Advice on forgewelding forge | The Forge Fire | Forum

Most of our billet welding has been done in my father's smaller atmospheric forges, they are made with 6" pipe about 19" long and 1" of KAOwool wrapped down to meet a 1" firebrick in the bottom of the forge.  hole in the upper-side center for a standard bell/ pipe burner, welded feet on bottom to keep from rolling over. Use at around 32 Pounds pressure, no fan. Heats fast, propane lasts a long time.  Once it gets to heat you must tweak the input adjustment as you can reduce the amount of gas to keep it hot. (but keep pressure gauge constant)

This is a great and fast forging furnace, but will only do about a 3"X3" billet well, so I have to fight it when I do sword billets. (needs room around billet to get even heat )

I plan to build an 8" pipe version since I am finding sometimes a 4" billet gets me to higher layers faster. 

The Cast-able forges will take longer to heat up, but will retain heat longer, so if you are welding all day it is a wash.

Also always use the green spray hardener to coat your KAOwool before you use it the first time, so you don't get the dust. 

Good luck

Well, I have never really fought the hot spot when the forge is adjusted correctly (just a little dragon breath for me).  There is a sweet spot that gets hottest, but if your metal doesn't block the inlet, it shouldn't affect it too much.  Just make sure you get a complete heat, since one end may get hotter on a drawn out billet, I can usually get a pretty even heat even with longer parts poking out the back of the forge (just have to move back and forth if you are trying to get a super long area heated.) I do turn piece over to ensure top and bottom get good heat.  When forge gets super hot, it is less of an issue and the whole forge is HOT!  Work fast and don't burn your steel!

I tend to work 2 billets at same time as during heats I can cut and assemble the drawn out billet for the next folding. It may take longer depending on how you do it, but if you use a timer on a so many minute ding, you can run back, draw the hot billet and get back into the forge if it takes longer than one heat to assemble your other billet for welding. Time gets shorter when you are heating a hot billet and just drawing it out.

This way I can get a lot of layers but you have to pay attention or you have 2 pieces of scrap and a lot of wasted time.

I have lots of both the cast-able and green goo for Kao-wool, but thanks for the offer.

- DONK