[TheForge] Converting a propane tank to a gas forge

[Roger Degner]

Can not help with the valve as the only ones I have removed are 100# ones.
Some say to add dish soap to the water

As for the forge are you building a knife forge or larger opening for
general blacksmithing.
This year at Batsons Knife symposium I watched Ken Swartzer make a Don Fogg
style upright knife forge.

This only had two small openings to put the knife in and out the back if
necessary.  He said they once welded a long length of cable by putting the
forge next to the press.  Heat a piece to welding pull it out weld, heat the
next area and then slide it back and forth leaving it in the forge.

He poured castible refractory in the bottom but left a hole for flux and
gunk to drip out then lined the side walls with Kaowool.  He stuck a piece
of wool on the top and placed a lose piece of steel on top of that.  He said
that was the insurance so when you open the gas then light the forge and it
goes boom it only rains kaowoll and not steel shrapnel.

A couple of other things he preached is mount the blower outlet pipe so it
slides on and off the outer shell of the forge.  He welded a 1/2" round rod
bent into a 90 on the outer shell then had a collar that slipped on this to
hold the blower in place.  The advantage to this is you can have one blower
set up and 50 different sized forges.  Another thing he said was to have a
needle valve for gas adjustment.  According to him a ball valve is too gross
of adjustment.

UMBA does have a DVD of this but it is not listed on the web site yet.  I
keep saying as soon as I finish the next DVD I will send in the new list but
then I keep signing up for class.  I have a 3 day with Kirsten Sikes on
chasing and reposse.  Just finished a 3 day with her husband Bill Fiorini on
Japanese stamping tech.  The new list now goes to RD151 and Salt7

Roger R Degner


if you have the guard still intact around the valve, lay the bottle on its 
side (make sure it's as empty as it will get), and run a bar thru the guard 
to hold the bottle from rotating and using the l o n g e s t wrench you can 
find/rig, remove the valve.   None of the ones that I have removed were left

threaded.   That being said, I had one that would not  budge and it got 
thrown to the recycler.

CraigS
Gresham, OR