SMAUG Build 1 | The Forge Fire | Forum

Priceless:)

The side mounted burner allowed all the plumbing and controls right up front, easy to see and easy to adjust.

The plumbing starts at the blower [with a blast cover gate], on the bottom blowing straight up. Below the elbow is a gas shut-off. At the elbow there is a needle valve. After the elbow it then runs straight into the burner.

The only hiccup was learning the adjustment at the gas bottle. It would light, burn and throw heat, but would not get to forge welding temp. Pine Ridge stresses having enough pressure from the air and gas. So I started fooling with the pressure until I could hear the change- night and day!

The forge is built with soft fire brick covered with 1 inch Kaowool board, coated with three coats of ITC100. There is a heavy layer of Satanite between the brick and board. Now, after learning the adjustments, the entire firebox GLOWS. As you can see in the movie there is no problem getting to welding heat in very short order.

I ordered everything for the plumbing, all at once from Pine Ridge.
When the stuff came I was very disappointed.
Their blower comes without a pigtail and without a air gate.
The needle valve/elbow size fits neither the burner or the blower adapter which are also different sizes.

When I sent an email to Pine Ridge their response was very angry and insulting and basically said I was too stupid to figure out the adapters I needed to buy, and that their normal customers could figure out how to install a purchased pigtail and make their own blast gate.

I sent everything back except the burner, the gas shut-off and needle valve.
I got another nasty note saying that the blower was damaged [the email mentioned a pic of the damaged blower but was not included] due to my poor packaging and they would only refund a small amount of money on the other items returned because there was nothing wrong with them, less a restocking fee. They never responded about why they sent three different sizes of plumbing. They mentioned several times my poor attitude.

The burner is extremely well made and works very well.

I went to the hardware store and bought pipe and an elbow that matched the size of the burner inlet. That size is an exact match to the OCP blower outlet. You can see from the last pics what a clean plumbing install this produced.

My burner is one size up from the smallest they make, based on their recommendation from my firebox size.

If I were to build another forge I would buy only their burner and get everything else from another source so the sizes were standard to the burner inlet.

Love the burner, love the forge, love all the fast heat, love the way it finally went together.

The pressure is more critical with the ribbon burners than any other forge I have ever used. It us still all air/fuel ratio, but with my other forges you could, if you wanted, lean it way down to just barely burning. This one takes enough pressure to get a decent burn, then a little more to get the very hot burn.

This needle valve has great adjustment so you can get the mix as 'perfect' as you want. I let it burn for a couple minutes [the burn DOES change after warm-up] then adjust it down until there is just the tiniest bit of dragon's breath.

I was thrilled to have my anvil covered with slag/scale and not have to wait forever for things to re-heat after working the steel.

I have never been able to find a 1/4 NPT propane gauge that only reads from 0 to 20 pounds. My current gauge reads from 0 to 60 pounds so I am not sure how accurate my reading is. Too cheap to buy one with higher range just to get a number.

I don't know what the temp is inside the firebox after warm-up. My IR temp reader only goes to about 800 degrees, but it is well into forging range.

There is a definite hot-spot where in front of the burner but after warm-up I think he temp is fairly even.

My door opening is 5 x 9. The depth is 18 inches and we left a 3x3 hole in the rear steel. Didn't cut the brick or board, but can if needed for longer pieces later. Left the [front] door steel about 1/4 inch smaller than the brick/board to help protect them around where you are always moving stock in and out.

I spent all the time and money to build this forge to replace the three I was using. I had one for Damascus, one for knives and one for blacksmithing. The Damascus forge was huge, the openings in the knife forge were only a 5 inch circle, and the blacksmiths forge had a large side opening but was a gas hog and didn't quite get to welding temps. This one will do all three functions with much less floor space. And MUCH faster.

I have quick connectors on all my propane stuff. I also use a small hand-held high output torch and a mini rose bud, each with their own propane hose and line. Takes only a few seconds to switch tools and reset the tank pressure. No room for an oxy/acet so use propane for everything.

My air hammer was set up by a set of double french doors so I could run the forge outside. That didn't work out because of the weather. I am retired now and want the forge rain or snow. The dropped ceiling by the air hammer was too low for safety, so I ended up building a sheet metal hood and a lined steel chimney for the forge exhaust.

I think my shop now has everything I need, if I stay away from eBay and the shop pics and Cottrell's place 🙂 Every time I go there it causes another trip to buy something. Bill has a GREAT shop and WAY more tools than any other 'hobby' shop I have ever seen.

Let me know if there are any other questions- you guys are the BEST!