Help Design the perfect forge! Input needed...

Coming from someone who has never used a forge, I would have to say ease of use. not to many gadgets.
A thermocouple and temp read out would be nice.

If you need a rookie to test you can send one my way!!:3::biggrin:
 
Ellis offers a vertical forge.

I am in the process of building a couple of different gas forges, both vertical.

I have a casting furnace used to melt aluminum, copper, and brass, so my belief is that the vertical design wins on efficiency.
Should reach welding heat very quickly, and forge welding is much smoother not only because of improved efficiency but also the floor design does not seem to be as critical. Kitty litter, easily replaceable floor, or what have you, the floor in a vertical is simply not as critical as a horizontal.
A few people have even let the flux drain into a stainless pan underneath!

Most people do not like the idea of dropping work into the forge; one of the verticals I'm making will have a shelf much like the plynth on my casting furnace. Don't yet know how well it will work, but I'll certainly find out.

I can see where the "hot handle" can be a problem, but to me a small fan next to the door is not too much of an inconvenience.
 
I have an 8 inch Ellis vertical forge, forced air, with a blower from Blacksmith Depot. I added a pid to keep track of the temperature and it has worked well for several years. I lined the bottom of the forge with bubble alumina and so far has prevented the flux from eating away at the bottom of the forge. I am going to try and build a gas manifold with a high and low gas setting to be controlled by a solenoid as described in another forum I read. If it controls the temperature within a few degrees as I am told it will, I will be one happy forger. As long as the forge is insulated properly, I believe it should work great.

Only disadvantage to a vertical forge is dropping what you are working on inside the forge. If this works, I will put the same setup on a horizontal forge also.
 
I've put a piece of kiln shelf in the bottom of my forge - with thin cut pieces of shelving glued to the edge to make it a tray - and in the middle to lift a knife off the floor - thinking that would work great for keeping flux off the kaowool...

but BobH mentions on the Hot Metal/Mizzou thread that kiln shelving melts away under borax. sigh.

Kitty litter! Why didn't I think of that?!?!?
 
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What do I want in a forge? Sized right for the majority of knives we work on as beginners. I'm not running a production shop, so even the HT is limited to one or two blades at a time.

Max length, imo, should be around 14", but that could be reduced considerably if you work the longer blades back and forth through the hot zone.

Blown instead of Venturi. All of my research seems to indicate that blown forges are smoother to bring to heat and burn less fuel. Why not go that route right off the bat? The forge I'm planning to build in the next little while will use a ribbon burner and fan rather than rely on gas pressure.

Price. Get it as low as possible and beginners will buy rather than try to cobble their own together. I'd much rather buy one than try to make my own and possibly blow myself up, but I can afford three bills or more for what I want.

Modularity. Great idea if you can make it happen. Start with the small body with a venturi-style burner that can be added on to in the future as folks get better. This would probably be the cheapest route.
 
Here is the one I've been working on for about 5 years. Well I started it 5 years ago and it just sat there collecting dust until I decided the time was right to finish it this week. There are still a few things to do but I gave it a test run today and forged welded a mosaic billet in it too. It gets up to welding heat in 15 minutes and cruises back down to forging temps with just a crack of propane and air.

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Bruce, is that a blower to cool the handle and force hot air up as it escapes?
 
Hi Boss,
Yes its a big one too. I originally had it plumbed to also feed the fire but it was hard to control so I added the second blower for that. This "air door" diverts hot air up instead of out and does work great to keep the handle cool and allow you to walk in front of the forge at welding heat.
Here is the one I've been working on for about 5 years. Well I started it 5 years ago and it just sat there collecting dust until I decided the time was right to finish it this week. There are still a few things to do but I gave it a test run today and forged welded a mosaic billet in it too. It gets up to welding heat in 15 minutes and cruises back down to forging temps with just a crack of propane and air.

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This is my favorite design http://www.tzknives.com/gasforges.html

I bought one, it works great for damascus and is very durable for all day use every day. The fire spins like a tornado and is very uniform in heating. I run it with a blower and the static pressure is about 5 psi with a propane pressure drop of 2 psi when running at full blast making it very efficient to run.

ernie
 
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