Putting your burner in the 2 brick forge probably has increased the back pressure resulting in less air but with the same amount of propane .   in short  causing it to run rich.  If you reduce the propane pressure you will get even less air and probably still be rich.  Changing down one size on the mig tip would be interesting.   Top of my head calculation says you need at least 7 times the exhaust area as you have burner area and even then that small forge will probably cause the burner to need retuning.

bob ducks and runs for cover.

The idea was to clean out the burr and taper it for smooth air flow for better results. A rat tail file works just fine I just forgot to mention one. I have a pipe cutter and ream and it got stuck in my head is all, no need to go buy one alternatives are fine, it's the clean pipe and tapered end that counts.

Just make the forge chamber a little larger till it runs well. You just built a little more burner than you needed, no big deal.

Frosty The Lucky.

 

rjs: I used the smallest tip available (0.6mm). Running at about 0.5 to 0.6 bar seems to result in the most stable flame. (around 7 to 8 psi)

Frosty: I had a file and went to the rotary tool when I got lazy. No excuse to buy a new tool, unfortunately :).

I think for now I will re stack the hard brick until I get a good result, then adjust the 2 brick to have that volume of chamber. Funny how you can start solving the to little burner issue an then end up with a little to much.

8 hours ago, MonkeyForge said:

rjs: I used the smallest tip available (0.6mm). Running at about 0.5 to 0.6 bar seems to result in the most stable flame. (around 7 to 8 psi)

Frosty: I had a file and went to the rotary tool when I got lazy. No excuse to buy a new tool, unfortunately :).

I think for now I will re stack the hard brick until I get a good result, then adjust the 2 brick to have that volume of chamber. Funny how you can start solving the to little burner issue an then end up with a little to much.

Lots of life is like that. Fix the burner and NEED a larger forge too. Oh what a calamity! Ain't serendipity a nice thing when it happens?

Frosty The Lucky.

To illustrate the problem I made some pictures to the best of my ability :). This is after enlarging the chamber. The front opening is also larger now. I am not sure how to fix this. (I like pictures of flame though) I still have some brick left, Might be worth checking if making the chamber a bit longer will work. (I do not want to dig any deeper into the 2 bricks)

It could be a little bigger, maybe 25% but it looks pretty good as it is. It's running slightly rich which I like. Do you have more bricks? you could cut some thin slices from one say 1/2" and use it to space your current bricks and increase the volume without cutting more out of the ones you have now.

Frosty The Lucky.

I like the idea of making a spacer. Will be easier to hold together as well. I have one cracked brick that I can cut up for the job. The forge-bricks are showing cracks where the flame hits the wall, I'll reapply the kiln was after putting in the spacers. (Lost the kiln wash when enlarging the chamber.) Does anybody have experience making a rudimentary cement with the powder left over after grinding insulating brick? (I saved some) Just to keep things together.

On 2/29/2016 at 1:15 AM, Frosty said:

It could be a little bigger, maybe 25% but it looks pretty good as it is. It's running slightly rich which I like. Do you have more bricks? you could cut some thin slices from one say 1/2" and use it to space your current bricks and increase the volume without cutting more out of the ones you have now.

Frosty The Lucky.

sounds like a good idea to me.

bob

Just finished relineing the bricks with Kaolin/Zirconium silicate. Curing now. I will cut the slices tonight. Just trying to think if a way to keep thinks together. Wire works, and it dos not have to be pretty, but cementing the strips to the lower half of the chamber seems like a good idea, too. I de have some fireplace cement, that has quite a low heat rating though. Could try mixing in some kaolin. Just thinking out loud I guess. I'll keep you all updated.

If you have any welding rod or similar straight wire, you can cut it with centre-cut wire cutters so that it has a vaguely chisel-like end, chuck it in a drill and drill through the IFB with it. You then snip it off flush at both ends and leave it in as pins. 

When I first tried it, I ground the last 1/4" or so down to make a D-bit and it worked great. Later I got lazy and  just used the wire cutters, finding the result was the same. 

It only works on IFB, where there are enough voids to take the dust formed without jamming up.

@timgunn1962 Thanks, sounds so obvious now that you point it out.

1 hour ago, timgunn1962 said:

If you have any welding rod or similar straight wire, you can cut it with centre-cut wire cutters so that it has a vaguely chisel-like end, chuck it in a drill and drill through the IFB with it. You then snip it off flush at both ends and leave it in as pins. 

When I first tried it, I ground the last 1/4" or so down to make a D-bit and it worked great. Later I got lazy and  just used the wire cutters, finding the result was the same. 

It only works on IFB, where there are enough voids to take the dust formed without jamming up.

Looks like good info,  I will try this the next time I do anything with IFB

bob

If you're using soft fire brick you can just pick a drill bit as a sacrificial tool and drill it. The drill bit will only be dull if you want to drill steel with it afterwards, sharpening it won't really restore it. Old drill bits are pretty common and it doesn't take a lot for soft fire brick, even a snip cut wire works.

Frosty The Lucky.

I cut the head of a nail, put that in my drill and pre-drilled through the spacer and the top half brick. (3 holes on each side of the chamber). I than used same size nails as pin. coated them with the fireplace cement to make them stick. I'll put on an extra coat of kiln wash in a bit. For now I like to be able to take the 2 halves apart, that's why I attached the spacer to the top half only.

So....... Enlarging the chamber works The dragons breath is a little less rich, chamber heats evenly so that is ok. I managed to make something square into a point. The kiln wash has prevented these bricks from cracking. ( I am sure they will eventually) And makes it heat up a bit faster. I'm sure this forge is going to disintegrate soon, now the question is; should I get more fire bricks or build something else. (next month's question, I think in a different thread). Pretty happy to be hammering hot metal for now, Pictures:

That looks much better. Happy hammering.

Frosty The Lucky.

 Looks good to me.  

Others take note:

This guy did his homework,  provided good documentation of his build, interacted with and tried suggestions provided in the forum and arrived at a good result.   I felt like I also learned things in this thread.

Good Job everyone,  that seemed like how this place should work.

 Bob (who realizes he is a bit new here to be critiquing.)

Agreed Bob, this is a good example of good work on all the points you raise. The kind of guy it's a sincere pleasure to be able to help.

Frosty The Lucky.

I feel like when you sit for the first time at the adult table during Holiday dinner.  I learned a bunch in this one thread.  Thank you all for this awesome discourse of a build.

I would like to thank all of you for you input on my project. It has been fun and this forum has given me a wealth of info for future projects. Experienced my first frozen cylinder yesterday, which I was kind of waiting for since it is only 1 KG (2.2 pounds). Gas has now run out but I managed to taper and bevel a piece of mystery steel, it would be nice if I can harden it, if not no big deal I need the practice. Thanks again and until next time.

If you put that little bottle in a bucket of water it won't freeze. Make sure it can't tip over squirting liquid propane through NA burners can be . . .dramatic.

You're welcome, glad to help.

Frosty The Lucky.

On 2/10/2016 at 4:56 AM, MonkeyForge said:

HI, a small update The torch in the picture is indeed butane (mixed with propane, but in a negligible ratio) I have since acquired a small propane burner, which I still need to test. The winds have died down So I should be able to burn it soon. Timgunn I have modified the burner opening slightly, I'll let you know how it works out.

 

Merry Christmas to all