Propane Forge Air Volume and Pressure Problems

[Silas]

Another concern is that you wont be able to tell if your forge works properly until the doors are in place. Many if not all forges require back pressure to light. All of the gas forges I've used need the doors completely or nearly closed in order to light properly.

Every forge is going to have its own personality and you may have to play around with different fuel air mixtures when lighting and as it heats up to find your forge's sweet spot.

[Brad Roland]

Well, neither one of my forges needs to have doors to light. They perform much better with the bricks covering the openings because they hold the heat in making them more efficient. I believe that the fuel mixture is key to making the forge light.

I will take some pictures tomorrow of my other forge and try and show you what I mean about covering the steel. I am still unpacking from having moved so I can't just run out and take a picture ... 1/4" is fine if you have it covered correctly. You will see when I post my picture.

[Greg Obach]

Hi
what i don't get is why all the little holes ... i can understand the purpose of a ribbon burner in a long forge designed to heat up longer lengths of steel evenly... but your forge bore is not of this design

i'd ditch the burner block and come into the forge bore with just one dia hole approx the size of the burner tube... its good to cast the burner cone into the refractory and let the refractory take the heat
- with a large dia burner hole, you blower maybe more than enough... what is the cfm on it by the way... usually around 100 to 150 cfm for a normal forge is enough for weld heats ....
-i'm not such a big fan of the wool... its excellent insulation but life is short.. i've switch over to a kasto lite from vesuvius ... put a 36 cement or thin alum brick over the forge bottom as a wear surface and it should be ok

also... do you have a door on that... thats a big opening for a forge ?

Greg

The forge is 16" long. Openings on ends are 8.5"w X 9.5" high. The sliding vertical doors have not been made yet. The burner is 3" square tube 8.5" long, just as John Emmerling's design. The burner has 19 holes created with the crayola's and the round steel piece has 9 holes somewhere near .25 dia. each. The horizontal steel inside is 1X1X.25 angle welded in place to contain the bottom edge of the kaowool. Otherwise the end plates only expose 1/32" proud of the brick and kaowool to the heat.

I appreciate your comments please.

Thanks, Rick

[Grant]

The ribbon burners can work very well. The small holes make a very quiet burner with a very short flame, combustion is complete in a couple inches. They do need pressure to push the mixture through the small holes.

[Rick Toews]

Thanks Grant, also I'm wondering about the propane psi. I use a regulator at the tank which has a gauge on the user side of the regulator?

Thanks, Rick

[Grant]

Your propane is probably fine, it's just that blower. What pressure are you reading on the regulator?

[Rick Toews]

Grant, currently with the inadequate design of the blower, the psi is at 10psi.

Thanks,
Rick

[Brad Roland]

The orifice mine has is an .040 sized hole I drilled myself in a brass cap fitting I screwed onto the 1/4" pipe inside my 2 1/2" air pipe. I run mine between 10 and 20 psi. (usually around 11-12psi) My blower is Forge blower rated at 112 CFM at 36 oz static pressure. I believe Grant is correct in stating that it is your blower that is the problem.

I can run my forge at a lower pressure, down to about 4-5 psi but it's only warm at that point, I can also run the forge above 20 psi but at this point flamage starts exiting the forge in an unproductive way ... =) Did I tell you I love my forge?

I believe the static pressure is the amount of pressure you can put over the air coming out before it doesn't come out anymore, please correct me if I am wrong someone.

I am still waiting on my pictures to come in the email ... I am thinking snail mail would have been faster now, lol.

[Greg Obach]

second thought... the forge is already made.. like Grant says to just get a blower thats got some balls (pardon my language )
- still the forge door is on the large side ...and a door would be nice

oh and a correction on the refractory that i use ... its Lite wate 25/80 castable

i can see the benefit of a quiet forge... all that white noise in the shop adds up ..

The ribbon burners can work very well. The small holes make a very quiet burner with a very short flame, combustion is complete in a couple inches. They do need pressure to push the mixture through the small holes.

[Brad Roland]

Finally got me pictures ... so here you see the Forge, it's not a Ribbon burner forge but the concept is still the same ... cover bare metal. Hopefully you can see how the refractory covers the lip so that it won't "Scorch" or "Burn" the metal ... I am hoping that this gives you the idea. I put fire bricks to simulate a "Door" or closure to help with seeing what I am trying to say as well.

Anyhow, I hope this helps you out!?