Dragon's breath.

[John Martin]

has anyone ever heard of the dragon's breath? It's when you use a gas forge, and those invisible flames that seep out through that one tiny hole that isn't supposed to exist. they can seriously burn you or start you on fire. Also never let a gas forge run for a long time without igniting it. It creates a mini gas bomb housed inside of your shop.

[ThomasPowers]

I've always heard the term used for the full exhaust plume that comes out of the "working" hole into the forge. A tiny hole won't let enough out to get you too bad as you don't get that close to a working forge!

Remember never bend down to pick up a fallen tool or piece of stock in front of the forge---it is a BAD way to trim your hair or beard!

One way to help tame it is to mount a blower at the front of the forge that blows the plume *up*.

[John Martin]

Yeah. i know a site that shows the damage of leaving a forge running for a while and then lighting it. boom boom. so,does the blower work well? or does it just make the plume bigger?

[Jacob]

I just picked up a large forge blower to use with my coal forge. Maybe I should put a T in so that I can direct some air past the propane forge (not yet built) as needed. Others with a powered forge blower might try the same thing if the forges are usually stationary.

I worked in a shop with a couple of propane forges for a while. The large one was a blown forge used all the time and was easy to light. The small one, commercial but I don't recall the brand, was always dangerous to light. You almost always lost some percentage of arm hairs, unless they hadn't grown back yet. The forge worked fine in use. Some designs are probably safer than others. If you're building your own, I don't know how to spot the differences other than to light it up.