Single T burner forge build

[Latticino]

Agreed on all points.  Not a drastically older photo.  I'm in my mid 60's.

[Mikey98118]

I will be 77 this March. In your sitxies; ah, those were the days

[M.G.]

My burner flare in this forge was cast in with the kast-o 30 over top of the hole cut in the kayo wool layers, and formed with a couple of pieces of pvc that were shaped to a smooth transitional flare with files. Once the kast-o was set and cured  and ran through a days worth of heat cycles. I went ahead and coated everything with a couple layers of ITC 100 ht kiln wash, for good measure.  So far so good. I will get a proper forge cart built in the next couple weeks while I slowly get the remaining work done on the smithy space. Hopefully I will be fully moved in and operational in about a month, and I'll get to put the forge through its paces, and report back on how it's holding up.

 

 

[Mikey98118]

Casting the flame retention nozzle into the forge wall opening; what an excellent choice

[M.G.]

Alright. Well this brings this build to a close.

Ran over to the scrap yard and picked up some square tube to stick together to make a stand for the forge. I'll pick up a piece of plate to top the entire bench next time I make it to the yard.  For now I've got a piece that supports the forge just fine.

Hope to see you in the next thread , likely under Shop layout, or smithy plans, or there abouts.

And again thanks for the help guys.

 

[Mikey98118]

Thanks for sharing a great forge build with us; we all enjoyed your input. However, if you use your forge very much, this will only be stage one in the building process. Once a forge is constructed, some further improvements on its design becomes impractical, but not all. I think of those further improvements as add on work. Exhaust doors or baffle walls can always be refined; second and third burners of smaller sizes; and temporary internal structures meant to, in effect, shrink its internal volume. The more you use this forge, the more you will want to refine it...over time 

If you only employ your forge once in a while, fuel efficiency is a minor concern. The more you use that forge, the bigger the bill gets. Hopefully we can interact then, as well.

[M.G.]

Hey guys, I know it's been a while but I figure it's about time for an update.

I know it's a bit of reading, but I promise a load of photos as well.

I'm sure a few of you have seen some of the projects I've gotten up to in this forge over the last 6 months or so. So we know it does it's basic job just fine.

But one of two of my main concerns with this build from real early on in the all the way back to the planning and design stages was "will it forge weld !?!?!" Also "can I forge weld?" The other being the question of fuel efficiency.

At this point, all I can really say is at general forging temps I can get about 12 to 14 hours of forging off of a 5gal lpg tank running the pressure around 7-12psi. Not really sure what that looks like up in the higher psi ranges (15-25psi), so I'm sure at forge welding temps it could for seeably be double the usage. 

Now back to the important question, the one I have been dancing around as a blacksmith for the last couple years, can I forge weld? After a few failed attempts early on, working in my first forge, charcoal, modified JABOD style, with a hand crank champion blower. I shyd away from it in hopes that I could connect with someone in person who could show me the "magic" firsthand. Alas, I got sidetracked, by a local tool maker, and ran down the road of hammer making.  But always in the back of my mind that burning question, am I really a blacksmith, if I can't......? (And, yes, I know some may say, "that's not what makes you a blacksmith", but I know it sure helps, big time.) 

So this morning I decided to make sure my forge could weld. And in turn making sure I can forge weld.  

I started by tossing a full sized firebrick on the floor of the forge, to protect the cast floor from the mess I was about to make. As well as reduce the overall volume of my forge, by about half. Then I cut a quick n dirty baffle system for my T burner,  from some scrap sheet. And slowly started heating up the forge.

While the forge was heating up I took a scrap piece of mold flat bar, cleaned up one side of the flat and ground a quick bevel on the opposite side to form a scarf. once the forge hit about 1000°c I tossed in the flat bar brought it up to heat and folded it over so the clean faces were nearly touching, fluxed it with some borax tossed it in and turned up the propane to about 17psi. At first the forge was just teetering back and fourth around 900-1000°c, but I figured I'd pull it out close the gap and give it some more flux and try and get it hotter. I closed up the doors a bit more, and got my Lazer to say it was around 1160°c. So I got the piece back up to heat and pulled it out gave it a few quick blows, tickled it with borax and back in the forge. 

Well, that felt pretty good I guess. When it was back up I pulled it out and gave it a few more good hits with my bigger hammer. Re fluxed, then back in. 

I'm not so sure I felt as good about that last heat but, I can only really look at the next right now. This heat I worked the sides perpendicular to the plane of the weld, then flipped it back flat to straighten it up and knock the wrapped eye that had been created with the fold, over to one side of center as if it was going to be a wrapped eye hinge of some sort. As I knocked the eye off center line the weld popped almost wide open. Bummer....but forward we go.

I fluxed it up. Then brought it back up, and closed the weld nice and tight. More magic powder then back in the heat. While I was doing this I was checking the temp of the forge with my laser thermometer and was seeing it riding just below 1200°c so I bumped up the gas a little more closed down the baffle as much as I could kicked the back doors nearly closed, and went in for a re weld. 

This time it felt good. And so did the following welding heats, I then moved back to the sides and re aligning the eye. At this point I felt like it had stuck but I needed to be sure, so I grabbed a hinge eye drift and ran it through the eye a couple times. Now I know it stuck. After working down the weld a bit I decided to test the weld again, by punching a hole through the weld, and being pretty unforgiving about it. It was pretty cool buy the time I sheared out the plug. But it was still stuck.

I'm the end I'm pretty pleased, although I feel like my scarf is still a bit too visible and could have been welded a bit better in one corner. Next time I will make sure to thin it out just a bit more, and focus on the scarf of the weld a bit more.

All that said, I hereby present to you, my first forge weld and a home made forge with a diy Frosty T burner , that can in fact forge weld! Couldn't have done it without you guys here on IFI, thanks.

And as a bonus, I have some pictures of a couple experiments in making copper and nickel Mokume Gane. Made from coins in my forge, I was using my 13lb sledge to get em stuck together. I know I still have a long way to go with this before I am getting the results I am looking for. I also have a pretty good collection of failures from this run of experimentation. 

And a double bonus, because you made it this far in the thread. The real motivating factor in today's adventure.

I decided that I need to make myself quite proficient at forge welding, before taking on a couple of really special projects.  

Two days ago I was gifted a very special bloom of authentic Tamahagane. Roughly 3lbs. At that moment, I realized that I have a lot to learn before I accept that challenge. 

Any way I hope you guys are well.

 

[M3F]

Wow awesome stuff. Glad to see all of your progress!

[Frosty]

By putting a baffle on the burner are you referring to the box like choke on the T? If so you need to tune it, tuned correctly it'll run that air fuel ratio in an almost flat induction curve from about 5psi till it's blowing the flame off the burner. 

Get with me and I'll talk you through getting it tuned so your forge is incandescent yellow and you won't need a laser temp gage to know when it's ready to weld.

Frosty The Lucky. 

[M.G.]

Awesome! Thanks Frosty. Will do. Although, I may try running it without the choke. And see how it does, I can't say I've attempted to run it like this before. So I'll run it unrestricted and let you know how it goes.

 

Also thanks, M3F I hope to have more progress to share in the coming weeks and months. Now that the weather is keeping me out of the forest as much I'll be spending more of my free time in the workshop again.

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

The one thing I didn't see mentioned in the welding dissertation, is I wire brushed it clean before each heat and flux session. Clean of scale etc. goes a long way to a successful weld. Yours is definitely welded (good job) but it would have been easier by the brush cleaning.

I can't control the wind, all I can do is adjust my sail’s.
Semper Paratus

 

[M.G.]

Thanks Irondragon, great point. I overlooked that in the first few heats of this attempt, the one that failed. But at that time I took a moment to think about what I was doing, and started cleaning scale and excess flux off that second round. I neglected to mention that in the write up. Good catch. 

I made a few adjustments toy process on the re weld, I'm looking forward to firing it up again and getting another few goes at it.

 

[Frosty]

When you fire it up get a couple pics of the flame inside the forge, one when you first light it and another when it's up to heat. So you know I want to see what the flame looks like coming out of the burner port in the liner.

Frosty The Lucky. 

[M.G.]

Got it, Frosty. I'll get those, maybe on Wednesday. I promised my wife that we could go in to the city and do a run around of things tomorrow. 

Catch ya later.