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I Forge Iron

First forge build


L-M&F

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Hi everybody,  been lurking on the site for a while soaking up the great info.  Finally have a job coming through the shop i can justify building a forge.  I'll be using this forge to heat sections of 1" hot rolled Rod and 1/2" hot rolled Rod to form scrolls for a custom railing.  Figured id start by building my burners and build off of that for the rest.  Anyway,  here's my 4 tee burners.  I'd like some constructive criticism, or changes i should make before trying it out.  All my parts were drilled and tapped in my lathe to keep things straight.  Thanks in advance!

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While you will profit from a long/large forge for doing this job; most of your work will probably best be done using a smaller forge.  My suggestion is to work a way to be able to run/shift some of the burners to another forge instead of using them manifolded like that.

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Thanks for the reply Thomas,  I hadnt thought of that.  But honestly Im not going to have much invested in time or money, plus i love building new tools.  I can see a smaller setup being very handy,  ill have to build another i guess! 

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First thought is that those look like quite large gas jets.

What size are the burners and what size are the holes in the jets?

It doesn't look like there is much scope for fine-tuning by trimming the length of the jets, so getting the jet diameter right seems likely to be more critical than usual.

I'd be inclined to tune a burner singly at first and then make the other three the same.

I'm sure Frosty will be along shortly and he knows the T-burners better than anyone. 

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3 hours ago, timgunn1962 said:

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The holes are. 040, the smallest i could clamp in my chuck. Might have to do something different for more adjustment.   I suppose I'll have to try it out and just see what happens,  about to cut parts for the rest of it now.  

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L-M&F,

Knowing your jet size is only half the equation for folks to help you.

Can you share the pipe size for your main burner/mixing tube, and the NPT size of the “T’s”?

Both of these will influence air available and velocities etc, all of which have huge effect on how they react to different adjustments and ultimate burner performance.

Thanks

Steve

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The main burner tube is 3/4 NPT x 8". tees are 3/4x1. The small pipes are 1/8" npt. Thanks a lot! I've done lots of reading but at a certain point my minds just becomes scrambled and I've gotta just get started building haha. 

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No collets for the tail stock chuck? How about just buying a decent drill chuck for it? Mine will hold smaller than a #80 and mine is a Jet so it's certainly not an expensive top line lathe.

Not wanting to have to change out and drill new jets is why I started using mig contact tips. You can buy one of each dia. and change them till you get close enough to fine tune by shortening them. Using my lathe I didn't have to fine tune mig tip length but using a lathe sort of went against why I developed the T burner.

It's supposed to be an effective burner that requires the minimum shop skills and tools. I don't know of many people who cant find someone to let them use a drill press.

Okay, we're typing at the same time. Use schd 80 1/8" pipe nipple, chase and tap it to accept mig contact tips. You can thread it so you can adjust the jet depth and avoid trimming the mig tips.

Oh, building all 4 burners without testing one is the kid of optimism that will cause minor failures to discourage you into giving up. Build one successful burner using a set of proven plans then copy it as you need more. That many so close together is likely WAY more than you'll ever use unless you like melting thick steel. 

Frosty The Lucky.

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Thanks for the advice frosty, i might have to do some adjusting of my tip one way or the other if i can't get the desired flame.  Smaller then.  .040 is waaay smaller than 99% of the work that comes through my shop so i haven't needed micro stuff.  It will be soon though.  Building all 4 burners at once may be an optimistic/ kid outlook but hell I'm both of those so i spose I'll accept it haha.  Had to give it a try anyways, keep in mind im building this to crank out heavy hard to bend scroll work fast.  I can't start with a 1 burner forge. What do you think?

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Got my parts all tacked up,  feeling like a kid the night before Christmas again.  Anxious to get the rest assembled and try it out/ get my burners where they need to be.  This is all a learning experience for me and if it's successful at getting this job done but needs changes then so be it.  I know 1/4" plate is overkill but it was left over from other jobs and is paid for :)

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I got a chuck on order, and borrowed a chuck from a friend to drill smaller holes in some new plugs.  My main burner tube is 3/4 the tees are  3/4-1" should i start with smaller then .030 do you think?

My original plan was to use mig tips but my local hardware store had nothing small enough to thread.  Maybe i should just drill and tap those plugs

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Try a REAL plumbing supply rather than a hardware store for pipe nipples, scd 80 x 1/8" isn't common enough to find at most hardware or about ANY big box stores. The ID is small enough you can usually tap it directly or maybe chase then tap it for mig contact tips. Drilling and tapping the brass caps you're using now would put the mig tip way too deep in the burner you'd have to trim virtually all of it off to tune.

I have good luck using 0.035 mig contact tips which mic out a little larger though I've never checked. Your burners are running rich but not horribly so though you can't do much tuning with the drilled caps. Maybe back them as far out as possible. Can't hurt, might help.

How fast do you think you'll be cycling stock through your forge? If you're working fast enough you might be one of the only guys asking forge build questions who actually should be using heavy fire brick for a liner! I have to put you in the record book, maybe mark my calendar. You DO have an insulating layer behind the hard brick. YES?

You can buy collets for a LOT less than a Morse taper drill chuck. For really small bits in my drill press I use a pin vise I picked up in a hobby shop. If you don't mind destroying the tool an Speedy Stitch has a pin vise small enough to hold really small sewing needles. It's just not intended to come out of the handle. compared to buying a new drill chuck for the lathe though? . . . Oh yeah.

I'm going to ease back off your case now. For a beginner and a kid you have your head on straight, not only for figuring this stuff out but for putting up with old farts telling you you're doing things wrong. Even if I were wrong once. :rolleyes: (since 4:pm that is)

Frosty The Lucky.

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If you stay with this design pull out the hard brick and put in k26 bricks instead.

 

However let me see if I understand the point of this forge. 

1.  It will be on for long periods to crank out a lot of product.

2.  The temperature range is fairly flexible(your not doing work that needs to be at a specific temperature just in a hot enough to work state.)

If those two statements are true ditch the firebrick idea all together and cast it 3" thick in kastolite30.  This will yake a bit to come to heat but once there it will stay hot with substantial less fuel usage.

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Finally had a chance to get the box welded up and do a quick test run on a small piece of 1" cold rolled round.  I recon it'll do what i need! Need to get the legs on it in the morning and get going on this railing.  I'll modify as i need as the jobs demand but overall in fairly happy with it. 

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