Ed, forge plans questions?

[John Frankl]

Hello Ed,

I am in the process of building a forge per your plans. I have a question or two about the propane connection.

I understand the 1/4" pipe, but no one around here seems to have a needle valve that will attach directly to it and to a propane hose. What size valve should I be looking for and where would you suggest looking?

Also, what size hole should I be drilling and tapping to accept the 1/4" pipe into the 1.5" pipe?

Sorry to bother you,

John

[Ed Caffrey]

Hi John!

The propane needle valve should screw right to the 1/4" nipple.........both should be standard pipe threads. Unless there is something strange in CA with their propane fixtures. All I've ever done is go into the local propane outfit and ask them for a needle valve that will fit a 1/4" pipe nipple. On the other end I simply re-threaded the pipe nipple to match whatever size thread I made the hole in the 1.5" pipe. If you don't have a tap and die set, you might either want to purchase one, or go to a machine shop and ask them to do it for you............ Let me know if you have any more questions/problems.

keep us informed!

[BrianT]

John

I got my stuff from the Cajun Shoppe www.cajunshoppe.com. when I built my forge. The needle valve is male thread on one end and female on the other.

NVAL4 Needle valve $6.95
HPADJ High pressure adjustable regulator $22.95

Hope this helps

Brian

[John Frankl]

Thanks to both of you. I did make a bit of progress today. They can order the valves around here, seems they only have female-female in stock (no CA jokes please).

I ordered the tap for a 1/4" pipe today. Will pick up tomorrow.

One more question: if I want to run a couple of different things (forge(s), burners for low temp salts, etc.) off of one regulator, what is my best bet for a standard fitting? Will making all my connections to the various burners 1/4" male allow me to simply switch the hose? Or will I have problems with leakage, time, etc.?

Thanks,

John

[whv]

maybe a manifold attached to the reg output? drill/tap as many holes as you need with a ball valve shutoff on the exit line to each unit before the needle valve. i don't have experience with propane burners, but it works for air supplies.

[BrianT]

John

If you are going to do a lot of switching around, you will probably want to use quick disconnect fittings. These are similar to the fittings used on air tools. Just be sure you get ones for gas and rated for the pressure you are going to be using.

Brian

[John Frankl]

Thanks Brian. I was thinking about these but was a bit nervous about leakage. Any experience with these?

John

[BrianT]

John



I havn't used them myself, but a friend of mine uses them on his camper and portable gas grill. He switches them back and forth using the same tank and doesn't have any problems. He is using a standard regulator though (about 11 psi I think). Just make sure that you have ones rated for the pressures you intend to use.

Brian