[TheForge] Gun Burners (AKA fan blown)

[Jerry Frost]

Oh yes, ITC-100 makes a lot of difference. I wouldn't 
do too much tweaking till I got a real regulator and 
gage so I knew what I was putting into it. They'll 
really help reproduce a particular temp as well without 
having to wait for the result to see if you made the 
right psi adjustment.

Selling your stuff is good on so many levels, congrats. 
It's been a few years since I was through Enumclaw. Deb 
and I were taking a round about route on our way to 
visit my folks in Wenatchee. I still like 2 best season 
permitting. <grin>

I think from your description of how the paper burned 
it was burning lean but it's really hard to tell 
without seeing it myself. I've been fooled plenty of 
times even then. <grin>

What don't you understand about downward pointing 
burners?

I don't have an idle circuit on mine, I just turn it 
off between heats if I'm going to be away long enough 
to make it worth it. There's plenty of heat left in the 
forge to relight it when I turn it back on.

It doesn't matter what specific colors you see, if you 
do it for a while you'll recognize the temps from 
whatever you do see. Listen to the sound, feel the 
reaction in your hammer hand and through the tongs or 
bar. Keep at it and your brain will put it all together 
for you. I don't know about you but it works best for 
me if I don't put too much concious thought into trying 
to remember these things. It seems my subconscious is 
better at it.

What constitutes welding temp depends on a number of 
variables. The cleaner the steel the easier and lower 
temp it'll weld. A good reducing forge atmosphere 
really helps too. Also different fluxes will effect it. 
I watched a couple farriers in a funnsies speed contest 
making really nice solid welds in the low orange some 
years back. They were using a commercial flux, maybe 
Sureweld but I don't recall for sure. It sure changed 
my outlook on welding. <grin>

I have really good luck with a mix of 4pts Borax and 
1pt Boric acid.

Have fun this weekend.

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

Meadow Lakes, AK.

http://www.artmetalradio.com/


From: "Ben Barrett" <stircrazyben at gmail.com>


> The 500 cu in. is a half-round... I think the 
> multiple coats of ITC100
> plus a few thinner layers of the topcoat definately 
> help it get
> hotter.  I am maxed out on the bbq regulator, and 
> just finished off my
> first 10gal propane tank... so I am feeling more 
> motivated to tweak
> the burner setup now :)
> Also, I'll be meeting some great folks up in 
> Enumclaw, WA, this
> weekend, and managed to sell a few small wall hooks 
> at my local craft
> market last weekend, so this is all going dandy, 
> really.
>
> Thanks for the confirmation on the oxidizing nature 
> of my
> arrangement... I have been getting a lot more scale 
> lately, with the
> far end open a crack... if it is open too much, it 
> cools down.  I will
> be curious to remount the burner, pointing up and 
> diagonally along the
> roof, to try to increase circulation.  I'm not really 
> clear about the
> downward-pointing burner setups, but I'm grokking the 
> tangential.  ;)
> I can't keep up, forging, with the amount of heat it 
> produces, so I'm
> hoping to put an nice 
> ball-and-needle-valve-in-parallel throttle or
> idle circuit in place here too; I am not working on 
> it all day but
> maybe 2-4 hours at a time.
>
> As for the color/heat, my rods and cones are funky 
> like many guys',
> but I'm pretty sure it is getting into bright yellow. 
> It doesn't seem
> like forge-welding temps (am a bit familiar with coke 
> forge welding),
> but two pieces' scale did stick together pretty well. 
> Anywhoo, that
> seemed like the oxidation/scale growing together, not 
> a weld.
>
> Thanks Jerry, hope you're hangin in there!
>
> ben
>
>