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Gas bottle forge


markyboy07
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9 hours ago, Old farrier said:

Coming on quiet well 

do you have any way of adjusting the air intakes?

The air intake will be adjusted by winding the aluminium washers up and down, will hopefully be more obvious when fully assembled

10 hours ago, Big Mat said:

You'd have gotten on better welding if you'd ground that galv off the scaffold pipe! Or flicked the od in the lathe to get rid of it 

Yes your right, I had my head down and *** up and wasn't thinking, they say it's all in the prep.

 

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Well I managed to a little bit more today but not as much as I would have liked, my friend was taking a customer clay shooting at churchills wycombe. Unfortunately the guy cancelled last minute and I was able to take his place free of charge??. Also shot the best I'd shot in ages!!

 I started by threading a length of 1/2 " steel pipe which I placed in the air adjustment bracket and through into the reducer to help with alignment before welding up.Again apologies for the poor welding (it is getting slightly better)

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next I drilled and tapped an end cap and then fitted a mig tip to act as the gas nozzle.

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I then assembled everything together to check the alignment.

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in the next two photos you can see the aluminium air flow adjuster wound half way and fully closed.

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I still need to epoxy the aluminium washers to the steel inserts, I'm in two minds weather to just make them out of steel and weld them up for ease. May pop in tomorrow if the rain persists and get them finished. ( kinda hope it rains lol) 

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  • 5 months later...

Been a while I know, I've started staying late at work on Mondays to get ahead with this project. Have made a bit of progress. Started by cutting the end off of the tank, this is to make it easier to fit the ceramic wool. I then cut some holes for the burners and then cut some tube to make a way of securing the burners to the forge body.IMG-2527.jpgIMG-2528.jpgIMG-2529.jpgIMG-2530.jpgIMG-2532.jpgIMG-2533.jpg

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Edited by markyboy07
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Then it was time to fit the ceramic wool, the fibres are nasty so overalls, dust mask and gloves were donned. I removed the front which was just tacked on, cut the ends first and then the main body. I mixed some food colouring with the rigidizer so I could make sure of even coverage.  I only had pink which I had used for making some fishing bait not very manly but hey ho. For some reason the spray nozzle clogged up after a few squirts which was annoying so I had to go with a paint brush. The finish looks uneven I don't know why as it all felt wet when I had finished? I will give it a second coat after this has cured in the airing cupboard for a few days. I then sharpened up a hacksaw blade to cut out the door opening and the burners before finally tacking the door back on.

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next is another coat of rigidizer and then slowly building up layers of refractory and allowing to dry slowly before firing and fully curing it.

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  • 2 months later...

Have been getting a bit more done on the forge recently just haven't got round to uploading the progress, have now uploaded the photos and will get the write up posted tomorrow.For now i just wanted to have a go at posting a video, it's of the first test of the burners.It appears that they are burning slightly differently, not  sure what the cause of this is yet but will have a play about and try and balance them out a bit.

 

Edited by markyboy07
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Once the rigidizer had set i mixed up the castable refractory into a slurry, this was quite coarse so i sieved out the larger grains first as it was to be applied with a brush.

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i had to build up several layers, leaving it to dry for a few days between each coat, each coat was only a few mm thick.

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i welded a retaining plate onto the front so that i could level off the bottom with some more Kaowool and some of the coarser refractory. i then topped this off with a some kiln shelf, this is a heat resistant ceramic fibre board which is hard wearing and will prevent the bottom of the forge from becoming damaged.

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Next was to make a bracket to support the burners, it was basic but functional i used some metal pipe clips and welded them onto a flat bar and fitted these just below the top reducers and then welded in some side supports...........and yes the welding is still awful!!IMG-2637.jpgIMG-2641.jpg

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Next i needed to make a stand which i wanted to be detachable and not take up to much room when stored, so i welded some 3/4 inch fittings to the side of the forge. i spot welded them on straight and then tapped them to the right angle before welding them up properly. i had to improvise some of the necessary tooling.

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who needs a vernier height gauge eh??

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i didn't get any photos of assembling the legs but they are just four lengths of 1/2" LCS pipe, drilled through and bolted together with a couple of 8mm bolts. they still need some modifying to make them more rigid probably just a couple of cross supports welded on.

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just need to weld the front on now and some other minor bits and bobs as well as paint the outside, i also ordered some fancy and very expensive IR reflective coating ( ITC 100 HT) for the inside which makes it more efficient to run allegedly? the amount it cost i should see a return in about twenty years or so.

Hopefully get some pictures of my first knife up soon.....mind you it has taken me nine months just to build the forge lol????

here's a quick video of it running you have to build the burn time up slowly to fully cure the refractory, i did a quick 30 sec burn on a low setting and then allowed to cool followed by a two minute slightly warmer run. this is the third burn slowly working up to full welly over a ten minute period. unfortunately a few cracks did appear despite my patients of at least three days between coats and sometimes a week. i will get these repaired this week.

 

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I think you have done a cracking job from start to finish. A good informative write up backed up with pics. Well done sir.  I have watched many videos of people working with gas forges, but always shudder when i see that rubber hose so close to those very hot flames. I have often thought about building a gas forge but think i will stick with my coke one. Leaving my preferences aside, you have done a great job, well done.

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17 hours ago, fatchap said:

Nice work! Don't leave it outside though the birds love that fire proof wool. excellent nesting material apparently. Between the robins. sparrows and blue tits they stripped my forge bare in a matter of days. Thieving little scroats.

Ha Ha no its all safely tucked up in the man shed now

 

18 hours ago, la bala said:

I think you have done a cracking job from start to finish. A good informative write up backed up with pics. Well done sir.  I have watched many videos of people working with gas forges, but always shudder when i see that rubber hose so close to those very hot flames. I have often thought about building a gas forge but think i will stick with my coke one. Leaving my preferences aside, you have done a great job, well done.

Thanks for the kind words, you're right i may have to do something about that hose, i did check to see if it was getting hot and it wasn't. but its better safe than sorry ill shroud it or route it better.

Edited by markyboy07
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Looks a nice job you've made of it.

Is there a reason for using a cut up gas bottle over making a steel box lined with refractory bricks ? 

Will you strip it back to bare metal and use heat proof paint or will the outside stay cool enough for standard coatings.

The old gas bottles make great BBQ's too

Edited by figgy
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Thanks Figgy, both ways you mentioned have pros and cons, I did quite a lot of research but can't remember all the specifics. In a nut shell though a gas bottle was cheaper and easier than fabricating my own box and depending on quality, fire bricks can be quite expensive. There's also an issue with efficiency, it was suggested that the ceramic wool and refractory got hotter quicker. I think bricks are still good it's just that they absorb some of the heat so they take a little longer to get up to running temperature.

also the shape of the bottle made the application of refractory and wool a little easier because an arch will hold its own shape and weight, where as a flat ceiling would need some sort of support. But like I say both are good it's just personal preference I suppose.

 I do have some heat resistant paint so I need to sand it back and apply it at some point this week, the top next to the burners does get really hot, the rest is quite insulated though.

atb

markyboy

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I have looked at this with interest , having seen several similar videos on you tube I came to the conclusion that unless you have angle grinders , welding equipment and a lathe ,  that  simplest method for a small forge is to build one out of fire bricks using standard torch nozzles  and fittings to fire it up . 

I did this for hardening small parts and tool tips so see no reason that it could not be scaled up .

 

Edited by Gunman
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