Looking for Propane Forge/Kit

Hi Phil, Where are you located?

I bought a Whisper Momma from NC Tool Co. It's okay, but had to be modified a little to do forge welding.

There are a few books on the market Mike Porters book is a good introduction.

How big do you want the forge, where are you going to work, and how much do you want to spend?

Regards Charles

Unknown wrote:

Take this link (it's my website) and look at the gas forge plans toward the bottom of the page. It's not a kit, but this forge really works well and takes no special skills to make.

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Chilla wrote:

Unknown Spaketh Thusly:

Try Darren Ellis:

-- Bill H. [my "reply to" address is real]

I agree with Pete this is the type forge to build I would put fire brick on the bottom and butt the kaowool up to the brick. Unless you want a very long fire one burner is enough Mine is two fire brick long At less than 5# pressure it gets to welding temp very fast. You will probably need at least a 100# gas cylinder to keep the tank from freezing or place a small tank in water. Kaowool can be gotten online or at pottery supply Roger Degner

spaco wrote in news:09OdnThIdr5kn6DYnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@bright.net:

Thanks for the link Pete. I am going to try and build one to take the place of my three burner whisper daddy. I have one problem understanding the setup for the 'flame keeper' however (unless I missed it). Is that just a series of short pieces of pipe on the end of the nozzle inside the forge?

granpaw

What's wrong with your Whisper Daddy? Does it use too much gas, or doesn't seem to get hot enough? If it doesn't get hot enough I can pass on a trick. If it's not that issue... is there an issue?

Regards Charles

Chilla wrote in news:453fffb3$0$11968$ snipped-for-privacy@news.optusnet.com.au:

Nothing really wrong, It does use a lot of gas though, and it doesn't get quite hot enough for some things. I don't do any forge welding with it so far. I just want a smaller gas forge to use for small items without having to have three burners going. I would be very interested to hear your tip though...Thanks

granpaw

Hi Granpaw,

Ah so it's a gas usage issue, fair enough.

I made several forges before I gave up and bought a Whisper Momma from NC Tool Co. I find it to be economical (well economical compared to a gas furnace ;-).

Anyway I was trying forge welding and getting absolutely nowhere, and I was doing everything text book.

Some friends of mine had no difficulty with using their whisper momma, and eventually we figured out it was my geographical location that was the issue.

Then I thought I should really protect the bottom of the forge with a piece of hard fire brick, surprisingly (well for me anyway) this made the forge hot enough to forge weld, basically by reducing the fire box just a smidge it raised the temperature enough.

A simple tip, but it works :-)

Regards Charles P.S. Recently I figured out how to make forges and furnaces really easily, low cost and effective... wished I'd known before I bought the whisper momma :-(

Do tell!

- ken

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. Yes, the "flame holder" is at the far end of the 2" pipe that is shown as 8" long. The dotted line is to represent the area where the concentric rings of pipe are nested. By the way, I think I just used some appropriate sized nails as spacers. Might have been 12d or 16d. As I notice the so-so quality of the picture:

-the 1/8" pipe plug is drilled to 1/16".

-the piece of pipe welded into the side of the body ("burner installed here") is 2 1/2" pipe. I agree with what "781" said about a fire brick in the bottom. I wrapped my Kaowool all the way around inside and then set the 2 9" long firebrick right on top of them, where the joint was. Also, I would add a carrying handle to the top immediately! Otherwise, either you or someone else will pick the thing up by sticking their hands into the ends and that will squash the kaowool. I use 20 to 40 pound propane cylinders and they DO freeze up after a while. The black plastice 16" diameter pig waterers from the feed store work great to set them in (with a couple of inches of water.

Pete Stanaitis

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granpaw wrote:

SNIP Yeah thanks Pete that helps, I will give it a try asap.. And thanks Chilla for the tip,..I already had that firebrick in the bottom and it does help with the temp.

granpaw

Well I'm making one at the moment out of a metal tool box, powered by a JTH-7 Bernzomatic hose torch. I'm going to replace the aluminium rivets with steel nutz 'n boltz for obvious reasons. Cut end ports and use the lid as the side for side access :-)

The theory is simple, get a metal container, line it with kaowool, harden the kaowool with kaowool rigidizer, add a hard fire brick as a floor for the fire box, add burner port/s and access ports, and you're done.

Making the burner is fairly easy to do, but if you're on a budget a JTH-7 Bernzomatic hose torch will do. This is cheaper than building your own torch as the JTH-7 doesn't require a regulator, or a gas valve or a hose. It does require an adapter to fit to the standard POL fitting, but you can get adapters and they're fairly cheap.

Sound like an over simplification? Well it's not ;-)

Regards Charles

The handle is a fine addition. I'd add that if you are using firebrick to close up the ends, make sure your support shelf is long enough. My first forge didn't have long enough shelves; I was constantly pushing a brick off the back edge. You need like 18-20" of shelf.

I favor the Reil burners, no blower and they work well. My first forge had the burner being described, it worked fine also.

Steve

spaco wrote:

I made a forge once with a nice door on a single pivot (side hinged). The pivot got hot enough that the steel would gall very quickly. It was also hot enough that any lubricant ran right out. So I went back to bricks.

Steve

Chilla wrote: