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I Forge Iron

First Gas Forge Build


JeepinJoe

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I have a coal forge but don't have it setup in a shop so I have to drag it out and set it up outside.  My time is limited in the evenings so I thought a gas forge would come in handy for those evenings I have a few hours to work on some projects.  So I started researching on here and decided to start building my first gas forge.  Started with a compressed air tank.  It was a little too long so I decided to cut it down at each end and make a shelve. The forge chamber is 12" in length and the tank was 12" diameter. The bigger shelve will be at the front of the forge and the smaller on the back.  My plan is to use fire brick and set on the shelves to use as doors.  Figured having the front shelve bigger would be useful.  Three layers of 1" ceramic blanket so I could make the inside of the forge smaller and more efficient.  Will coat the blanket with a Satanite refectory mortar.  Then will coat with metrikote.  I will use fire brick for the bottom of the forge.  For burners I have made some Frosty 3/4" T-Burners.  I just like building stuff so I am enjoying the build.

 

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3" of insulation is pretty significant but it's a good way to reduce the volume to what you need. I'd recommend filling the bottom with another layer of blanket and a good 1/2" of Satanite to make the floor. You have plenty of burner to compensate for a fire brick's ability to suck up heat but there's no real reason if you can help it.

That is going to be one nice forge. I can't wait to see it running.

Give me a shout if you need a hand tuning the burner.

Frosty The Lucky.

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There's a variation you may want to consider depending on what you forge.  I did something similar with a freon tank on my most recent build, but I cut it horizontally all the way across.  I filled the bottom with a couple inches of perlite, then a layer of ceramic blanket, and topped that with kastolite 30 to give me a flat surface all the way across.  The top portion was similar to yours - a couple layers of ceramic blanket with kastolite 30 for a hot face lining.  I put hinges on one side so that I can use it in the "traditional" manner, or block both ends and use it in a clamshell configuration as well.  I have a fair amount of coil spring and the end openings are too small to deal with the larger coils.  In the clamshell configuration I can easily lift one side to get pieces in the heat that would otherwise be a problem for my small forge.  Burner orientation may be an issue, but mine comes in through the floor and points at the "ceiling" to avoid that problem.   It is some extra hassle and you may not need the feature, but for me  it was worth the trouble.

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Thanks Frosty.  I will most likely need your advice on tuning the burners and I like your idea for the floor so I am going to go that route since I do have some extra blanket left.

Buzzkil, that sounds like an interesting forge. I like the idea of the forge opening like a clam shell.  It would not be that hard to change mine in the future if I find myself needing something like that for bigger stock.

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  • 7 months later...

Thanks for your reply Mike.  I was getting pretty frustrated tuning the burner and had given up for a few months until I was motivated enough and had enough patience to work on it again. My flare is a coupling so I ground down the threads inside so it was smooth which helped considerably and was able to tune it much easier.  I had read on here somewhere that the threads shouldn't matter but thinking about it now of course threads would impact the gas and air flow.

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There is the "superior" and the "acceptable"; they have no problem with each other. We have a problem remembering to pick between them deliberately. Deliberate, then take your choice, and don't sweat the difference. Also, accepting good enough allows you to take a later run at the problem without all that self-generated pressure :)

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