[TheForge] gas forge design

Sun Apr 20 13:17:00 2003

Hi Sheldon:

The shape of the forge is less important than the volume to burner ratio,
with one cateat: that there are no crannies the flame can't reach and make
cold spots.

There are a number of forge shapes and when you get down to the nitty gritty
they all work fine.

In high school we had a very hot square box, oil fired four burner forge. It
had two burners on each side of the door, two high and two low, making a
horizontal vortex. If you needed a general heat you propped the stock off
the forge floor in the center of the vortex. If you needed a more localized
heat you placed that part directly i the burner's path on the forge floor.
You didn't have as much control of the heat as with a coal forge of course
but it was pretty flexible.

Most commercial gas forges are rectangular with the burners aimed straight
down and they work fine.

Folk place the burners in cylindrical forges in several different
configurations. The two basics are: One, Directly opposing and two,
tangential.

The directly opposing configuration usually has the burners mounted at or
near the top, aiming straight at the opposite side of the forge.

Tangential mounted burners can be found mounted all over the place. They're
usually high, aimed at the far top side of the forge but some are on top
aimed down one side and some are mounted on the bottom aimed across the
forge floor.

All in all, I don't believe the shape of the forge makes much difference as
long as there are no flame shadows and there is enough burner for the
volume.

Regardless I'm still experimenting. <grin>

Having enough exhaust porting does make a real difference with naturally
aspirated burners and with cylindrical forges it's common to block off the
ends with fire brick, leaving enough gaps so the burner burns freely.

Frosty
------------------------
If it ain't forged
it ain't real.
Wrought iron is.
The FrostWorks

Meadow Lakes, AK.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Sheldon Laing" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, April 20, 2003 5:17 AM
Subject: [TheForge] gas forge design

> I have been working with a coal forge for a while now and I have been
> considering building a gas forge since last year and I have finally
> decided to do it. I am well acquainted with Ron Reil's excellent site
> and I have chosen to use a side arm burner type. I still however have a
> few questions regarding the forge shape and design.
>
> 1. Will the forge perform a lot better if it is a cylinder? I want to
> use a semicircular forge (cut in half cylinder) with a flat base on
> which to rest the steel, will this make it less powerful (i.e. will it
> not refract the heat to a lesser extent than a cylinder? If so, will it
> be a big enough difference that I should change to a cylinder.)
>
> 2. What sort of exhaust area should I leave? Should I leave the one side
> of the "cylinder" open or would it be okay to close it up (NOT airtight
> of course).
>
> 3. If you have any tips or other advice gained from building your own
> gas forges please let me know.
>
> Thanx in advance for the help.
>
> Sheldon Laing
> Hephaestus Forge
> Cape Town
> South Africa
> [email protected]
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/theforge
> theforge mail list group photo site is
> http://www.photoaccess.com
> Login:  [email protected]
> password:  anvil
> ___________
>
>
>