My new forge Ed Caffrey's design

[Mike Turner]

Just thought I would share this. I have just finished my new forge, it is built from Ed Caffrey's plans. It is 12" x 16" It has an inner diameter of 6". The burner is 1 1/2" with a 134 cfm blower that I robbed from my coal forge. The liner is AP Greens Mizzou 3000 degree castable refractory. The first picture with the forge running is just one turn on the needle valve and the blower wide open the last pic I turned the needle valve about another turn. This forge is awesome I can't wait to forge some steel in it. I have lit it off 3 times now curing it I am hoping I will get to forge with it this weekend. I will add some pics when I have a chance to do some forging with it. Thanks for looking.

I just want to thank Ed for his help and the plans where easy to follow and Ed answered any questions I had.


Mike

[plain ol Bill]

Nice job Mike - I have a surprise forge for Mr. Ed when he visits my place in a couple of weeks .

[Mike Turner]

Thanks Plain Ol'Bill I can't wait to burn some steel later today in it

Mike

[B.Finnigan]

Looks good Mike! You will be welding in no time and you will have fewer heat pits with that vortex flame.

[Mike Turner]

Hi Brent,

Nice to hear from you. I did play a little yesterday when I was doing my last curing burn. I started out reducing some 1/4" 5160 to 1/8" and I had a piece of 1" cable all ready on a rod so I tossed it in, first heat twisted it tight the second heat welded the whole 6" piece the third heat cut and folded and welded again. If I knew how good a propane forge could be I would have gave up on my coal forge years ago, well maybe not I do like the smell of the coal burning.

The biggest difference I have seen so far is I have almost no slag compared to my other forge. I can not believe how fast the steel heats up. I have a billet I am going to weld tomorrow I will post pics when I get it finished.

Mike

[B.Finnigan]

Glad it's working good for you. I wish I did not waste the first six months of learning to forge with a venturi. It was a learning expereince but I would be farther ahead now.

[sdcb27]

Whats the problem with a venturi? i forge and forge weld BIG billets with a venturi at low PSI all the time.

[plain ol Bill]

What are you using for your venturi burner Romey? I know it can be done, but few venturi type actually get hot enough to weld in my experience. Get out of the saddle long enough to take a pic of it and post it.
My primary reason to use blown burners is the easy heat plus they are signifigantly quieter than any venturi type I have been around.

[B.Finnigan]

I monkeyed around with five different designs and who knows how many variations of each type of venturi and never got good results. I know there are a few out there that have modified and tuned them to work good enough to weld but I just decided to cut my loses. With the blown forge I can just turn on the gas and start forging and the only adjustment I need is if want to crank up the heat. It doesn't care what the temp, humidity or barometric pressure is, it just works every time.

With the venturi's that I used I could never get a good vortex either and always had hotspots that pitted the steel. I would also be interested in seeing your design, maybe I can find out what I was doing wrong all along.

[sdcb27]

I make and sell adjustable venturi burners that can run very low ALL this depends on forge design and especially the refractory, Satinite, im sorry aint it and wont do. As for the vortex, that is created with the tangent that the burner is coming in at NOT the kind of burner.
Also i beleive most ppl have no idea that there is certain amount of cubic inches per x amount of BTU and folks will stick a single burner in a forge body the size that should require 2 burners. But lets talk single burner forges.

Part of my issue with blown has been the noise, all i have been around have been horrible loud and venturi you can stand next to the forge and not have to raise your voice much to speak but mainly has been lack of controlable atmosphere. Least ones i seen and i seen plenty,scaled to no end, partly do to lack of proper vortex and atmosphere regaurdless, money out of my pocket via steel and fuel. Im not boosting one style over the other just that most dont understand the science behind a well built forge, dont research any father then whats already out there, i have and these are MY results and whatever works for you works.
First Photo is a forge i redesigned for president of Dakota Blacksmiths Artists assoc. he has old first gen reil style everyone knocks, it was aimed straight down from top barely gettting the forge to forging heat and scaled like mad do to all the cool air left inside. i shot it to the side and a particular angle, put the refractory i prefer in and in the photo im forging a fairly large billet, needless to say the owner went on for 2 weeks about it and still does.It opened up his use of this forge to do things he only hoped to do. Welding heat at 7 psi, vortex in full roll, not a small forge either but still within the limits of C.I. per BTU for a single burner
The next is the Burner i make, prefer and sell, its a bit hotter, more importantly fully adjustable for air and PSI and i have welded huge billets with this single burner, along with heattreating, a little over 3 minutes to get to forge temp and maybe another 5 to get to welding heat. These arent easy to make for the average guy as a lathe is needed, alot of thought and a lil forging even but they are worth it to me, and for sure somthing you could make Bill, WHY? Cause Plain ole Bill has skills , been along time since we chatted ya need to come to the room sometime bud. Anyway here ya go

[Mike Turner]

Hey Romey,

Thanks for sharing I know the venturi burners I have used are just plain crap. My last forge was a dual burner and it would not get to a welding heat, pitted the steel bad and the scale was ridiculous and it is so load 30' from it I still can't carry on a conversation. It also is very temperamental with the weather if it is cold and humid I can't hardly get it to forging temp.This is my first blown forge and it is way quieter than the old forge and it works great even when it is humid and cold out.

I am curious you have not said what refractory you prefer? and why? I am curious about your burner as well, what are you selling them for? I still have to use my venturi forge and would like to redesign it with new burner. I make my living with it and it sucks!

Mike

[sdcb27]

I use a castible called Kao tuff C, its rated at 2800F and make for abrasion resistance. Its alot tougher then ITC-100 some cheaper and have a higher refractability rating but exstremely hard to get. There are some others with even higher refractability ratings make for chemical resistance wich id like like to try but pretty spendy so i havent tried any of the those for that reason. I have used and compared roughly 10 or so refractories in forges and still come back to Kaot Tuff C even tho its tougher to get. As for prices anyone can email me as this wasnt about me "selling" them just sharing some of the knowledge i have studied. Being vice pres of a good size chapter of ABANA has allowed me alot of variety of forges/ burners and other equipment to study and learn improve on.
Was telling the owner of that forge picture i showed you about this post and he said " Before you joined we all had a hard time with those first generation venturis, now that you been around we are making Damascus in them" i couldnt have asked for a better compliment.
My email is sdcb27@yahoo.com

[IronMonkey]

I too have a venturi burner set up. After I tweaked the lining a bit it is working great. I got my Kaowool from a friend. It is the kind that is wet and when you fire up the forge it takes a set. I had to clean up the holes where the burners were coming in and use satanite to kind of smooth everything out. I blocked off the back side of the forge and wow. I had to turn down the gas, it got up to temp really quick and got the knife I heat treated to critical really fast. Wasn't that loud at all. My burners are from Bob warners tutorial. Well casing about 16 inches long 12 inches wide, 2 inches of lining all the way around with an extra 2 inches in the bottom(sacrificial floor in case I ever try to do damascus). Just got a 100# tank for my birthday too. No freezing up for me! I was so stoked about the forger performance I was getting an adrenaline rush. Way too much fun. Only bad thing is that I singed my eyebrows again and didn't even know it. (Dragon's Breath ) I think that I am going to have to do like Brent wants to do and put a small blower pointing up in front of the forge to make an air wall. Make sense to me. Daniel Frazee

[B.Finnigan]

It is always cool to get those hogs up and running..... running well that is. Brings some pics when you come over this weekend.