New forge

[yblood187]

Hey everybody,

I'm in the process of making a forge, and I'm still trying to finalize my plans. I was thinking of a vertical round tube design split down the middle with some sheet welded in on each side to extend the circle into an oval shape, with the forced draft burner entering tangentially at the bottom. 10", or 12" pipe, and about 5" of sheet to extend both sides. 4x4 opening at the top front and back, with a door at the back. Bolt on or hinged lid for cleaning. Some sort of ceramic fiber blanket type liner, with refractory cement of some kind over it. What about Satanite AND ITC-100?? Anyone used such a combo in the past? I've heard that the ITC-100 will make your forge run more effeciently. I do hope to get welding temps out of this set-up, or whatever I finally decide on.

I'm willing to spend some $$ to get this right and to have more forge than I need at this time just to have the capacity there for me in the future, and to be able to expand into it when I'm at that point.

Also, has anyone ever heard of "Unifrax Durablanket-S"? 1", 8# ceramic fiber. Good? Bad? Otherwise? It seems like I can get a roll of that cheeper than the "Inswool" of the same dimension.

Any help will be much appreciated.
Randall

[yblood187]

Hey, anybody home??

I was trying to get any thoughts, good or bad about forge plans. Should I have maybe posted in another section of the forum? Bear with me, I'm still learning the rules here.

SOMEBODY HELP ME PLEASE!! Does it sound like I'm on the right track?


Randall

[Terry_Dodson]

I dont know a whole lot about forges, but i know someone who does
http://refractory.elliscustomknifeworks.com/
You may want to email Darren Ellis and see what he has to say.

[yblood187]

Thanks Terry,

Actually I thought about getting the majority of my stuff from Darren. I was wondering more about the overall design of the forge... Good or bad... This is very similar to one he sells, only mine is oval shaped as opposed to round.

Thanks again,
Randall

[DiamondG Knives]

Randall

I made one similar to what you mention.

Before I knew better. I thought bigger was better. Interior of the forge was 24"deep, 16"wide, and 20"door to door.

Worked ok, but took FOREVER TO HEAT UP!!

I have now made the interior smaller, and it works great!

I used the blanket that Darren sells, as well as a satinite cover (2 times) and a triple topcoat of ITC100. This is a HOT forge, holds a very even welding heat, and can melt rebar at full throttle!

just be careful when you are working in it, it is easy to drop the piece you are working on to the bottom of the forge!

God Bless
Mike

[cricket]

Darren is good.... Don Fogg has plans and instructions on his web site, you might want to give it a look and see if that can answer any of your questions. I wish I knew more about construction of forges myself, I might need to check out the web site myself!

[yblood187]

I do appreciate the help guy's. I've got my buddy burning rods on it right now... lol I'm an operator offshore and have friends in the welding and fab business, so the parts and the labor are really no problem for me. BEER!!! Better than coin of the realm.

The basic DESIGN had me kind of worried though, so I decided to go with a straight piece of 12" pipe still in the vertical configuration, but no extended sides. I can always up-grade in the future. This is going to be plenty of forge for me to start off with I think. I'm anxious to get it and get to work.

How does one go about figuring out how much refractory mortar to use with a particular design? I am going to use satanite and ITC-100 both. Does it take a lot of either? And maybe some fire bricks for the bottom. Does this stuff come with instructions?? I might get with Darren and get him to line me out on all the stuff I'll be needing to finish this thing up.

Thanks again to all ya'll that helped me out. Take it easy...
Randall

[cricket]

Lining the bottom of your forge with fire brick is an exellent idea. One of the biggest problems with forges is flux eating the lining out, brick bottoms can save you lots of rebuild time if you plan to make a lot of damascus in this forge...Good luck remember:...hit it while it's HOT..