Hello all! Im new to the forum and this is my first post so if im in the wrong section feel free to move me. Alright so a friend of mine just loaned me a forge thats been in his family for a lot of years. he used it for ferrying. It sat around in his barn for a loooong time and now that I have it I cant seem to get it to heat my steel hot enough for more than 3-4 swings before it needs to go back into the forge. The metal gets to around a cherry red color. The forge is a two burner propane forge and the flames coming from the nozzles seem to be a nice blue color. Could it be my firebrick needs to be replaced? if you need anymore info please ask ill figure out what I can. Thanks in advance!

Leave it in until it is yellow hot. How cold is the anvil, what size stock, what kind of steel...?? All of these affect how well the heat is retained. It isn't the forge not getting hot enough, but how well the metal retains it.

I have a small single burner farrier forge that will burn steel if I leave it in too long.

What pressure is your propane coming in at?

Taken a pic of it running so the gas gurus can see how it is running.

Is this problem something that is only after just firing up the forge? Fire brick is a heat hog and can take a while for the forge chamber to heat up to an even temp. Maybe you are not leaving the piece in long enough? what PSI are you running and if it is naturally aspirated, what elevation are you at? Pics help too.

Alright I left the metal in for 25 minutes and still only cherry red. The forge is blown by a hairdryer right now because the original blower turbine grenaded on me. The steel is junkyard steel but appears to be mild steel. It is 3/8 inch thick. also I am unsure of exact pressure there isnt a gauge mounted on the old school regulator.

Edited July 12, 201510 yr by Feelthefire
missed info

Here's some pictures of the forge. Can't see inside of it right now because of how sunny it is out

moderator could you move this back over to the problem solving section?

 

Check your burner tubes for obstructions. I just recently acquired an old gas forge that sat up for years and it had dirt daubers nesting in both tubes. The amount of air you're addin in might be too much but blown burners are somethin I know nothin first hand.

Just cleaned all the tubes out the other day so I don't think that's the problem.

Have you blown out the burners with compressed air? I'm sure someone here can help, I'm not much help myself but I'm tellin you what I did before mine started workin.

This is as hot as I can get it

Ok now; the propane is turned all the way on at the tank; right?  So how did you chose the setting on the regulator?

If the blower is not putting out enough air at the correct pressure you can have issues.

Fastest/easiest way to get it checked out is to take it to a local blacksmithing group meeting. It's how a friend of mine got her forge tuned in; even if I lost a bit of facial hair when the proper mix was achieved and it whooshed!

You need a proper blower, a blow drier just isn't going to do it. Start hitting yard, garage, etc. sales and look for a 12v inflator for rafts, air mattresses, etc. They will more than make too much air for your set up, then it's easy to put a gate on the intake so you can adjust it.

You can adjust it for a neutral burn with the blow drier by turning the propane psi down but the forge temperature is a matter of putting enough BTUs in a contained area fast enough and a blow drier just doesn't make enough air.

Ditto Thomas, get hooked up with the local blacksmith's organization, you'll be up and smooshing HOT steel in no time.

It might not hurt to look into a new liner too, modern refractories can be much more efficient and flux resistant than just a few years ago let alone a few decades. Do you know the make & mod of that forge?

Frosty The Lucky.

It's an old mankel forge with 2 burners. And I'm not sure I need more air because I get better heat on low on the blow dryer than on high? 

Heat is the mix of gas and air.  You can turn up either one till the forge goes out or turn down either one till the forge goes out.  You need to get both just right.  If the forge is burning neutral and not getting hot enough you need to turn up the gas and turn up the air till you get back to neutral with more BTUs going into the system.