Eric Kidwell Posted January 9, 2013 Share Posted January 9, 2013 Hi everyone, I am new to this forum and I apologize if this question has been asked but I couldn't find this particular thread. I am building a forge for knife making and pattern wielding. Forge size is 14x6 including insulation and coatings. My question is wether I should go with a blown burner or a 1" Hybrid burner. Can you do both? I will be adding a Pid control as well. Thanks for any help you can give. -Eric Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek H Posted January 10, 2013 Share Posted January 10, 2013 I am new to black smithing but have built a forge smilar to what tou are describing. My forge is 6 inch diameter and 9 inch deep. I curently have a 1" mongo burner in my forge. It gets really hot. I t also uses a lot if propain. I am currently building a 3/4 inch burner. It should ne more than enough for my forge. The suggestion given to me by some of the other members is to " build the smallest forge you can live with" and also your probably not going to want a sigle forge to do everything in. You will burn way more fuel than necessary for small things. I cant remember where it is at but i believe their are plans for a variable size forge on here somewhere. I hope this helps. Im sure some of the more experienced people on here will chime in too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timgunn1962 Posted January 10, 2013 Share Posted January 10, 2013 What are you intending to do with the PID control? If you are using it simply as a temperature readout, so that you can make manual adjustments to get the desired temperature, either burner will get the job done. If you are not using a blown burner, a battery powered hand-held readout will also work and frees you from mains power. With a blown burner, you are tied to the mains anyway. If you intend to use the controller to automatically adjust things to maintain a given temperature (the "PID control" part), the control philosophy is going to be what decides which type of burner is the most appropriate. For welding temperatures, I am pretty sure you'd be needing to use analog control and that's probably more specialized than is wise for a beginner (simpler time-proportioning on/off control can, and does, work well with a Don Fogg-type 55 gall HT forge, but I get the feeling that welding temperatures are altogether different). If you are buying, the Hybrid seems to be well thought-out and, by all accounts, works well. If you are building your own, a blown burner tends to have less exacting requirements when sourcing the parts, perhaps giving more scope for using whatever is available where you are. Blown burners also tend to be less demanding in terms of build accuracy, making them a better proposition for the less-well-equipped workshop; getting the jet perfectly centred is not necessary wth a blown burner, for example. It is fairly necessary, but not necessarily easy, with an unblown design. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Kidwell Posted January 14, 2013 Author Share Posted January 14, 2013 Sorry guys I have been away for a few days thanks for the help. I am going with a Ellis style burner. I will be using the Pid with a high and low settings to control my temperature within a give range. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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