My first built forge

[Cavpilot2k]

So I needed a gas forge and wanted a ribbon burner. So I followed the model from John at Black Bear Forge's videos and built a ribbon burner with two-piece body. 

1/8" steel body, 2 layers of inswool, covered in Kast-o-lite 30, final coating of bubble alumina. 

9 inch ribbon burner. 

Forgive the poor welding - my welding has improved dramatically since then, but it works. "A grinder and paint makes me the welder I ain't"

It is so nice to be able to forge weld a large cross section of steel with consistent heat in a reducing atmosphere. Trying to do a san-mai cleaver was killlng me on my coal forge. 

[Frosty]

Looks pretty good from here. The only thing I'd do differently is reverse the angle iron below the opening and use hard fire brick for the porch and make something so I could extend the porch a few inches length and width. That allows you to make the k26 IFB doorway thermal baffles more adjustable. A gun burner allows you to close the forge up a LOT more than a naturally aspirated burner, the longer you can keep the flame inside the forge the more energy is transferred to the liner to re-radiate as IR to work for you.

Nice build. I love the stand. 

Frosty The Lucky.

[Cavpilot2k]

Thanks for the suggestions. I actually have plans to put a channel top and bottom of both front and back to use insboard doors (a board version of inswool). 

Yeah, the stand is the monster coal forge I've been using these last six years until I built the gas one. It's something like 36"x40", 4" deep cast iron that's about 3/8 thick. It's a beast and weighs almost 200 lb. 

BTW, the chamber is 7"x6"x16"

[Frosty]

What I like about kiln washed IFBs for thermal baffles is they are stable on edge and it gives me a lot of variety in shape and position for openings. A brick porch two wide for 18" and two deep for 9" lets me lay 2 bricks on edge end to end and bridge them with another one or two. That configuration lets me shape the opening from barely a crack to nearly 9" wide or 9" high. Yes, I buy K-26 IFBs by the case I get bulk and club discounts for a pretty darned reasonable discount. If you belong to a local club or have a number of friends practicing the craft it pays to negotiate for a discount with the local refractory supplier.  The guys I buy from also service furnaces and give me free reign in their Kaowool rems, they can't use nor sell them so I tend to leave with leaf bags of Kaowool. I haven't bought a piece in  I don't know how long. 

I try to keep as much steel as far from  forge openings as I reasonably can to prevent warping. I've even considered covering the outside of the forge openings with covered Kaowool or IFB to shield it from the heat but that puts me right back to a brick pile.  It can be SOOOO hard to do what I want and be reasonable. <sigh>

My forge stand is a steel serving cart I got as part of a package deal at a yard sale. It was late and the seller didn't want to pack it away. I only wanted a few to the tools on it but she made it an all or nothing sale so it cost . . ?  Doing something with the other stuff on it was / is the hassle. 

I'm all in favor of multi taskers so long as you don't have to compromise function. Using the coal forge as the propane forge stand is PERFECT. Moving the propane forge to a shelf when a coal fire suits the job is THE way to do it.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Mikey98118]

Ditto to what Frosty said.