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I Forge Iron

Spiro therm industrial forge


KeithSS

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Hi, was hoping someone had experience with one of these forges. There is one on eBay for $2500. I  just got one in good shape needs some parts and some work. I really like that this forge use propane or nat.gas.its all automatic as far as adjustments ,set the temp and go. I do guess that this is how it works. 

I have been forging from a aspirated propane forge and it works great for me.

im just wondering if this forge is worth spending time setting up and Useing as my daily forge?

heres some pics.

 

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Not knowing the details of your forging it's impossible to say. Can you tell me if I need to buy a prius or a dump truck?  Why Not?

 Industrial forges are usually gas hogs designed to be tough rather than efficient; if you are a full time smith where the fuel costs are factored into your prices then if might be a good one for you.  However even most of my professional smithing friends use more efficient home built forges. (ribbon burners and lots of kaowool are your friends!)

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I do forge everyday. Mostly 1/4" 3/8" 1/2" steel  and railroad spikes size is about my limit.

 Natural gas is cheap now, I thought that if it runs off nat.gas it would be cheaper to operate. I use around 300 gallons of propane a year.

i built a ribbon forge and fired it up a few times , I only had 1" of kaowool in it and it  got very hot very fast. I was just experimenting with it. And now I'm adding refractory 3000 on the walls of it.

 Don't take this personally, but do you know for sure that the Spiro-therm forge would be a gas hog?

Thanks

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Don't take this personally but what did the MANUFACTURER quote you for gas usage?  For heat treating US$2500 would buy a very nice electric system!

Now you can take the max btu output and calculate the gas it takes to produce the BTUs and then calculate cost per hour of use for your area and then apply a factor to deal with not running it full out; 

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I don't see anything about it that says it's NOT a gas hog. Maybe if a person were to rip the existing liner out and replace it with a bunch of Kaowool the thermostat system might make it okay but . . .

For $2,500 you can buy an induction forge and if you use 300gl. of propane a year now, break even will probably be in less than one. For $2,500 you can buy a high end commercially made propane forge and gas for a year.

Frosty The Lucky.

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I didn't pay $2500 for it .i got it for a couple hundred . I was just Useing ebays pictures.

The company that makes these said , the new ones are built the same as the old ones except for the electronics are updated.

So, I couldn't figure out how to see what the cost to operate it will be.

The name plate says 250 m btu. 

1.000.000 btu = 10 therms = $9.00 

 I pay 90 cent a therm in mi. (How long does a therm last?)

i know it can't cost as much as my math says.

 

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You said something about needing a few parts.  If it were me it would come down to how much those parts cost.  Since you already have it, if it was already in functional shape I'd say fire it up and see how much gas it uses.  Whether it's a hog or a miser one forging session is not going to break the bank and you'd get some good data.  For the sake of argument if you were going to have to dump another 500 bucks into it in order to do a test run that would be a different story.  Like Frosty says you may be able to put a better insulating liner in it, and if the automatic temperature controls work you may end up really liking it.  You probably won't know until you try it, but again for me it would come down to the cost to get it functional.

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10 hours ago, ThomasPowers said:

Is M Million or Thousand ?

Unfortunately both have been used as a standard abbreviation.  However, these days (as counterintuitive as it seems) MBTU typically refers to thousands of BTU and MMBTU refers to millions.  Also I believe that typically burner ratings are in BTUH (BTU per hour) or MBH (thousand BTU per hour).  If you are in contact with the company, I would ask them for clarification.

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I will ask the company if its millions or if its thousands of btu.

Thats a good point . I have seen boilers rated in the millions , but they had a 4" gas line going to them with a big gas pump. It's a 3/4" fitting going into this unit.

I think the strength of this forge is the shell and firebrick, it has 2 gas lines coming in the top side of the shell and on the other side 2 gas lines going in the bottom and it must make a swirling movement. Rated  to 2400 deg. 

 

The brick is all curved round and in perfect shape.

i ordered a $100 dollars worth of parts  a spark plug ignitor and a flame sensor.

im thinking if it doesn't start, its going to be the fire eye box which I'm thinking its a $500 dollar part . Then I might have another machines skeleton standing in the corner of the shop taking up room. 

 

 

 

 

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