[TheForge] Coal, propane, or charcoal?

[Jeffrey Polaski]

I live in a residential area, and use a propane forge. I've been quite
happy with it. There is very little scale and propane is easy to get and
not very expensive to run, provided you put a little work into making
your forge efficient. 

Making the burners is no big deal, either. There is plenty of
information on the web about Reil-style burners. They work well. They
only thing I change from a stock burner is that I use a blower. I find
that using a blower lets me get the forge hot faster as I can turn up
the propane more than I could without a blower.

One other option is you could try using coke instead of charcoal. It
gives off much less smoke and smell. A bag of coke is about the same
price as a bag of coal. It's harder to light, and a bit harder to keep
going, but it would save you the cost of setting up a propane forge. See
if you can find a few bags around and try it out, If it doesn't work,
then switch to propane. 



 
Jeff Polaski

> -----Original Message-----
> From: theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net [mailto:theforge-
> bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Brian Reedy
> Sent: Thursday, September 11, 2008 8:17 AM
> To: The Forge
> Subject: [TheForge] Coal, propane, or charcoal?
> 
> What fuel do you prefer to use; coal, propane, or charcoal?  Something
> else?!?  Why?  What do you use most often?
> 
> I'm in a residential area and I'm not so sure I can get by with using
coal
> for too much longer (at least that's what the kind police officer
> suggested) and charcoal is like forging with a Zippo in a homemade
rivet-
> style forge.  I'm looking at building a propane forge but venturi
burners
> are rather intimidating and I'm worried about fuel usage and cost.  I
only
> get to fire up the forge 1-2 times a month if I'm lucky but if I
switch to
> propane I'd be out there 3-4 times a week.  Any one else in a similar
> predicament?  Thanks.
> 
> 
> Brian Reedy
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