New welding forge

[Sweany]

welding forge

Here'sa couple shots of my new welding forge.


15" car wheel, water heater and a copied T-rex burner (1-1/4" tube .045 tweco tip.)

the dome is lined with 2" of kwool and wheel is lined with kwool covered in alumia-slicate*

I think I've been building my forges too small. This larger one seems more stable than the small one. I watched John Martin use his 18"by24" or so pipe, vertical forge. He uses a hair dryer for the blower. It had such a nice even heat I changed my plans for this one mid stream.

PLUS the work is above the flame path of the burner, that seems to help.

By adjusting the needle valve and the air choke. I'm getting a nice low 4 or 5"yellow flame out the front door. The back door can be closed with the slideing firebrick

I used Blu-ram for the nozzle flare and I used it just below the front door to protect against flux damage to the kwool.

I'm pretty happy with the whole setup, it runs quiet , it runs stable and there isn't a lot of fabrication involved.




*withstands molten aluminum. I'm still testing it's use against flux

[Jeff Higgins]

Pretty cool, Mike. Tell me, what's the inside dimensions after the kaowool and coatings? What's the final size? Do you find it takes longer to attain welding heat?

[Lawrence Kemp]

Looks good Mike! That sliding brick will sure save some heat!

[Sweany]

ID diameter is about 11", I guess I haven't measured it yet. I'll try to do that tonite.

I get welding heat in about 5-10 min.

[hammerdownnow]

Wow! Nice. What a slideshow ride. Love the Searles bowie and the dogbne bowie and the ring dagger and the lizard door hinge...and...and....and....

[Sweany]

those aren't all mine.

[SteveS]

Sweany,

That's cool, but I wish I didn't see it. It's feeding my itch to make a vertical forge!!!!


Steve

[Sweany]

Come over to the vertical side of the FORGE.
buhwahahahahahahaha :evil

[Jeff Higgins]

ELEVEN INCHES I.D.!! Thats big! I'll bet you can put a mighty chunk of billet in there. Is it pretty loud?

[Sweany]

very quiet makes less noise than a toaster, well not quite that quiet but that is everybodies intial impression.

Very little gas'ss comeing out of the forge is the reason I think.

Ron Reil mentions the gas going into a forge expand 7 times the amount of the gas entering.

So my theory is a bigger area holds more gas's, holds more btu's and is quiet.

[Sweany]

KGA Newsletter

third photo down behind the test is the forge that inspired mine. It's got somebodies lunch sitting on top.

Just a big can with a door cut into it. lined with kwool and some 2" pipeing. Mom's old hair dryer for a blower. So simple I just had to complicate it.

Pro's and con's of the blown/venturi forge led me to go with the venturi. Mostly cause I like the non electric version.

But John's forge runs smoooooth too.

Build em bigger than an 8" pipe I think you'll like it.