gas forge dragons breath

[ChrisB]

What would be considered a normal amount of dragons breath for a gas forge?

none?

A few wisps?

A steady stream?

[jeremy k]

Any amount that gets your hand warm when getting something out of it - but that's the nature of gassers. There are some things that can be done to help curb the direct breath of the dragon. I usually try to put the stock in at as much of an angle as possible to keep the heat off the handling part of the stock (if not using tongs). Others have came up with some pretty extravagant ways of diverting it by using pieces of metal or even a blast of air from an air compressor. - Don't let it bite ya to hard - JK

[steveh]

i would think it depends on the size of the opening,but it will always be there.

[HWooldridge]

I try to regulate the fuel mix so I don't have a huge amount of gas burning outside the forge. As stated, there will always be some exhaust - but foot-long blue/orange flames burning outside the box is wasteful.

[ThomasPowers]

Don't know if we are using our jargon the same way. To me "Dragon's Breath" refers to *all* the hot exaust gasses coming out of a gas forge and so to have a burner running you have to have DB or else you are pressurizing an enclosed space. How much you get is based on what you are doing and how high you are running your burners---for example welding will be more than low temp work

Are you using it that way or are you refering to the unburnt gas flare you get if the forge is running rich?

Most gas forges will need to be tweaked a bit as they heat up to keep the scaling where you want it. For general forging I usually try for a fairly neutral burn with little unburnt gas making it outside to burn off. For knifemaking I will go richer to help with scaling and decarb. It's a bit less efficient but better for the metal.

So you adjust your burners to get it how you want it---they steel will generally tell you how it's doing. Remember that running rich also produces more CO as will any set up where the exhaust gasses can be sucked back into the burners. Ventilation is MANDATORY!