Input welcome

[NachoSupreme]

Greetings any and all,  

Im about to start a new project, Gas fired forge/foundry,  its going to be a bit on the larger size, 50 gallon barrel, 2 layers of 1 inch regractory blanket, 1 layer of refractroy cement,   I m trying to get some information how many burners I might need once the forge is finished,   I hear a few saying to guestimate, but I dont trust that, thats why I am here,  why so large you ask, well I have 1k pounds of aluminum , scrap prices suck right now, so I thought what a great time to make some blocks and cylinders for my milling machine,  most likely some ingot molds as well.   Am I understanding that a good portion depends on the cubic inches of the forge ?        I also understand that ribbon burners are a better use of propane, efficiency and cost wise, and finally,  I have seen two different setups for a ribbon burner,  some using forced air, some using a venturi system which is hotter and which is most efficient.  I do understand that the cubic inches are obtained measuring the inside diameter , width and height.    I would also like to create a baffle system if you will, so if forging,  I can lower the amount of space I need to heat,  the baffles will be created out of refractory materials.  so any and all experts in these areas are welcome to give me a heads up on what is what,   if you are only going to criticize , move along , I have no need for BS in my life.

  Thanks in advance :)

[Steve Sells]

a forge and a foundry are two different things, decide which first then we can answer you, and to start out by making demands and refusing to take critique wont make you any friends here

[ThomasPowers]

Generally having an oversized forge means you spend many times in gas the cost of building another smaller forge.  I'm not an expert; but I've been using propane forges, (both forced air and NA), for a couple of decades now and my most used one is made from a 10" diameter steel tube, 14" long.  Trying to baffle a 55 gallon drum down to that would be more cost/trouble than just making a second one...

If your  burners are tuned properly then they produce the same amount of heat per unit of propane no matter how the air is supplied.  

Have you been over to alloyavenue.com?  (Used to be backyardmetalcasting.com).  It is a series of forums dedicated to casting and so may be a better match with what you are wanting to do.

[Mikey98118]

I hope you actually meant one layer of refractory; NOT refractory cement.

As for "forge foundry," assuming you meant say forge and casting furnace...it's doable in smaller equipment, and would be somewhere between unwise and a nightmare in the size you contemplate.

Burners and the equipment they are mounted in, can be separate. One set of burners can easily be shifted between two pieces of heating equipment; greatly reducing the effort and expense to build that equipment.

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

4 hours ago, NachoSupreme said:

 if you are only going to criticize , move along , I have no need for BS in my life.

Then an online forum is not the place you should be. Oh and BTW you posted this in the wrong section.

[NachoSupreme]

  I do apologize to the forums and moderator,  if possible just wipe it and Ill call it a day, been a real bad year,  I never make demands, but may be overly inquisitive, sorry for that,  I have been dealing with Twitter and I DO take offense if insulted for being inquisitive, or just trying to learn from those who are learned in arts and ways others consider to be boring,  I love nature and find the art of casting and blacksmithing to be not only an art, but something which has always fascinated me.

[JHCC]

Not to worry; stay and learn. We don't have a problem with people who make mistakes or use the wrong term or confuse two different kinds of metalworking or whatever. Our only problem is with people who think they know more than they do and won't accept friendly correction. The people here are generous and openhearted, even if occasionally a bit grumpy. Just go read the Read This First page (see tab at the top of the page), think about what you want to do, ask questions, listen to the answers, and know that those willing to learn more are always welcome. 

When I joined this community, I got ripped to pieces for attempting a truly foolish forge build. I could have taken it personally and left, but I never would have learned as much as I have or made so many good friends. Let the reader understand.

[SLAG]

Mr. Nacho ...,

Stick around.

There is a lot of great information and also expertise on this site.

We all had to start somewhere, (usually on the ground floor) and had to learn things, and we all initially made a lot of mistakes.

Some of the old hands at this business still make some mistakes.

Actually, if we don't make mistakes we have stopped learning.

The people,  here,  are generous and do want to help others, especially those just starting off.

SLAG.

[NachoSupreme]

Good to know,   Im kind of a jack of all trades,  I never took an inside job for long, it just didnt feel natural,   For the aluminum,  Im just looking at smelting a large quantity into usable blocks, cylinders etc for my milling projects,  Free is good :),  but the blacksmithing, well its always fascinated me,  my great uncle on my dads side was a blacksmith and my great grandfather on my moms side was an artist who worked with a lot of different materials,  I doubt if any know his works, but it is possible that some may.   I have always had to make things work which were supposedly un do able since my boss was a bit tight , we always had to think on our toes and it did make mad, but also inspired me to make tools necessary for jobs and figure work arounds for impossible tasks.   I truly want to learn ,  I had a teacher who told if you can learn one new thing every day, no matter how trivial or small then it was a very good day,  I have always taken that to heart and try to always learn something new on a daily basis,   this is an art and skill that will stay with me for the rest of my life,  even if I never get that good at it.

[ThomasPowers]

Smelting is taking ore and making metal from it.  Sounds to me like you want to take metal scrap and MELT it and cast it.  Smelting of Aluminum ore is not a home based hobby task!

Anyway was alloyavenue.com  any help?

[Phil K.]

Alloy Ave. site is down, has been for several months. Doesn't look like it will be back.

 

[Frosty]

Phil: Don't take corrections in terminology personally, using the correct craft jargon really is important. It keeps us from having to explain terms, phrases, etc. both to ask and answer questions. The currently significant cases are: Forge, foundry, smelter and melter. three out of four are very different things and #4 is a tool in another. 

We don't correct things to mess with folks it's for clarity. 

Well . . . . sometimes we mess with each other but usually after getting to know them. 

Frosty The Lucky.

[ThomasPowers]

Thanks for the report; I wonder if they lost the site name again?  I also wonder if it or something like it is around under a different url..

I like there being different sites for different metalworking processes allowing folks to specialize!