So the past two nights I've been smithing and it's been great. Expect for one thing, randomly, usually when my blower is off, there's a large burst sometimes small poof out of nowhere. It's never the same expect that it does it while my blower is off, I'm slightly concerned on why it's doing this, and how do I stop it from doing it. It'll scatter my coal across my fire pot or nothing will happen. If anybody knows what causes this and how to stop it that'd be very helpful.

coal gas building up in tuyre

How do I prevent this? Or do I get over it and just work with it?

How much water are you using on the fire?  Running steam over hot coke was the method of producing gas for the early gas lamps.

 

how to deal:  cut down on water especially if you are going to stop cranking soon.  Don't stop---keep a low level of flow going,    Try to have all your air piping above the level of the tuyere as much as possible. Use a flip lid---counterweighted ash dump lid so there is a pressure relier when it pops.

The forge is building up smoke in the system then it ignites and poofs. I have heard it poof loud enough to sound like a shot gun being fired.

 

Keep a little air going to the forge all the time. If you are using a hand crank blower start cranking very slowly to clean any smoke etc out of the pipes and only then can you add more air and build up heat in the forge.

Thanks big time you guys! Mine weren't shotgun loud but they were getting there. I'll take your suggestions and use them tonight. Thanks again!

Sometimes the fire is not breathing properly when you are not using the blower. Poke a hole in the top of your fire with your poker (good name for it) and allow the smoke to come through to go up the chimney.

 

Sometimes allow the fire to become a little bigger. Control the size of fire with the watering can.

 

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Neil

I had one burst last night and it was a little guy. I think I was just using to much water to often, I'll certainly try putting a hole in the fire to let the gas escape, and letting the blower to push enough air worked great last night. The flip lid and moving the piping for the air flow will be done when I build a new forge, and until then I'm gonna run this forge till she can't run no more.

TOO MUCH water creates methane gas. When it builds up below your fire in the tuyer it can ignite when it reaches the level of the fire. Result POOF....BOOM..... BANG or DISTRUCTIVE BANG!