My forge build.....WIP......it's going to take a while!
- Thread starter jaxxas
- Start date
I looked on the satellite view on google maps and that area around Tucson looks like desert for sure. Hot 'n dry seems to sum it up. I can understand the water tank, my years of living on a boat and cruising the Islands gave me an understanding of living on water in tanks, and collecting rain water. The girls LOVED a good hard rain sometimes for that gave a "hollywood shower".
It's definitely dry here. Monsoons are pretty crazy at times though, you could fill a couple thousand gallon tank in an hour or two off an average roof. Though very few actually do water harvesting. We have never actually used our tank but for plants and the dogs water is hooked up to it. Nothing more heartbreaking the the time I came home and the dog was whining and moaning for lack of water. I have a Lixit on a 5 gallon bucket so he would never run out of water but he did. The 5 gallon bucket lid just happened to seal pretty good and the whole think did like a vacuum lock. Drilled a hole in the lid and presto magic it's worked ever since, and now it's fed from a 500 gallon tank.
Sailing and islands are something I missed out on growing up land locked, never really appealed to me until the last couple of years. So I follow a couple of YouTube channels and get my thrills vicariously.
Sailing and islands are something I missed out on growing up land locked, never really appealed to me until the last couple of years. So I follow a couple of YouTube channels and get my thrills vicariously.
Long day, busy with little accomplished it seems.
First I worked on leak testing my gas manifold and I had leaks aplenty! I worked on and off on this most of the day with fixing and retesting several different leaks. And after testing at the end of the day I find I have 1 more leak which I will address (impolitely) tomorrow. Didn't take any pictures of it though. I really dislike plumbing!
The propane pressure testing brings up a point that I hadn't really considered and I wonder if anybody had any thoughts on the issue.
I looked up propane tank pressure and I tested/testing my gas manifold at 175 PSI (on the high side) as that is as high as my air compressor will go. But it regularly gets above 100 degrees in my shop in the summer time. Of course I probably won't be running the forge when it's that hot. Just wondering if anybody had any thoughts or input, it's probably nothing to worry about unless somebody tells me it's a problem.
Also while testing the gas manifold I noticed that my gas solenoid would get quite hot, probably too hot to hold. Off course there was little gas actually flowing through it at the time except for what was leaking. Anybody else had any issues with an overly hot gas solenoid?
Next I went to install the pipe nipple for the propane into the blower tube, drilled the hole and tried and tried to tap it in place, No luck, just not enough room to turn the tap handle and keep the pressure on it. I could have probably done it if I actually had a tapered reamer for NPT holes. I checked they were like $50 at McMaster Carr. I didn't really want to disassemble the blower tube. I looked online at a saddle clamp valve, they were more than $50 at McMaster Carr. So I pulled the blower tube assembly and unscrewed the bottom nipple. Stuck the nipple in my mill drill and proceeded to tap it, kinda tough getting starting in spite of my pathetic attempt at pre-reaming. But I got it done! I think it came out OK though I was worried I went too deep. I don't tap a whole lot of pipe threads......
drive.google.com
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That blue stuff is messy!
So while I had the blower tube off I finished up the blower tube mount clamp thingie. Just drilled a couple of holes but it gets rid of the C-clamp I was using...
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I also rigged a temporary support for the blower tube, the dang thing is just too heavy to hold and clamp at the same time...
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And while doing all this I discovered that my forge body had rotated a bit the first time I bolted up the blower tube so I re-aligned that, so all in in all it was probably a good thing that I had to take the blower tube off! Actually raised it a bit, I'll have to shim the blower a bit higher as well. You can see in the picture above that I kinda marked (white lines) where the blower was clamped previously, it came up quite a bit.
And while the blower tube was off I took a moment to screw a piece of scrap 3/4" plywood under the intermediate shelf that I will use to attach cords and such for some cable management...
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That's it, long day....beer thirty in my neck of the desert.....
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First I worked on leak testing my gas manifold and I had leaks aplenty! I worked on and off on this most of the day with fixing and retesting several different leaks. And after testing at the end of the day I find I have 1 more leak which I will address (impolitely) tomorrow. Didn't take any pictures of it though. I really dislike plumbing!
The propane pressure testing brings up a point that I hadn't really considered and I wonder if anybody had any thoughts on the issue.
I looked up propane tank pressure and I tested/testing my gas manifold at 175 PSI (on the high side) as that is as high as my air compressor will go. But it regularly gets above 100 degrees in my shop in the summer time. Of course I probably won't be running the forge when it's that hot. Just wondering if anybody had any thoughts or input, it's probably nothing to worry about unless somebody tells me it's a problem.
Also while testing the gas manifold I noticed that my gas solenoid would get quite hot, probably too hot to hold. Off course there was little gas actually flowing through it at the time except for what was leaking. Anybody else had any issues with an overly hot gas solenoid?
Next I went to install the pipe nipple for the propane into the blower tube, drilled the hole and tried and tried to tap it in place, No luck, just not enough room to turn the tap handle and keep the pressure on it. I could have probably done it if I actually had a tapered reamer for NPT holes. I checked they were like $50 at McMaster Carr. I didn't really want to disassemble the blower tube. I looked online at a saddle clamp valve, they were more than $50 at McMaster Carr. So I pulled the blower tube assembly and unscrewed the bottom nipple. Stuck the nipple in my mill drill and proceeded to tap it, kinda tough getting starting in spite of my pathetic attempt at pre-reaming. But I got it done! I think it came out OK though I was worried I went too deep. I don't tap a whole lot of pipe threads......
tapping gas port.jpg
drive.google.com
gas port.jpg
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That blue stuff is messy!
So while I had the blower tube off I finished up the blower tube mount clamp thingie. Just drilled a couple of holes but it gets rid of the C-clamp I was using...
finished blower tube mount.jpg
drive.google.com
I also rigged a temporary support for the blower tube, the dang thing is just too heavy to hold and clamp at the same time...
temp support.jpg
drive.google.com
And while doing all this I discovered that my forge body had rotated a bit the first time I bolted up the blower tube so I re-aligned that, so all in in all it was probably a good thing that I had to take the blower tube off! Actually raised it a bit, I'll have to shim the blower a bit higher as well. You can see in the picture above that I kinda marked (white lines) where the blower was clamped previously, it came up quite a bit.
And while the blower tube was off I took a moment to screw a piece of scrap 3/4" plywood under the intermediate shelf that I will use to attach cords and such for some cable management...
board cable control.jpg
drive.google.com
That's it, long day....beer thirty in my neck of the desert.....
beer thirty.jpg
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sounds like you're really making progress. I wouldn't worry to much about pressure, since the regulator is connected to the tank, you'll always have less than 10 PSIG on all the piping downstream of the regulator, and the blower and burner pipe will be almost zero pressure.
On tapping pipe threads I find using a slightly oversize drill helps a good bit on tapping the threads. Remember, where that nipple screws in there is zero pressure involved. No need for a tapered reamer.
Do you brew your own beer? I did that back in college days.
On tapping pipe threads I find using a slightly oversize drill helps a good bit on tapping the threads. Remember, where that nipple screws in there is zero pressure involved. No need for a tapered reamer.
Do you brew your own beer? I did that back in college days.
Excellent point! Though my regulator is 20 psi I'm probably over testing!
I thought about a slightly bigger drill bit but I erred on the side of caution needlessly probably because of the near zero pressure at the blower!
No, I've never brewed beer though it has always fascinated me. I prefer lagers and as I understand it lagers require a dedicated refrigerator to do it right so I've never went there. Maybe some day!
I only bought the 20 PSIG regulator as it was the only one I could find to fit the dual tank adapter. But then I didn't really know!
Woo hoo, I just received and email that my thermo couple plug and cable has shipped!
Hopefully I will finish up the gas tomorrow and get the end caps sorted out for mounting. Then I think on to the castable!
Woo hoo, I just received and email that my thermo couple plug and cable has shipped!
Hopefully I will finish up the gas tomorrow and get the end caps sorted out for mounting. Then I think on to the castable!
Busy day, starting to feel like I'm making progress..
Finished up the gas manifold....(not much to see it's already mounted in the pic)
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Blower finished up....
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Propane secured...
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If I end up needing another propane tank(s) I may need to re-work my method for securing the tanks. Not sure they would all fit in it's current configuration.
Mounted the end caps....
front view...
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side view...
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Do you think my forge openings are too big? They are roughly 6" x 6". They look kinda big to me, I was considering making them smaller.
The cradle mount on the forge body worked really well, I'm able to slide the forge out the side without disturbing the blower/burner!
Tomorrow I need to dress the welds on the end cap's ears and round them off a bit. Then I can put the kao wool in the end caps, cut the openings and rigidize the kao wool. Still need to build the work rests and the front and rear door (fire brick) holders. At some point I want to build a plug for the rear opening.
My thermal couple connector and wires have finally shipped, won't be here until Wednesday. So that's kinda my target date for doing the castable.
Finished up the gas manifold....(not much to see it's already mounted in the pic)
gas done.jpg
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Blower finished up....
blower done.jpg
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Propane secured...
propane secure.jpg
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If I end up needing another propane tank(s) I may need to re-work my method for securing the tanks. Not sure they would all fit in it's current configuration.
Mounted the end caps....
front view...
forge front.jpg
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side view...
forge side.jpg
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Do you think my forge openings are too big? They are roughly 6" x 6". They look kinda big to me, I was considering making them smaller.
The cradle mount on the forge body worked really well, I'm able to slide the forge out the side without disturbing the blower/burner!
Tomorrow I need to dress the welds on the end cap's ears and round them off a bit. Then I can put the kao wool in the end caps, cut the openings and rigidize the kao wool. Still need to build the work rests and the front and rear door (fire brick) holders. At some point I want to build a plug for the rear opening.
My thermal couple connector and wires have finally shipped, won't be here until Wednesday. So that's kinda my target date for doing the castable.
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I think your opening is just fine, but I would put an angle iron just below the opening (front an back) to allow a firebrick to be sit there to close off part of the opening when desired. The back will stay closed off most of the time. With bricks sitting at rear, there should be sufficient opening to allow good burning of forge.
Ken I planned on doing something like this which is on my old Matheson forge. Seems to work pretty well?
fire brick door.jpg
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Well I had great plans for today but I got side tracked a bit.
While addressing the welds on the end cap ears I discovered that my forge floor is not level. I spent a good 4 hours fixing that to my satisfaction.
I tack welded a couple of temporary shelves on the end caps to help determine level and ended up moving the front ears around and spent a whole lot of time sanding and filing the end caps to get a fairly level floor. I also dressed and rounded the ears a bit just to clean them up some. Then I upped the all thread from 10-24 to 1/4-20 which I had on hand just because the 10-24 seemed kinda wimpy...
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Here's a pic without the level. Level really just depends on which of the 4 slabs you happen to be on in my shop. But I think it looks pretty good, certainly better. Though no bets on how square my openings are!
......
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And my tool of the day, probably the most used tool in my shop, it would have been really painfully slow getting the end caps level/even without it!....
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So a question, my floor depth will be close to 3", with 2" of kao wool that leaves about an 1" of castable, is that OK/workable?
While addressing the welds on the end cap ears I discovered that my forge floor is not level. I spent a good 4 hours fixing that to my satisfaction.
I tack welded a couple of temporary shelves on the end caps to help determine level and ended up moving the front ears around and spent a whole lot of time sanding and filing the end caps to get a fairly level floor. I also dressed and rounded the ears a bit just to clean them up some. Then I upped the all thread from 10-24 to 1/4-20 which I had on hand just because the 10-24 seemed kinda wimpy...
floor level.jpg
drive.google.com
Here's a pic without the level. Level really just depends on which of the 4 slabs you happen to be on in my shop. But I think it looks pretty good, certainly better. Though no bets on how square my openings are!
......
floor.jpg
drive.google.com
And my tool of the day, probably the most used tool in my shop, it would have been really painfully slow getting the end caps level/even without it!....
tool.jpg
drive.google.com
So a question, my floor depth will be close to 3", with 2" of kao wool that leaves about an 1" of castable, is that OK/workable?
That will work really good, it's held top 'n bottom both. Have you planned a slide out rack to front to hold a long handle in place?
edit: Now I see the pipe on each side of forge for rods to slide in for a support rack.
1" of castable should be ok - remember the lining in forges are considered an expendable and will require replacing from time to time depending on how much flux is used during welding. It seems some folks are now welding without flux by soaking billet in kerosene.
edit: Now I see the pipe on each side of forge for rods to slide in for a support rack.
1" of castable should be ok - remember the lining in forges are considered an expendable and will require replacing from time to time depending on how much flux is used during welding. It seems some folks are now welding without flux by soaking billet in kerosene.
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Busy day though not so much in the shop. Had to brave the grocery store and it's barren shelves! Thankfully no wild riots or maybe I'd have had to pull rank, and I almost carry rank. But I did get in a little shop time.
First I had to finish the weld up on the end caps and their fire brick retainers. During which I discovered that I didn't really like how the rear end cap retainer was positioned so I cut the welds and moved it about till I was happy. Then on to the tool rests, which I got started on but didn't finish.
I'm doing a tool rest front and rear and I almost got both of them built, but they aren't finished...
Front...
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Rear...
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But I discovered that I think there is too much slop in the tool rests when they get extended a bit. So I'm going to lengthen both of their supports by a total of 4 inches.
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I did get the the new supports cut and cleaned (they are actually drying in the oven with the pot roast!) but it will all have to wait until tomorrow to finish them up, as I'm on cooking detail tonight. We're having pot roast!
First I had to finish the weld up on the end caps and their fire brick retainers. During which I discovered that I didn't really like how the rear end cap retainer was positioned so I cut the welds and moved it about till I was happy. Then on to the tool rests, which I got started on but didn't finish.
I'm doing a tool rest front and rear and I almost got both of them built, but they aren't finished...
Front...
front tool rest.jpg
drive.google.com
Rear...
rear tool rest.jpg
drive.google.com
But I discovered that I think there is too much slop in the tool rests when they get extended a bit. So I'm going to lengthen both of their supports by a total of 4 inches.
tool rest supports.jpg
drive.google.com
I did get the the new supports cut and cleaned (they are actually drying in the oven with the pot roast!) but it will all have to wait until tomorrow to finish them up, as I'm on cooking detail tonight. We're having pot roast!
Sounds like your woman is the "real deal", allowing you to dry tool rests in oven while cooking pot roast. I've done things like that, I can remember pulling an old Harley into living room to pull heads 'n cylinders to install new rings. Those old Harley's needed new rings every 20K to 30K - as long as the lower end held up {g}
You're making progress - when do you put insulation inside and castable?
You're making progress - when do you put insulation inside and castable?
Yeah she's a good woman, deserves better than me! Though she's working and doesn't know about me doubling up on the oven!
(But to my credit the steel was very very clean!) Old Harley's brings back a lot of old memories. My last one was an EVO though and I never 'had' to touch it! (though I did anyway!)Hopefully I'll finish the tool rests tomorrow and re-install the kao-wool for the main forge body and the end caps and then get the end cap's kao-wool rigidized. Wednesday the final pieces for the thermal couple should be here which should be a quick install and then on to the castable. It's hard to believe there is light at the end of the tunnel! I started this on Feb 23rd and hopefully before a month is up the forge will be fired up! Seems longer though.....;(
When I said "old Harley" I was talking 1950's era panheads. The engines that were designed to leak oil - like an old hound dog, they always "marked their spot" {g} I rode Harleys from around 1963 or so until early '70s, then moved on to 750 Honda. Was out of bikes during the '80s, back to 750 around 92 or so, then got my first 1500 Goldwing in '97, traded it with 146K in 2003 for the 1800 goldwing, then traded in 2007 with 77K, and finally sold my last bike at 72 due to bad knees and back.
Light in end of forge for sure is coming - wish I was closer we'd have a "light 'er off" party {g}
Light in end of forge for sure is coming - wish I was closer we'd have a "light 'er off" party {g}