Snake River from Lewiston, Idaho working for the mail boat. When we went out twice a year for two weeks at a time I would go to Spokane, Washington and buy coal from the only place that I could find it for $7.00 for a 100# bag, it was called Old Horseshoe, it made clinkers about the size of a grape fruit . Six years latter when I was getting ready to leave the river I was talking to one of the tourist that came up on the mail boat, I was complaining about the high cost of coal, this 80 year old guy looked at me and said quite bitching kid I remember when I use to pay $7.00 a wagon load and I thought that was high. So I quite bitching about coal prices and moved on to bitching about other things.
Now I have spent $3000.00 to $4500.00 a year on propane. The least that I can remember paying was about $.75 a gallon 15 or more years ago, the highest $2.34 last spring. By late summer there was a price war going on, it dropped to $1.64 per gallon. I all ready had a 500 gallon tank to run the shop on and had another 500 gallon tank that I bought out of a salvage yard and was going to cut up to make a wood fired pizza oven out of. It didn't look bad to me so I had the propane co. look at it they said it was ok so I had them fill it up with $1.64 gallon propane, it seams to burn as hot as the $2.34 propane. Now that the work as slowed down a bunch maybe I have enough storage to ride it out till the next price war.
Chuck