AllHallows Posted October 16, 2012 Share Posted October 16, 2012 Howdy, Joined up so i could finally see all of your pictures, only fitting i share some of mine. Im building a new gas forge. It is still in progress, but i just put some satanite on the kaowool. I stick welded it all together, the large pipe is a 12 inch o.d. with 1 inch thick walls, 9 inches long horizontally. feet are angle irons, and angle irons on the back to hold firebrick doors, with 1/2 inch thick steel plates behind them. all the metal is coated in ITC 213, and after curing this satanite im going on with bubble alumina, and refractory coat. My burner is a Rex Price 1" burner. so i really want to see what happens when i put it in the smaller forge... should be interesting.should be hot. Let me know what you think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted October 16, 2012 Share Posted October 16, 2012 Wow I've seen propane forge built with no shell before---the kaowool being rolled up and held with baling wire. Mine uses part of an O2 welding tank and I thought it was too heavy---1" must not be a traveling forge! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AllHallows Posted October 16, 2012 Author Share Posted October 16, 2012 thanks for the reply. It is pretty heavy, my shop is small and i like it to be pretty open. I can lift it and tote it, but i wouldnt be horseshoeing with it. It was available so i used it, i dont know that the metal will actualy add any insulation or not, being a good conductor... but its probably more than 1/4 inch thick. It was already 9 inches, i recon that is pretty small... and it will have a good flame extension. I figure you can only hit so much steel for you stick it back in, and id like to achieve welding heat in it... dont know if the depth will hold it tho. going to paint it, some very kind people here recamended high heat BBQ paint witch i will definitely be aquiring in the near future. going to cure that cement here tonight i think too. Im working on a longer and thiner walled one, i might make a travel one next, really enjoy making the forges... but id rather be forging. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AllHallows Posted October 17, 2012 Author Share Posted October 17, 2012 Up date: Cured satanite this evening, fired up twice and let cool then the third time i make the entire forge red and now shes sitting. Beautiful spiral, hopefully it stays for the coat of bubble alumina tomarrow, and then the refracery coat and fire brick im going to toss in for a floor. Any one use much bubble alumina? im wondering if i should just coat the bottom and let the firebrick sit on top all disposable or if i might be good off to coat the firebrick into the forge with the bubbles, any thoughts? Thanks for looking! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted October 20, 2012 Share Posted October 20, 2012 At 10" dia with 1" thick refractory by 9" long my pocket calculator says it's around 706 cu/in volume so a 1" Rex burner shouldn't have any trouble bringing it to welding heat. If you're going to build another consider using SS stove pipe for the shell, it's light weight doesn't require special tools to work, sure a little tenacity but nothing special. SS is more heat reflective than steel so it'll keep more BTUs where you want them, inside. Unless it's all you have available there's no good reason for using heavy wall steel pipe for a gas forge, even plain steel stove pipe is plenty strong enough to support in the 75-100 lbs. range if the forge shell is 2" long or less. For a while I was thinking of using double wall, air gap stove pipe and making a recuperative wall forge but the numbers say the burner intake would cool the outside of the forge chamber more than the preheat was worth. That's for an intake air recuperative wall, that is. Passing the exhaust gasses from the forge through the air gap to provide a thermal insulating layer; not to be confused with insulation for thermal isolation. It's using the exhaust gasses AS insulation. Sounds weirder than it is, maybe one of these days. nyway, there are a number of different recuperative schemes, one as seen in the Sandia forge another as seen in the recuperative walls in large commercial furnaces and others. Well, isn't THAT a bit of rambling from me. <sigh> Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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