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Hello,
What brand of weed torch? It should work ok, but you might need a regulator to fine tune the torch.

Thanks
Richard

Short answer, yep it'l work.

Medium answer, you can do better for some more time investment. It'll have a big flame and will heat small stock but the dragon's breath may be huge necessitating extra long tongs for small work. And very inefficient.

Long answer, its been done for preheating large masses like an anvil before welding. If you have the equipment, then Larry Zoeller has the plans to build a sidearm burner that is very functional. He also sell components and full assemblies. Everything necessary to put together a nifty little or large honkin' forge. Google for sidearm burner and you should find him. Also on the ABANA site you can find the original build your own gasser by Ron Reil. His pages are full of good to great information on 'rollin yer own'.

Pick your poison. Be safe and have a ball.

Well, I know someone with a weed burner. He says it sucks up so much propane that a 5 gallon tank freezes up in seconds, so you may need a rather large tank.

Weedburners often provide a very oxidizing atmosphere and so will create a lot more scale (and decarb if working knife steels) You will notice that even the home built burners generally come with some method of control the ammount of air that gets sucked in to the burner.

But yea it will work.

Thomas

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Yeah, and that is the feeling of wisdom growing inside you. My first gasser was little better than a weed burner in nature. The forge was built by jwolfe and he explained how to put the burner together and it worked! It used 20 lbs of propane in 4 hours but didn't get hot enough to weld, but by golly I was in bidness!! If I had been on my own, it would have never happened, for I was intimidated by the propane. After having success tho and the confidence that it brought, I wanted more and better.

So pick the point that you CAN and WILL. A weed burner in a pile of bricks may be just the ticket. Only after you have motion can you change direction.

I have a Harbor Freight weed burner (yeah yeah) and it actually has a good needle valve on it for controlling the idle pressure, which is adjustable up to the max output of the burner. Also, it actually seems to burn a little rich, as I recall. But if you notice a lot of scaling you can use some sheet metal to cover up the intake holes a little. I think this is definitely worth a shot if you just wanna get things off the ground!

I am currently using a Ron Reil type burner with the mig tip and a pile of fire bricks. It works good enough for now. I have a second burner that I add for larger stuff, thats whats nice about the brick pile you can adjust the size easily. I would take the time to make the burner.

JWB

I am currently using a Ron Reil type burner with the mig tip and a pile of fire bricks. It works good enough for now. I have a second burner that I add for larger stuff, thats whats nice about the brick pile you can adjust the size easily. I would take the time to make the burner.

JWB

I have a few of those Reil type burners as well. Mine were made by a fellow out of Smithville, GA. When I was up in boat school, I took an extra smithing course for its attraction. I spent the first day modifying a blown gas forge to use my burner. WOW! After the smoke had cleared so to speak, I could go for three weekends on the same amount of gas that the others were using in one day and didn't have nearly as much scale to deal with due to the regulating capacity of these burners. Atmospheric burners rock! :lol:

That's funny I have never seen an aspirated burner that you could tune as rich as a blown burner---I can choke it down to zero air--actually turn off the blower and still run the forge.

Thomas

Thomas, drop by our Punahou glass shop someday. I keep telling ya, you gotta see one of these Ransome burners in action! Properly built Reil burners are almost as good and a heck of a lot cheaper, but most folks don't seem to know how to choke them effectively. I should do a BP on that... as an addendum to my burner design I guess.