I'm looking to add a gas forge and I've come across Swan Portaforges on the web and was wondering if anyone had any experience with these, particularly since they are considerably more expensive than most other manufacturers. The Competitor model is what I'm looking at.
Thanks in advance.
Nice looking forges, but I'm a bit confused by Swan saying their forges are designed for 4 bar (60 psi) gas input pressure. Yeow!
At that pressure, my forge would depart for California without Air Traffic Control clearances. :)
Most propane forges that I know of this (USA) side of the pond run at about 1 bar (14 psi) or lower, sometimes much lower. I've never needed to run my homebuilt over 1.5 bar (21-25 psi) even for welding.
What am I missing? Very small orifices? What? Just curious.:)
Not that unusual. As you say, very small gas nozzles.
This gives a high gas flow velocity, and lots of air entrainment in an "injector" nozzle design. It's a way of getting plenty of air mixed in with the gas, without needing forced draught.
That's what I thought might be the case.
Thank you.
Can you give me an example of orifice size?
I'd suggest reading Ron Reill's writings on the subject (web).
Ditto - you can save yourself and everybody else translation time by just going to his site and reading the designs posted there. It's a great site. I just won't guarantee that you won't get side tracked a dozen time before you get what you went for.
A forge - wow - I run my furnace (melting metal) at 30 psi runs up the temp nicely!
Martin
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