Just finished building my new forge and had to share.
It is totally a rip off of frosty's design, with the exception that my burners are in the floor, and there are only two burners. without a power hammer I can never imagine me needing 4. plus I could add if I needed them later.
Please ignore the temp lines to the burners, that will be fixed soon.
Also will be working on an adjustable rest, I made provisions for that.
I am rather proud of the cup holder.. well actually it's just a place for my flux bottle.
Typical tong rack on the side.
The lower table clears a small propane bottle and just happens to be the same height as my bandsaw table.
The top lowers and raises on a screw jack. works fairly well. I little snug after paint, but some lube helped with that. I had to replace the handle on the jack so now it wont interfere with the frame, and it folds away nicely.
I can go from super small to up over 1000 Cubic inches. 600 welding inches in theory (will work on proving that later...
Suffice to say I am super stoked!

EDIT.
I cant post a picture... will work on that.

Here is the forge floor, with a little comic relief.. see how I act after being alone in the shop for so long..?

And the jack, before paint.

tong rack
And finally! a picture of the forge....

Looks good man that shop needs a good cleaning .

 

Sam

Nice forge Tristan.  Hows it working?

Looks good man that shop needs a good cleaning .
 
Sam

Funny thing that. Every time I tackle a challenging project I seem to feel the need to use every single tool I own to get it done.
That and spring taking an extra month to get here made it worse this year.

On April 28, 2013 at 7:53 PM, K. Bryan Morgan said:

Nice forge Tristan.  Hows it working?

Pretty good, I need to tune the burners a bit, but she gets nice and hot. It is a little experiment using an angled burner entry on the floor. Cutting in the tapers for the burner flare in hard brick was way easier than I imagined. I would not hesitate to do it again.
I am just so xxxx relieved to have some extra width in the forge. My big one was nice but only about 8-9 inches wide and my daily use one was 2inches wide.

I'm honored you chose to design after my set up but you painted it the same color too? That's a bit over the top isn't it Tristan?

 

Love the pic of the floor, good laugh it is. Gonna name it Luigi? That's going to be so much more useful than your old one. You be SMOKIN now!

 

I'm thinking Sean and I need to make another drive in and help you break that bad boy in.

 

Frosty the Lucky.

I'm honored you chose to design after my set up but you painted it the same color too? That's a bit over the top isn't it Tristan?
 
Love the pic of the floor, good laugh it is. Gonna name it Luigi? That's going to be so much more useful than your old one. You be SMOKIN now!
 
I'm thinking Sean and I need to make another drive in and help you break that bad boy in.
 
Frosty the Lucky.

I figured you had the paint perfect... B-)
You are welcome anytime. I think Sean is coming over Tuesday night.

Nice work Triston. :rolleyes:  I just can not afford propane. :huh: Have to save so I can go on the river. $7.29 per gallon for unleaded gas. :(

John

Nice work Triston. :rolleyes:  I just can not afford propane. :huh: Have to save so I can go on the river. $7.29 per gallon for unleaded gas. :(
John

Ugh! I would be using charcoal as well at those rates.

Nice looking forge. If you ever get the feeling that your shop is a mess let me know and I can send you pictures of mine that should make you feel better. most of the time small is the way that I like to go with forge size, but there are those projects that need room.

Yeah, I don't intend to give up the small one any time soon as it is hot and economical. But I needed this for awhile now and the cost was right. I have a total of less than $70 invested in it. Minus the regulator, which I had.

I am wondering where I can get some of the green paint?

I have some leftover if you want...

Sean & Eric both came by last night to help break it in. Which was very nice. 

 

Sean made a coiled viking cooking grill out of about 5 feet of 5/8" square stock. The forge didn't skip a beat. I opted for some 1/4 x 1 for mine. I had the interior volume set at 600 cu in and only 1 of the 3/4" burners was going and it was plenty hot.  

I think the 4" of insulation on top really makes a big difference. 

Now to get the thing coated so I can weld a little bit. 

I like ITC, but the cost for it is just so dang high, especially when I add in freight. Frosty, did you say ITC is based on Bentonite or Kaolin? 

 

It was too late when I thought of giving Sean the file to bring with. <sigh>

 

ITC-100 is Kaolin clay and zirconia flour in proportions I don't know. The kaolin is basically the matrix, our forges don't get near the vitrification temp of zirconia. I bought my ITC from Larry Zoeler some time back but it was a bite then.

 

As a temporary you can coat the inside with kaolin slip, it's a high alumina clay so isn't as suseptible to hot caustics like borax. Borax is a base and only cuastic molten)

 

I know EJ Bartel doesn't or didn't carry ITC but they may have an alternative. Have you given them a call?

 

Frosty the Lucky

Thanks, I asked when I was in last week, all they had was grout and mortar. I told them what it was for and he didn't have any suggestions.

I will just find some Kaolin. I know I can get zirconia flour out of Seattle  but I will likely be happy with just some slip to protect the brick.

Kaolin is one of those things that's best to get from a ceramics supply. I had a link to a Co. that sold small quantities of zirconium flour but that went in one of my last comp crashes. As I recall it was in the $40 /lb range but that was years ago. I've been searching but haven't found anythig like a retailer and don't recall the search terms I used before. <sigh>

 

Frosty The Lucky.

I bought some ITC100 from Seatle Pottery a few years ago, seemed like it was about $35 for what I got which was enough to do my welding forge about 2 times.

Way to go Tristan on the forge.

Was thinking of the Fire & Ice end of June. I believe Frosty said he would demo and I was wondering what kind of setup is out there. I have a portable forge, anvil & vise. Is there a covered area or should I plan for the wife to hold the big umbrella over me while I forge?

Looking forward to see the AZ smith demo's.

Jim
Arctic Anvil

Jim: that's "Art on Fire", put o by the Valley Arts Council at the Wasilla Meuseum of Transportatin and Industry on the same road as the Wasilla airort. No cover, wear a hat. We're usually next to the locomotive parking lot. we just need to get there early enough to claim our spot. It has a great view of the iron pour. I'll be there and may bring a second anvil I prefer letting folk try their hand on something other than my treasured Sodorfors. there's been plenty of room for more folk the times I've made it.

 

I bring my propane forge, post vise and a few buckets of hand tools. I usually work off the back of my pickup, I get there early so get to park where I want. If I have time I' think I'll make a vise stand that plugs into the pickup's hitch reciever. My folding portable vise stand isn't solid enough to do heavy work.

 

If Vince makes it he usually brings his awning thingy (I can't recall what they're called) and Mark has been known to bring his. Weather reports may have bearing you know. <grin>

 

We'll be discussing it here I'm sure. It's a fun gig, good food, music, cute girls, rampant kids and molten iron and the folk dancing with it. It's a good time.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

Jim, you should come by some time and see it if you like.

I used the ICT100 on my forge and used an undercoating spray gun to apply it. Just a siphoning venturi so it has a coarse spray but it does apply it efficiently and evenly. I put 2 coats on my forge and used less then 2 pints on kaowool. Smooth brick would probably use less.

I used the ICT100 on my forge and used an undercoating spray gun to apply it. Just a siphoning venturi so it has a coarse spray but it does apply it efficiently and evenly. I put 2 coats on my forge and used less then 2 pints on kaowool. Smooth brick would probably use less.

It goes a long way, but even at that it is not cheap. Add freight to Alaska and it starts seeming a little nutty when you realize it is just fancy dirt. Plus I really want a to be able to recoat whenever I need without waiting on a shipment. Ideally I wish i could find something local or commonly available.