[TheForge] propane forge

[Jay Hayes]

The fact that you say the body of your forge gets very hot quickly indicates
that you don't have enough refractory insulation to hold the heat in the forge.
I know the plans you used called for only one inch of ceramic fiber and some say
that is enough, but you will see a BIG improvement by adding more insulation.
Two inches should be the minimum and three inches is even better. The cost of
the additional ceramic fiber is negligible compared to the cost of the extra LP
gas that will be saved over the life of the forge. The forge will also reach
higher temperatures and heat up faster. Coating the inside of the forge with
ITC-100 will also further improve the fuel efficiency and performance.

Jay Hayes

jacques gallant wrote:

> I built a propane forge according to the plans by Hans Peot
> (http://www.abana.org/downloads/education/pipeforge.pdf) and i am having
> some trouble getting it up to heat.  Well the "flame holder" gets up to a
> very pretty orange (not quite yellow, but above cherry red) and the whole
> body gets almost too hot to touch in a few minutes, but it doesn't seem to
> do much to heat metal-not like my coal forge.
>
> The pressure for my propane is being controlled by an acetylene regulator,
> and the blower provides at least 150 cfm, but I can't seem to get the whole
> inside of the forge to fill with that pretty orange flame that i've seen in
> other people's forges.  I must confess, i made one slight modification to
> the design, i used 12 inch pipe instead of 10 inch pipe for the body of the
> forge because I wanted something slightly more all purpose than a small
> bladesmith's forge.
>
> If anyone has any ideas on the matter, i'd appreciate them, i've been having
> a hard time finding anyone who knows anything about propane.
>
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