[TheForge] Re: reducing fuel costs by improving forge efficiency.

[Harland Johnson]

Terry, 

Last fall, I was looking at the old BBQ Grill with it's twenty pound propane 
bottle and thinking that would be a great portable / wheeled stand for my 
Whisper Momma forge. The more I looked at it, I wondered about making a clam 
shell forge using steel plate to replace the aluminum BBQ- shell.  It is 
still on my "to do" list.  Sounds like you have already done it. 

Dann 

terry l. ridder writes: 

> hello; 
> 
> if you look at ron reil's original 4 burner propane forge my forge is
> nearly identical. i have two inches of kaowool lining with several coats
> of itc-100 on the inner most layer. the only item in the forge not
> coated with itc-100 is the kiln shelf at the bottom. the moveable back
> wall is made of kaowool board and coated with itc-100. 
> 
> not one to burn my bridges, i will experiement with building a new forge
> with the design goal of pre-heating the combustion air. it may even be a
> clamshell design so that i am able to work on more intricate pieces.  
> 
> i have more than enough kaowool and itc-100 to experiement with.
> the new forge will have sidearm burners instead of the original reil
> burner design.  
> 
> design drawings and a few pictures of the current forge may be found
> here:: 
> 
> http://strauss.blauedonau.com/forge/ 
> 
> On Fri, 23 Jul 2004, Peter Fels And Phoebe Palmer wrote: 
> 
> peter> Terry:
> peter> The Sandia forge design does that and it goes a long way on a tank of 
> peter> gas. Good insulation and an IR reflector spray help a lot too.
> peter>  
> 
> terry l. ridder wrote:
> terrylr> 
> terrylr> hello;
> terrylr> 
> terrylr> while i have not giving up on the idea of using coal instead of propane
> terrylr> further research points to improving the forge and perhaps the crucible
> terrylr> furnances efficiency in order to reduce propane cost.
> terrylr>
> terrylr> most methods to improve forge efficiency have been discussed before on
> terrylr> theforge in the past.
> terrylr>
> terrylr> in looking at kiln designs and charcoal retort designs the most common
> terrylr> method is to preheat the combustion air. 
> terrylr>
> terrylr> so for the near term i will experiement with pre-heating the combustion
> terrylr> air used by the forge.
> terrylr> 
> 
> -- 
> terry l. ridder ><>
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Dann Johnson