Daswulf Posted November 26, 2017 Share Posted November 26, 2017 JHCC, I have burned anthracite, coke, and charcoal as well at times, tho yes my main fuel is bituminous. As Charles has mentioned many times the bottom blast does "eat" (burn through) charcoal fast. I do have a regulated air blast and in the 3+ years this grate has been used it has been through a Lot of long periods of full blast getting large stock up to temp. I'm just saying that if it's made well enough it should last more then once- a week. Without even an understandable explanation of what he made we are just speculating on what he did. And tho I could, I just don't have time to play around trying to guess what , a 1/4" piece of angle iron with holes drilled in it in a ribbon burner pattern, is. Last I heard he was using a heat gun for air. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryancrowe92 Posted November 26, 2017 Author Share Posted November 26, 2017 yep and a torch for good oxygen air blast but heat gun mostly and i promise a detailed explanation later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jasent Posted November 26, 2017 Share Posted November 26, 2017 Why not use the rebar? use the torch to heat and bend so it makes a tight W and use that as a grate leave 1/4" gaps Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryancrowe92 Posted November 26, 2017 Author Share Posted November 26, 2017 low on fuel. and it dosent heat right with torch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daswulf Posted November 26, 2017 Share Posted November 26, 2017 So you are using a heat gun And using the O2 from the torch?! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted November 26, 2017 Share Posted November 26, 2017 4 minutes ago, ryancrowe92 said: yep and a torch for good oxygen air blast but heat gun mostlY Wait a second — you’re putting pressurized oxygen into your blast?!?!? No wonder it’s burning up! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jasent Posted November 26, 2017 Share Posted November 26, 2017 Cut a few short peaces and weld them together. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryancrowe92 Posted November 26, 2017 Author Share Posted November 26, 2017 only to start it when the coals are first put in and my brother being him decided to use the leaf blower like that was a good idea Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daswulf Posted November 26, 2017 Share Posted November 26, 2017 I get people often that don't know a thing about forging in my shop and as I show them the forge they ask where the gas goes in my solid fuel forge. I explain that it's just blowing ambient ( regular old ) air into the solid fuel to make it burn hotter. No gas. Ryan, you sure like throwing money down the toilet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HammerMonkey Posted November 26, 2017 Share Posted November 26, 2017 16 minutes ago, ryancrowe92 said: yep and a torch for good oxygen air blast but heat gun mostly and i promise a detailed explanation later. Are you furnishing air to your fire with a heat gun AND oxygen from your torch setup?? on edit: asked and answered. Glad that I was not the only one to see this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryancrowe92 Posted November 26, 2017 Author Share Posted November 26, 2017 i used very little oxygen to get them started and put the air gun to it . the air compressor isn't working Just now, Shady McGrady said: Are you furnishing air to your fire with a heat gun AND oxygen from your torch setup?? the oxygen only to start the fire Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daswulf Posted November 26, 2017 Share Posted November 26, 2017 Have any newspaper or junk cardboard boxes? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryancrowe92 Posted November 26, 2017 Author Share Posted November 26, 2017 yeah we used leaves and some pine and gave it one good airblast i cut the oxygen pressure down on the torch and switched to my smaller torch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn Posted November 26, 2017 Share Posted November 26, 2017 Let us return to simple and try NOT to over complicate things. You have a brake rotor mounted in a lawn mower deck, burning wood. You are using a heat gun as an air source. Air: Forges use normal air, the same kind you breathe. The heat gun should be fine as a heat source. Turn off the heat and just use the blower in the gun. DO NOT attach the heat gun directly to the air pipe for the forge. Leave a 3 inch gap or so between the heat gun and the air pipe to the forge. This is your air control. Aim the gun more directly to the end of the air pipe for more air, aim no so directly for less air. You will have to play with the air control to figure out what you need. Adjust the air control as needed to use the smallest amount of air. You want just enough air for the amount of heat you need for the project at hand. No afterburners, no 3 foot flames, no Hollywood special effects. Just enough air for the amount of heat you need for the project at hand. Let us build a fire. Start with wood the list of kindling, not logs. This is sticks about the size of your finger or wood split down to that size. Gather up or split up a gallon paint bucket full. You will be able to start several fires that way. Get a couple of sheets of newspaper and loosely was them into a ball. Put the ball of newspaper in the rotor. Get a cardboard box and cut several strips of cardboard about 3 inches wide, and roll the cardboard into a cylinder about 3 inches in diameter. You may have to use several of the strips to get this diameter. Light the newspaper, let it catch fire, and place it in the rotor. Put the cardboard on top of the newspaper. Put the kindling on top of the cardboard. Add just enough air until the kindling catches fire and then place wood on top of the kindling. Add just enough more air until the wood catches fire. You are building a small fire that would male a boy scout proud. The embers of the fire are what transfers heat to the metal and makes it hot. With coal you will need a fire ball about the size of a melon. With wood you will need a fire ball that is the size of a melon or a bit larger. You will want fuel on top of the fire ball to be transforming into embers to replace those in the fire ball as they are consumed. With wood, you will need to make a deeper fire as you are converting the raw wood to charcoal, and converting the charcoal to embers. I would suggest 9-12 inches total for the depth. The size of the fire could be about the size of the rotor opening. Stack bricks around the rotor, or make a metal cylinder to get this depth. The size of the wood is a consideration in the depth. 2 x 2 x 4 inches is a good place to start. Once the fire is going and you have built up a fire ball of embers, you can go to 2 x 4 x 4 inches. Placement of the metal. The metal should be placed horizontally into the fire ball, and about 1/2 to 2/3 the way up the fire ball.This is where most of the oxygen has been consumed and you have a good amount of heat. Keep watch on the metal as it gets hot. Too much heat and the metal will burn, too little heat and it will not get hot enough to forge. The heat is controlled by the amount of air you blow into the air tube for the forge. It is a dance and only experience will tell you how much is enough. You may find that you want to add just a little air to keep things going, but you may not have to add air into the forge while you work at the anvil. Do not change anything, just try what was suggested and get back to us with the results. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryancrowe92 Posted November 26, 2017 Author Share Posted November 26, 2017 3 minutes ago, Glenn said: DO NOT attach the heat gun directly to the air pipe for the forge. done this. and its a 3 way switch lo off and hi i start the fire in the fire barrel and shovel the coals out of the barrel into the fire. forge Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn Posted November 26, 2017 Share Posted November 26, 2017 The suggestion was to start the fire in the rotor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryancrowe92 Posted November 26, 2017 Author Share Posted November 26, 2017 ok ill try that Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryancrowe92 Posted November 27, 2017 Author Share Posted November 27, 2017 Good morning. I'm gonna have to stay late after school today for my IEP meeting so I can get rid of it so I wont be doing anything today. now enough about that. the forge is in the shop as well as the cutting torch. now I'm gonna fix it up probably tomorrow. I'm gonna use the dirt box forge for the mount. and I will be available during 10:30-12:20. and right now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn Posted November 27, 2017 Share Posted November 27, 2017 The grate for the rotor in my forge is just 2 each 3/8 inch bolts welded in the 2 or 2-1/2, or 3 inch opening, depending on the size of the rotor being used.. The description for starting a fire listed above is used with this forge. The forge uses bituminous coal, charcoal, wood, and bituminous coal dust (as fine as sand or smaller) as fuel and functions well with those fuels. The coal dust is placed into a 5 gallon bucket and covered with water. To use, just get a good fire going, then scoop a hand full of black mud from the bucket and place it on the fire. With wood and charcoal as a fuel, you need to build side walls so you can get a deeper fire. This deeper fire gives the wood time to burn down to charcoal and the charcoal to burn down to the embers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryancrowe92 Posted November 28, 2017 Author Share Posted November 28, 2017 ok I can do that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryancrowe92 Posted November 29, 2017 Author Share Posted November 29, 2017 well this thread is looking dead well I might have the time this weekend to finish up the tongs and that will be it I will start on it Friday repairing the forge and setting it up for one more burn. and Saturday hopefully I will have them done and close it at which point I will ask glen to kindly do. but for know stick with me and I will get it done I know some of you are probably angry or upset that I used compressed oxygen to get the fire going. but with out the diesel fuel I cant start my fires so I'm having to use laves and a little oxygen to get it started and that's it. but I will take your advice glen on how to fix the rotor forge. so I hope you had a happy thanksgiving while I'm taking the week to get my grades up and I smell something in the lunch room that smells good but probably wont taste as good. so by the end of this weekend if I can fix the forge I should have them ready. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Sells Posted November 29, 2017 Share Posted November 29, 2017 we dont close a thread because the OP gets bored, its a WWW and many people get involved, threads only get closed when there is trouble and we have no other way to stop the problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryancrowe92 Posted November 29, 2017 Author Share Posted November 29, 2017 How come the op can't do it their self Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Sells Posted November 29, 2017 Share Posted November 29, 2017 11 minutes ago, ryancrowe92 said: How come the op can't do it their self In case you missed it, see my previous post, FYI you are not the only person in this thread Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted November 29, 2017 Share Posted November 29, 2017 Because IFI is an ongoing discussion, and sometimes a long-dormant thread will be revived if someone has a new question or an additional insight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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