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3:29 am
June 10, 2010
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Your heat up time seems about right for castable refractory I don't think that will change much unless you go to higher pressure. Castable is very dense and you need to bring that mass up to heat before you can forge. IFB and Kaowool is much lighter and you can be up to heat in much less time. You mentioned that you try to close the openings as much as possible. This is good to a point but you need to remember that if you close them off too much that the expanding gas will try to find another place to go and will try to push back out through the burner, causing it to work poorly. I believe that on Ron Reil site they mention a 7 to 1 ratio, so say your burner is 1 sq inch you would want a minimum of 7 sq inches of opening at your door. That would be my first guess.
My second guess and this just happened to me, and seems to be a combination of things. First I had a bunch of outdated 20# tanks I think you refer 5 gallon tanks, and Wal-Mart was changing suppliers. They had a bring us an empty tank and we will give you a full one. I was in there like a dirty shirt. After using my second free tank my forge started to act like you describe yours. I couldn't find the problem, so I stuck the correct numbered bit in the orifice and found that it had a waxy build up in it. It was like a dirty tobacco pipe in fact I used pipe cleaners and solvent to clean it. I put it back together and it worked much better but still not right. Then I noticed that the burner flare looked a little short. I moved it out and and tried it again and it is back working like a charm.
In short I have heard that some propane can have a lot of impuries I'm pretty sure there was some in the free propane. I hope some of this helps you find your problem.
5:37 am
NWBA Member
March 22, 2011
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Hello all, good to meet some of you at the conference and put faces to names.
Jeff, thanks for the advice, and sorry it took so long for me to get back. On Monday, after work, I tried the higher pressures, (50-55#) and the forge got MUCH hotter much quicker. In fact it got hot enough for me to hand-forge 4 top tools (slitting the hole for the handle, fullering and forging the shape of the tool and drifting the hole) out of 1 1/4" hex stock I found in ~1 1/2 hours. It's a lot more fun to beat on tool steel at a bright yellow color as opposed to bright orange....
Then, tonight after work I played for a couple of hours and tried 60# and decided to try some forge welding. I was successful, and so, feeling cocky (and inspired by watching Elijah on Sunday), decided to try a faggot weld without flux and...was successful! I think 60# gets the forge plenty hot, eh? I then dropped the pressure to 50# and was still able to weld. Feeling quite cocky at this point, I then tried a drop-tong weld at 40# and the first attempt was successful, until I worked it too cold and lost the weld. I tired a few more times and was unsuccessful, but I'm not sure if this was due to a drop in temp or lack of experience on my part. I guess I'll have to play, err... practice some more.
One thing still puzzles me, however. At the higher pressures, I couldn't make the 'dragon's breath' disappear no matter how far I pulled out the jet. At about 40#, it would go away with the jet ~ 2" from the fully out position. At higher pressures, I'd still get significant breath even if I pulled the jet out completely so it was outside the tube. Should I leave the jet where the change stops, or pull it out completely? Or am I starting to overthink?
Daryl, thanks for the reply, but I'm using a 100# tank. I thinking you may have something with the impurity comment, because that makes as much sense as any explaination I've been able to think of, and it hasn't happened since my last refill.
as always
peace and love
billyO
8:38 pm
June 24, 2010
Offline
If you crank the pressure up high enough, you're pushing the fuel/air mixture into the forge faster than it can burn. At that point, dragon's breath is inevitable no matter how well the forge is tuned.
1:04 am
NWBA Member
March 22, 2011
Offline
Hello again all. I hope the summer finds you all well.
I just finished coating the forge with ITC-100, and it seems to be drying quickly, how long do I need to cure it before firing it up and seeing how much better it is?
thanks
billyO
PS - I think there was a poor fuel quality issue originally, as I've had no fluctuations since the first couple.
as always
peace and love
billyO
1:42 am
June 24, 2010
Offline
When I've used ITC-100, I put a 100W light bulb (can you still get them?) into the forge, closed it up as much as I could, and left it overnight. With the light bulb on, of course. That seemed to dry it enough to fire up the next day.
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