DIY forge: homemade gas and coal burner, how to make, instructions

Building a solid fuel forge

The main disadvantage of solid fuel forges is that coal itself cannot produce the required temperature above 1000°C.
Therefore, such stoves always require an air stream. Previously, these were bellows, now more often the air is supplied through a pipe with a welded end, also made of steel. Grate for the forge.

The table plate must be made from a blank with a thickness of at least 5 mm. If you install an open design forge outdoors, you will not need to deal with special ventilation.

Here are the main steps for building a homemade coal-fired forge:

Build a platform for the foundation with concrete and reinforced rods.
Fold the bricks into a rectangular base; the table surface can be of any height.
Make a hole in any wall of the base for the blower.
Assemble the floor from special refractory bricks onto the base.
Install a grate with holes, which must also be made of fire-resistant material, for which a cast-iron door from an old stove is perfect.
After installing the grate, add walls made of the same refractory brick.
Do not forget to leave a hole in one wall for air supply; it is better to do this immediately when laying bricks.
Install a fan into the air supply pipe.
If you are making a closed structure, be sure to build a chimney, which is absolutely necessary for draft.

Such a forge can be made mobile - it all depends on you. An old gas stove can serve as an excellent frame for a solid fuel forge.

Purpose of the forge parts

Now let's go back to the list at the beginning and see what's in the forge for what. And then we’ll get down to making the forge using the samples discussed below or independently, based on the available materials and capabilities.

In industry, tables are mostly lined with quartz refractory brick; it lasts for decades under intense workload. A homemade furnace is usually lined with fireclay bricks, which are cheaper and more accessible. With irregular use, it will also last for years.

A firebox with a grate, an air chamber with drainage and a supply pipe with a valve form the heart of the forge - the tuyere. In industrial designs, replaceable lances are used for different heating methods and heated workpieces. For an amateur or individual craftsman, most often it is enough to have one grate tightly mounted into the table with a solid grate perforated with round holes.

Air drainage is necessary to accurately and quickly regulate the blast without taking your eyes off the workpiece. It will not be possible to forge an underheated part and it will not accept hardening; overheated and overdried, it will tear under a hammer, and in a quenching bath it will at least fail, or even crack. And in any case it will turn out to be unacceptably fragile. How to determine its readiness for forging or hardening by the appearance of a red-hot workpiece is a separate matter. But experienced blacksmiths know that they need to be able to release excess air into the atmosphere in seconds.

The purpose of the chamber, or tent, of the forge, together with its umbrella and chimney, is to remove flue gases from the working area. There are plenty of them released during the preparation of the coal mass (see below), and none of them are good for health. The draft in the chimney needs to be good, because... The front (working) window of the tent and openings for lengthy items (pipes, metal profiles) are constantly open.

As for the quenching bath and gas-air chamber, they may or may not be there, it’s at your discretion. A hardening bath is definitely needed if you are going to forge the so-called. Damascus, damask steel products. They need thermal shock hardening, i.e. from the forge - instantly into the bath.

The gas-air chamber is used in industry:

For additional drying and heating of air.
To clean blast air from impurities and condensate.
For introducing gaseous alloying additives into the air.

At home, super-super special spas are not obtained; The problem of condensation in production occurs when blowing from a common compressed air network. In a low-power furnace, the air heats up sufficiently when passing through the holes of the lance grate, and household gas can be purified from sulfur by passing it through a layer of naphthalene, as mentioned above. In general, make a gas vent, don’t do it, it’s up to you.

Finally, the crucible. This is a heat-resistant cap that expands the extremely high temperature zone. It is installed if non-ferrous or precious metals and alloys are melted in a crucible in a furnace (melting point of gold is 1060 degrees, silver is 960, copper is 1080, brass and bronze is 900), parts are cemented in a muffle, etc. There is no point in looking for an expensive ready-made crucible; in a home forge, it can be completely replaced by a dozen fireclay bricks laid out on a dry surface, piece by piece. In this configuration, a homemade forge will replace an expensive muffle furnace.

Closed

The main difference between a gas forge of this type and others is the type of draft. In this design it is forced and carried out by means of a fan. This option is optimal because it allows you to ventilate the entire room.

The oven is made in a cubic shape from refractory bricks. A homemade gas forge for domestic needs is usually small - its sides rarely exceed one meter in length. An umbrella is placed on top - a metal cover made of a 4 mm thick sheet of metal. The internal volume must be completely sealed, otherwise the efficiency of the forge will be low.

Criterias of choice

The correct choice of device is carried out with full knowledge of the technical properties of the metal and the gas used, the first being of paramount importance, especially the refractoriness of the materials being welded.

To solder copper or cable, you will need a specialized torch, which can be purchased at a retail chain in large cities, for example, in Moscow.

Technical features:

The flame power varies depending on the type of work: desoldering electronic parts is the minimum value, and for heating metal for forging is the maximum value.
The shape of the torch is also related to the types of operations: heat shrinking or heat treatment of large surfaces requires a wide torch, and for soldering a high-precision needle-shaped contour flame is used.
The plastic case is budget-friendly and is used for work with low operating temperatures and short processing periods, otherwise the plastic may melt.
Flame stability is determined by the ability to work at an angle of up to 45.
The presence of replaceable attachments is a welcome feature for users to be able to perform different tasks.
Special requirements: design shape, stability, presence of protective functions, for example, wind protection.
Connection options for cans, threaded connections, the most reliable and common with maximum tightness.
Containers are selected based on the volume of welding work: from 5 to 50 liters.
The hose must be long enough to reach the work site.
A propane reducer is used with a pressure gauge to monitor the presence of gas.

Gas burners for roofing work

Classification of forges

There are several criteria by which you can classify all these stoves into neat types.

Most often, forges are divided according to the type of fuel on which they operate:

Gas forges

We will talk about this type of stove in detail: they are the most common in both home handicraft workshops and professionally equipped forging centers. The gas forge is, without a doubt, the favorite tool of domestic blacksmiths.

Liquid

Here the main type of fuel is fuel oil.

Coal forge forge.

According to the design decision, forges are divided into closed and open. In size they come in small, medium and large. That, in fact, is the entire classification of forges. A homemade forge for forging is a very real thing and, most importantly, necessary on the farm.

The main thing is to decide which kind of forge suits you. And to do this, you must clearly know what kind of forging products you are going to make, for whom and in what quantity.

Self-production

Mini horn

The smallest forge you can think of is a mini forge. For a novice blacksmith, this is the best option, intended for use only outdoors. The principles of construction are as follows:

Mini-forge drawing

6–8 bricks can be used as the main building material. Having built a stand from them, you can move on.
The construction of a grate can be done using scraps of metal pipes and a fragment of a steel strip, the thickness of which should be at least 4–6 mm.
Such a forge can be heated with either coal or coke. For ignition and blowing I use a regular blowtorch. It provides both heat supply and process continuity.

The use of a mini-forge indoors is prohibited due to the lack of a chimney in the structure.

Portable forge

The construction of a mobile forge can be carried out using kitchen utensils such as a goose pan. As a boost system, you can use a fan from a hand siren or any other suitable device.

A portable forge has certain disadvantages:

its design is non-separable, so it is difficult to get rid of carbon deposits;
does not allow creating very high temperatures, the maximum possible value is 900 °C;
operation is quite expensive: only coke or charcoal can be used as fuel.

Despite this, this type of coal forge has many more possibilities than the homemade brick construction described above. This is due to the fact that the work space of a portable structure is open at the top and is much larger.

Stationary forge

This design is the most complex from a construction point of view. Experienced craftsmen manufacture the forge independently, taking into account their own anthropometric data. Its ergonomics must be honed to the smallest detail: the work performed here is often very dangerous.

So, when building a stationary forge, it is necessary to proceed from your own physical data. To do this you need to measure:

Table height. Stand up straight with your feet shoulder-width apart. The right arm must first be lowered and then bent at the elbow. This will be the height of the table, to which you need to add 5–7 cm.
Half the diagonal of the table. You need to take large pliers in the same hand and measure the distance from their lips to the stomach. By adding 10–12 cm to the result obtained, you can get the desired result.
The length of the side of a square table. To do this, the result obtained in step 2 should be multiplied by 1.4.

A forge is an open or closed furnace used in blacksmithing to heat metal
. To make a stationary forge with your own hands, you will need the following materials:

heat-resistant steel with a sheet thickness of at least 4 mm;
fireclay brick;
rolled metal, from which the forge frame should subsequently be assembled;
steel chimney for carrying out the process of removing gases generated during the combustion process;
fireproof putty, which must be used to seal cracks;
steel for lining on the outside.

Materials for making a forge

Rules for the manufacture of a stationary structure

Since the forge is a stationary unit, its location must be clearly defined. Access to one of the walls is necessary because the forge should not be independent. The presence of a wall will allow you to more securely arrange chimneys and install a fan. This design can use a homemade lance.

Support frame for forge

The construction of the forge should begin with the manufacture of a support frame. It is brewed from a metal pipe. The upper part is constructed using refractory bricks. This will make the structure durable and allow you to use the stove more intensively.

The channels provided for ventilation and chimney should be lined with steel corners around the perimeter. The metal is also used in the construction of the lining and damper of the furnace. Sheets used in finishing must have a stiffener.

The forge table must have a forge nest, the optimal depth of which is 10 cm. Below it is an ash chamber into which air is supplied. The size of the table is not regulated, but it is better if it is designed taking into account the master’s data.

A square-shaped pipe should be rolled out of 2 mm thick steel. This will be the ash receptacle. A hole should be made in one of the walls into which a pipe for air supply will later be inserted. This can be done using a vacuum cleaner.

Useful tips

Cutting a small hole in the back of the forge will improve ventilation. In addition, this cutout allows you to heat long metal workpieces.
The forge is placed on a special metal stand or table, which makes working with it more convenient. The height is selected individually by the master.
If a forge shop works with workpieces of different sizes and shapes, then it is advisable to install several forges of different dimensions at once. They are placed close to each other, and gas and air are supplied using flexible hoses. This design solution allows you to quickly reconnect the burners.
Each gas pipeline must have a shut-off valve. For this purpose, conventional valves are most often used - they provide smoother adjustment, unlike ball analogues.

The main thing in creating a forge with your own hands is to understand the principle of operation, select the right materials and follow safety precautions. Such equipment is created by craftsmen based on personal preferences, wishes and requirements, which provides wide scope for activity.

Conclusions and useful video on the topic

The injection burner developed by Alexander Kuznetsov is especially popular. In this video, he explains what the structure consists of and how to assemble it:

Example of an injection burner operation:

Properly designed and made with your own hands exactly according to the requirements, the injection burner will become a reliable assistant for a long time. This device will replace expensive factory-made tools. With its help, you can solve many everyday problems without resorting to the help of professionals.

Would you like to tell us about how you assembled an injection torch for blacksmithing with your own hands? Do you have useful information on the topic of the article? Please leave comments in the block form below, ask questions, post photographs.

Characteristics and types of injection burners

The design of the forge burner determines the degree of waste of the metal when it is heated for forging, the intensity of scale formation on the surface, and the total gas consumption. In closed forges, short-flame burners are used.

Their design guarantees rapid mixing of the combustible mixture, which ensures high efficiency. Combustion products are removed from the furnace working space evenly and as efficiently as possible.

Operating principle of burners

In burners of this type, propane coming from a gas pipeline or cylinder is burned. Here, a mixture of gas and air is formed due to ejection, i.e. the latter being sucked into the burner under the influence of the energy of a gas jet under pressure.

In the area where air is taken in, a vacuum appears, due to which the air itself moves in a given direction. Mixing in the burner body, the working mixture escapes from it under pressure, creating the desired temperature.

The quality of operation of a gas burner depends on the constancy of the ratio of the volume of gas and air. Changes in gas density affect the burner's ability to suck in air.

The fuel combustion device or burner is the main component of the gas furnace. Its operation depends entirely on the correct manufacture of this key element

All changes in combustion temperature must be accompanied by similar changes in the air supply required for combustion.

If the indicators are unbalanced, the injection coefficient must be adjusted to achieve its stability. This is achieved by changing the gas pressure or adjusting the air damper.

Classification of burners according to main characteristics

They are classified according to different criteria. Based on the volume of primary air sucked in, a distinction is made between partial-mix and full-mix burners. The main characteristics of the former are the injection coefficient and the multiplicity.

The injection coefficient is determined by the ratio of the volumes of air injected and those required for 100 percent combustion of gas. The expression “injection ratio” refers to the relationship between the volume of primary air and the gas consumption of the burner.

Combustion of gas mixed with air in an injection burner occurs in a special nozzle - a tunnel made of refractory material

Injection burners used in home forges come in low (up to 5 kPa) gas pressure and medium - from 5 kPa to 0.3 MPa. When the gas in the burner is under a pressure of 20-90 kPa, the power of air suction remains practically unchanged, even when the gas pressure and vacuum in the furnace undergo changes.

When the pressure drops below this level, the injection coefficient increases, the pressure drops, and the vacuum in the forge increases. Depending on the presence of the distribution manifold, there are single- and multi-flame burners.

There is a division according to the number of nozzles: with one nozzle - single-nozzle, with several - multi-nozzle. These elements are placed in the center or scattered. According to this feature, there are burners with a central nozzle and a peripheral one.

Solid fuel device for forge

The simplest model of a solid fuel device for a private forge is an outdoor open stove, which does not require the installation of a ventilation system. The construction of the structure involves pouring a reinforced concrete base; wall bricks must be laid at the base of the structure. The table is installed at a convenient height; a hole is left in one wall for the blower.

The mountain pit is laid out of fireclay bricks supported on steel corners; a cavity for the grate is left in the middle part of the structure. A chimney or probe will help ensure sufficient draft in the fireplace; the air supply system is installed at the final stage of construction work. Installing an electric fan in the chimney or installing blacksmith bellows will help increase the draft.

In a home forge, a container for hardening parts and a gas-air chamber are not mandatory elements. They can be useful in cases where thermal or shock hardening is required when working with damask steel. In the gas-air chamber the following is carried out:

drying and heating oxygen;
filtering oxygen from condensate and foreign impurities;
mixing air with additives for alloying steel.

To melt precious metals and create an alloy of non-ferrous metals, it is necessary to make a crucible from a heat-resistant material. The device, made in the form of a cap, allows you to increase the operating temperature in the furnace without the risk of overheating the workpiece and the formation of soot.

Gas safety

Let's start with precautions. Start working with gas from the smallest 5 liter cylinder

Buy a new one and fill it with propane at the nearest gas station. Ask the gas station attendant to tell you how to properly store, transport, refill and use the gas cylinder. He will do this with pleasure, because he is simply bored filling cylinders all day.

Buy a good adjustable gearbox right away. It costs 700-1500 rubles, but this is a small thing when it comes to safety. The pressure gauge should have divisions from 0.1 to 0.6 MPa (mega-pascals)

Attention! The reducer tap does not work like a water tap, but vice versa: to increase the pressure, we need to turn clockwise, i.e. tighten the tap; to reduce the pressure, you need to turn it counterclockwise, i.e.

unscrew the tap

This is important to remember, because in a critical situation we will try to tighten the tap, and this, on the contrary, will only increase the gas pressure - remember this! The burner of a melting furnace, like a burner for a gas forge, usually operates in the pressure range from 0.15 to 0.25 MPa

It’s easier for me to calculate pressure in atmospheres, so it’s 1.5 - 2.5 atmospheres. Don’t turn the gearbox to higher pressure - we simply don’t need it! My gas burner for the melting furnace now operates at a pressure of 1.5 atmospheres, which is enough for liquid aluminum to float in the crucible within 15 minutes

The burner of a melting furnace, like a burner for a gas forge, usually operates in the pressure range from 0.15 to 0.25 MPa. It’s easier for me to calculate pressure in atmospheres, so it’s 1.5 - 2.5 atmospheres. Don’t turn the gearbox to higher pressure - we simply don’t need it! My gas burner for the melting furnace now operates at a pressure of 1.5 atmospheres, which is enough for liquid aluminum to float in the crucible within 15 minutes.

It is strongly recommended to work with gas outdoors. Especially while the gas burner has not yet been configured. In a confined space, 10-15% concentration of propane in the air is enough for an explosion to occur. It is almost impossible to explode in air when working with gas. To explode a 5-liter gas cylinder, you need to throw it into a large fire for 3-4 minutes. Only then will it explode.

It is also highly recommended to use a long gas hose of at least 3-5 meters. The hose must be attached to the gearbox using a clamp with a screw tightening. In addition to the gearbox itself, you also need to acquire some kind of control valve, which would be located directly near the burner. This is necessary so as not to run to the gas cylinder every time to open/close the gas. Fortunately, the cylinder should then be placed around the corner in a special metal cabinet with a padlock. Instead of a faucet, I used another gas torch from an acetylene torch, only instead of a nozzle I connected the hose of my torch.

Conclusions and useful video on the topic

The injection burner developed by Alexander Kuznetsov is especially popular. In this video, he explains what the structure consists of and how to assemble it:

Example of an injection burner operation:

Open

Metal structure installed on a fireproof foundation. Its role can be a concrete platform or fire-resistant bricks. For this design, a special tray is created in which parts are placed for subsequent heating. On the sides there are vertical posts on which the burner for the gas furnace is mounted.

With this design, the smoke is drawn out naturally during operation, and therefore there is no need to create an exhaust hood. But at the same time, the gas forge is placed either in a well-ventilated room or in the open air.

The advantage of this forge design is the possibility of heating different parts on a pallet, and their dimensions are limited only by the side racks.

A few words about the air supply itself

Of course, something must force delicious oxygen into this pipe, which will heat the coals in the chamber to hellish temperatures. You can use blacksmith bellows. The kind our ancestors used in their forges. But this is not the best option, you need at least a couple of bellows to get the required temperature, and it would be nice to have an assistant who will tirelessly press the bellows. It is much more productive to use electric leaf blowers. For example, a turbine for inflating mattresses. I used an old Soviet vacuum cleaner. You can even twist the hose from blowing in to blowing out, but it broke. I had to tape the bag on the side where the air is blown out.

Open forges

An open forge gas forge consists of vertical stands on both sides of a metal container, which is installed on a fire-resistant base. The role of the base can be performed by:

concrete floor (platform);
several refractory bricks laid in a row, etc.

A gas burner is installed on the racks, with the nozzle pointing down. In most cases, forges are installed on a metal stand, which has a tray at the bottom for placing the workpieces to be processed.

DIY FRIEND

Dear visitors to the “Homemade Friend” website, today we will look at detailed step-by-step instructions for creating a portable forge running on propane with your own hands. A forge using propane as fuel is much more efficient than a coal forge, and the undeniable advantage is that it can be moved to any place in your garage or workshop, and also does not require additional air supply.

In this case, the GAS HORN is a metal structure made of angle, corrugated pipe and 2 mm sheet metal. The hearth chamber is lined with refractory brick, which gives it the ability to withstand maximum temperature loads, and at the same time, fireclay brick has low thermal conductivity, which further increases the efficiency of the hearth.

Having a small blacksmith's forge in your workshop, you can forge all kinds of products: knives, axes, chisels, cores and much more. If you are a creative person... then you can do artistic forging.

So, let's look at the step-by-step process of assembling the forge.

Materials

corner
professional pipe
sheet metal 2 mm
fire brick
gas-burner
gas cylinder (PROPANE)

Tools

welding inverter
drill
Angle grinder (grinder)
ruler and marker
hammer
clamp or pliers

Step-by-step instructions for assembling a forge gas forge with your own hands.

First of all, we make the base of the chamber from a 50x50 corner; at the bends, you need to cut out the corner.

We bend it.

The result was a base for laying refractory bricks.

We weld the lower part with 2 mm sheet metal.

Lay out fire bricks.

We weld the legs from the pro-pipe.

Then you need to make a hole in the base to install the gas burner nozzle.

Drill holes in the brick.

You also need to burn a hole in the metal.

Install the burner.

Then we weld the corners in the corners and make walls with a roof.

The upper part of the rut should be covered with 2 mm metal.

We screw the handle of the gas burner and fix it to the base of the forge legs.

Next, all that remains is to connect a gas cylinder through a flexible rubber hose and start working with metal, for example, forging a knife from a piece of iron.

Thank you for your attention. Tweet

18 shared

Video on the topic

In this article we will look at how to make a gas torch for soldering with your own hands. This device is often in demand both in private households and for commercial purposes - for individual technical creativity and various types of construction tasks. In particular, gas burners are used for soldering, metalsmithing, forging, roofing, jewelry work, and for other purposes they produce flames whose temperature exceeds 1500°C.

In metalworking, using a gas torch, you can heat a metal workpiece so that in the end it turns out to be sufficiently hardened. When carrying out welding work with some metals, the areas of future seams must be heated.

What is a gas burner?

Let's move on to the theory of gas burners. Let's start with the fact that gas itself does not burn! Remember this! Only the gas-air mixture burns, so for the burner to work, the process of mixing gas and air must be carried out correctly. This is, in general, what a gas burner does: it mixes air with gas.

There are, roughly speaking, two types of gas burners - injection, where air is drawn into the burner under the influence of a gas stream; and burners with forced air supply - supercharged gas burners. In industry, as far as I know, injection gas burners are no longer used because they are considered unstable. And indeed, having assembled and tried to start the injection gas burner, I became convinced that its operation is affected by where the wind is blowing from today. At any moment it can go out from the same breeze, so after playing with the injection one, I moved on to the next stage - a supercharged gas burner.

A pressurized gas burner has more stable operation compared to an injection burner. It is more convenient to regulate it and adjust the flame power. A supercharged gas burner works excellently in a closed chamber of a gas forge or melting furnace. The design of both burners differs slightly. In fact, a supercharged burner has a slightly different arrangement of working chambers and has a supercharger

So what is a gas forge burner? Essentially it’s just an ordinary pipe, or a system of pipes. Gas is supplied to the beginning of the pipe through a tiny hole (nozzle), flies through the pipe, mixing with air in it, and flying out of the pipe, it begins to burn. For a gas burner to work correctly, gas must be mixed with air in the right proportions. This is achieved by selecting several parameters: the diameter of the nozzle hole, gas pressure, the diameter of the burner pipe and, partly, its length, which should be about 10 pipe diameters. The smaller the diameter of the nozzle, the faster the gas stream will escape from it at constant pressure. If, for a given nozzle diameter (for example, 1 mm), we need to increase the gas flow speed, then we either increase the gas pressure or reduce the diameter of the gas burner pipe.

In injection gas burners (which are not pressurized), the amount of air entering the burner depends on the speed of the gas flow. The higher it is, the more air this flow will pull into the pipe. However, at high speeds, the gas may not have time to mix with air, and the flame at the outlet of the tube will constantly “break off” and be blown away by the gas flow. The opposite situation is when the flow rate of the gas-air mixture is too low, the flame breaks into the pipe and combustion occurs right next to the nozzle. There is nothing wrong with this, you just need to turn off the gas supply and adjust the burner again, increasing the pressure. Also, slippage is always observed when the burner is turned off, when the remaining gas burns out with almost zero pressure. In this case, the combustion ends with a characteristic “bang” when the remaining mixture inside the tube burns sharply.

You can achieve more stable operation of the burner by using a divider installed at the end of the pipe. It is a plug with a large hole drilled in the middle (slightly smaller than the diameter of the pipe, so that not all the gas goes through it), bordered by many small holes (6-12 pieces). The point is that the main flow of gas will escape from the large hole at high speed, and from the small ones the remaining gas will escape at a much lower speed, thereby igniting the main flow if it suddenly begins to “blow away”.

The flame at the outlet of the gas burner is stabilized even better if a so-called “heat chamber” is installed after the divider. This is a piece of pipe with a slightly larger diameter than the main tube. In a larger diameter pipe, the gas flow slows down slightly, which promotes more complete combustion and prevents flame failure due to too high a speed. The textbooks recommend a smooth expansion of the “heat chamber” from the main tube to the outlet. You should get a kind of bell. But making a socket is more complicated than simply adding a pipe with a larger diameter, which already works well.

Let's take the forge

One of the necessary equipment for our workshop is a forge. If you do more than just cold forging (we wrote about it here), then you can’t do without it. In principle, it is now possible to buy almost everything, including this product. But when you see the cost (and the price for the cheapest models starts from 48,000 rubles), the thought involuntarily arises: is it possible to make it yourself? The answer is simple - you can, and quite simply.

READ MORE: Air switches: what they are, types, operating principle

Traditionally, coal (wood or stone) is used for such a “firebox”. But considering that we have no problems with gas in our country, we will consider just such a design. From a practical point of view, it is much more convenient and easier to manufacture. It is worth noting that in this case there is no difference what kind of gas it will be - main gas or from cylinders.

Ease of construction. If only because there will be no usual grates in such a stove.
Possibility of adjusting the heating temperature.
Cheapness and availability of fuel.
Low manufacturing costs.
Mobility. Given its light weight, it is easy to carry from place to place.

In the diagram below you can see exactly how a gas burner is made. Such a device will require the following components:

The body, which is made in the form of a double truncated cone. Its manufacture requires high-strength steel.
Confusion bell made of steel X18N9T, resistant to high temperatures and open flame.
Heads for supplying natural or liquefied gas, as well as air at the required pressure to the work site.
Mouths.
Regulators that allow you to adjust the amount of gas and air in the mixture.

One and a half inch pipes and heat-resistant steel sheets will help complete the main elements of the device. For this purpose, welding is used in an argon environment, but you can also use flux, which will protect the seam from exposure to oxygen and rapid corrosion. We use ordinary high-pressure hoses as pipes for supplying gas and air. The main thing is to choose the right diameter. The connection to the body is made using metal clamps.

For a novice blacksmith to gain experience and flair, it is best to quickly make a mini-forge from 6 fireclay bricks, see fig. You can’t heat the blade of an ax for shaving or a hunting knife in it for hardening, but you can heat small items for artistic forging, the ends of a long piece for forging or bending, or melt precious colors in a crucible.

Mini forge made of 6 bricks

The grate shelves are made from scraps of steel pipes, and the grate itself is made from steel strip 4-6 mm thick. The grate bars must be screwed at an angle to capture the air flow, as shown in Fig. Fuel - coke or coal. Ignition and blowing - with a blowtorch, gas or gas-air burner.

Let's look at the picture above. It shows three types of flame from the same supercharged gas burner, but with different degrees of oxygen enrichment of the mixture. No. 1 is a mixture with a minimum amount of oxygen. Boost is turned off. The burner flame is soft and yellow. The flames slowly escape from the burner, combustion occurs almost silently.

The energy of such a flame is minimal. You can only heat the kettle on it. Under No. 2, the boost is turned on by one third. The yellow flaccid tongues disappear, the flame acquires a blue color, and the so-called “core” of a flame of a characteristic greenish hue appears from the nozzle. The temperature of the core itself is not that high, but at the border of the transition from the core to the blue color, this temperature reaches a maximum.

Metal fittings brought into this zone become almost white-hot! As the pressure increases further, the shape of the torch becomes more and more regular, the core shortens and hides in the depths of the nozzle, and, finally, the flame escaping with a resounding roar takes on a sharp dagger shape, as shown in picture No. 3. Such a flame has a maximum concentration of energy at one point, which is already typical for gas cutters.

The graph on the left shows the distribution of flame temperature depending on the zone. Don’t pay attention to the values themselves - for propane they are a little niche, but the essence remains the same. The maximum temperature of the flame is at the core boundary. And the coldest zones are the very beginning of the flame and the very tail of the torch.

For a gas forge burner or a gas melting furnace, you need to choose option No. 2. In the closed working chamber of a melting furnace, the blue flame stretches out and completely envelops the crucible with metal, heating it more or less evenly. If in a melting gas furnace the torch is brought to state No. 3, then the crucible will overheat strongly at one point, begin to burn and eventually deteriorate. Specifically for a gas furnace, localized heating of the workpiece is sometimes required, so it is possible to use a sharp torch No. 3.

...The article is in the process of being written...

Building a gas forge

Before you start building a gas forge with your own hands, you need to determine the parameters of the hearth - its area.

There is a clever formula for this:

N=H×F

N is the productivity of the hearth, which depends on the tension H and the hearth area F. It has been calculated that the gas supply speed in the range from 1 to 1.5 m/sec is sufficient to optimally maintain the required temperature in the hearth.

Diagram of a gas burner for a forge.

You know the area of your workshop and the approximate number of forging parts in kilograms that you plan to produce. With this data you derive the hearth tension with a maximum permissible upper limit of 150 kg/m².

Necessary materials you need to get started:

fire-resistant brick such as dinas or chamotte;
plates with a thickness of at least 5 mm made of heat-resistant steel;
steel profile for the racks, frame and valve of the hearth;
pipe for the chimney and ventilation duct made of steel;
putty for sealing cracks between bricks with heat-resistant properties;
sheet metal or an additional layer of refractory bricks for lining on the outside;
burners from high-power double-circuit boilers;
fan;

Gas forges can also be open. With it everything is much simpler; it will be enough to install grate bars with air supply for greater heating efficiency. In this case, combustion substances are removed by a fan made of heat-resistant metal.

It is better to place the support frame close to one of the walls of your workshop. The choice of wall must be made taking into account the fact that a chimney and ventilation pipe will be needed, so it is better not to use adjacent walls, if any.

It is better to weld the racks and the frame itself from low-alloy steel according to drawings that can be downloaded on the Internet. Low-alloy steel is strong, lightweight and, most importantly, resistant to specific high-temperature corrosion. The external lining must be thought out in advance so that holes for its fastening are immediately made in the support frame.

Now about refractory bricks and masonry

It is important to buy real certified fireclay bricks made in accordance with GOST 390-79. If you purchase a brick that does not meet the standard, you risk that ordinary bricks will begin to melt at a temperature of 1000°C.

Construction of a forge.

The second type of refractory bricks is dinas. These bricks are more expensive, but more resistant to high temperatures: they can withstand temperatures of 1800°C. They are lighter than fireclay bricks due to the high proportion of silicon salts in their composition.

If you have the opportunity, it is better to line the forge with silica brick: forges made of refractory silica brick are more durable and can withstand the most severe temperature conditions.

The bricks are laid with a mortar of refractory clay with the addition of chamotte and silica powder in a precise proportion of 60:40. Treat the chimney and fan around the perimeter with metal corners.

The most important final stage is drying the entire structure. After this, you need to check how the fans for the forge work. And only then will it be possible to perform a test run.

How do you heat a forge?

To finally take on your own forge, all that remains is to figure out how to light it? Then it will be easier to understand the designs.

The best fuel for the forge is fine coke. Blacksmiths call it koksik, the name was adopted by traders. If there is coke on sale, there is also coke in small packages. The cost of coke, depending on the region, is 3 times more expensive than coal, but it costs 4-5 times less per forging if handled skillfully.

Coke is almost pure amorphous carbon, carbon. Really clean: coke oven gas is a valuable chemical raw material, so metallurgists are not slacking. It ignites at 450-600 degrees, so double kindling is needed: coal is lit with wood, and a layer of 150-170 m of coke is placed on it and the blast is turned on to maximum. When the coal burns out (this can be seen from the flame), the mass of coke is raked, leaving a layer on the grate 1/3-1/4 of the height of the entire pile, the workpiece is introduced into the hearth and raked with burning fuel. The blowing is reduced to normal for this operation and the part is waited until it matures.

To work with Damascus you need charcoal; it ignites at a lower temperature and burns faster, because... preserves the microporous structure of wood. And also, like activated carbon in a gas mask, it additionally absorbs alloying poisons. The fact is that damask steel is forged from a bundle of wires or rods of different hardness. The product itself is obtained by their mutual diffusion during forging. The process is very delicate, and adjustment of the blast requires precision, and light porous charcoal responds instantly to manipulation of air drainage.

Shell for burning a furnace with wood

If you burn with coal, you need to let it burn until it reaches carbon, i.e. volatile components, that same coke oven gas, must burn out. This again can be seen by the color of the flame. But such complete extraction of volatiles as in a coke oven cannot be achieved directly in the forge, so decorative or average-quality household products can be forged using coal. As a rule, one load of coal is not enough and it has to be burned out. The additional load for afterburning is placed on the side of the fireplace on the table and, as it burns, the resulting carbon is raked onto the workpiece.

In general, wood is heated in the same way as coal, but only with deciduous wood. Just a pile of firewood is more likely to burn to ash than to completely release volatiles and form coal. In addition, there is no way to allow unburned wood chips to get on the part; there are too many impurities in the wood that are harmful to steel. Therefore, wood for carbon in the forge is burned in the shell, see fig. The additional load is burned by placing it close to it and, as it burns, the coals are transferred to the shell with tongs.

Manufacturing and installation of a burner in a closed gas furnace

Let's consider two options - make a burner from scratch, using the recommendations of experienced home craftsmen, or use a ready-made design, adapting/modifying some of its characteristics. It should be noted that in the first case you should have very high qualifications, as well as have experience in setting up and, at a minimum, repairing such devices. Otherwise, the matter may end in an explosion, burns, and other troubles.

Confusion bell made of heat-resistant steel type X18N9T.
Steel tubular body shaped like a double truncated cone.
Gas supply head.
Air supply head.
Mouths.
Regulators for the amount of gas-air mixture.

To make such a burner you need: 1.5-inch pipes, a sheet blank with a thickness of at least 1.2 mm for the confuser, two fittings and three flanges for connecting the elements. It is better to make a welded structure from heat-resistant steel, and welding must be done under submerged arc or using inert gas. High-pressure hoses can be used as air and gas supply pipes, the diameters of which will correspond to the connecting dimensions of the housing. Fixing clamps and high-quality seals made of gasoline-oil-resistant high-temperature rubber are also required. All other elements are connected using threads.

Horn with a homemade gas burner

On some websites there are recommendations for making a burner body by rolling a tubular blank. But at high jet pressures, plastic hardening of the material can lead to the emergence of zones of internal stress, which, when starting the burner, often cause cracking in the body metal.

The option of installing a burner from a used gas stove is much simpler. You will first need to determine the fuel costs required to quickly heat the metal for forging. When selecting a finished design, the power of the main unit (boiler, stove, etc.) for which the device was used is established. The product of this value by the efficiency (for gas it is 0.89...0.93) gives the desired power value W. It is a little more difficult to establish the gas consumption T. The calculation algorithm is as follows:

The calorific value of the fuel Q is determined (for propane, 3600 kJ/m3 can be taken);
Using the formula T = 3.6W/Q, the flow rate is determined.
Based on the calculation results, all the necessary shut-off and control valves are selected: valves, tees, o-rings, etc.

Installing a burner in a forge for forging with your own hands is done as follows. First, a confuser is inserted into the prepared lining hole, and the burner mouth is attached to it through a sheet gasket made of heat-resistant steel. The product itself is attached to it, and tubes for supplying air and gas are screwed in. They check the effectiveness of the regulators, after which they carry out a test run of gas from a cylinder or a stationary network. All work must be carried out in a well-ventilated area. At the slightest smell of gas, installation work is stopped and the source of possible leaks is determined.

If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl+Enter.

Metal cutting. Equipment and tools for oxygen cutting

The following types of welding are used for metal: oxygen, oxygen-flux, plasma-arc, arc with an electrode, etc. The most widespread are oxygen and plasma cutting, which is divided into separation, the purpose of which is to separate one part of the metal from another, and surface ( fire), the purpose of which is to cut off a layer of metal.

The process of gas plasma oxygen cutting is based on the combustion of metal in an oxygen environment, in which the flame brings the metal to the combustion temperature, and a powerful stream of oxygen burns it and removes the resulting slag. The amount of heat generated when burning metal is quite large. This allows the hot flowing slag to heat the underlying layers of metal (more than 1 mm).

The metal to be cut with oxygen must satisfy the following conditions:

The ignition temperature of a metal in oxygen must be lower than its melting point. This condition is satisfied by steels containing up to 0.7% carbon. Conventional cutting of metals with a high carbon content is not possible. The same thing happens when cutting alloy steels; with increasing impurity content, cutting conditions worsen even with low carbon content;

The melting temperature of metal oxides must be lower than the melting temperature of the base metal. Cast iron and non-ferrous metals do not satisfy this condition, and, therefore, cannot be cut in the usual way;

the cut metal must have minimal thermal conductivity.

For cutting, the same equipment is used as for welding, with the exception of a torch, instead of which a cutter is used (Fig. 4.5).

Figure 4.5. Oxygen cutter

The cutter structurally combines the heating part and the cutting part. The heating part is similar to a welding torch. The cutting part consists of an additional tube 4 for supplying cutting oxygen. The mouthpiece contains two concentrically located holes for the exit of the heating flame 1 and the cutting jet 2. The mouthpiece of the cutter 3 forms a right angle with the barrel. When replacing acetylene with other flammable gases in the cutter, the cross-sections of the injector channels and the mixing chamber are increased. Manual cutting, due to the uneven movement of the cutter and the vibration of the cutting jet, does not provide a high quality cut surface, so the cut cavity is machined.

According to their purpose, cutters are divided into universal ones, which allow cutting of various shapes in any direction, and special ones, intended for certain operations (for cutting holes, etc.), as well as for surface cutting.

Peculiarities

One of the most important elements of the forge is the fuel burner. The quality of work performed with metal depends on its design features. An important role is played by the amount of gas consumed, the magnitude and intensity of metal waste, and the formation of scale on the surface being treated.

The role of the gas burner is to control:

angle of entry of the combustible mixture into the chamber;
entry speed, given the relatively small height and sufficient width;
stability and safety of the combustion process;
safety in case of reverse thrust.

The ability to change the heating mode is of great importance. To fulfill all these requirements, the burner must have the necessary elements:

automatic ignition;
a device for air supply with the ability to control the parameters of volume, free ignition, pressure stability;
gas valve with which you can regulate gas flow.

If the forge has high power, they are located in the same housing. In the case when a low-power device is used, the air supply comes from a compressor. The presence of a control unit makes control over the operation of the forge and the color of its elements better and more accurate.

The control unit will help determine the intensity of fuel combustion and set the necessary indicators. This data comes from a thermostat installed inside the device. In addition, it is necessary to install an emergency switch and additional control points.

Burner design

A standard homemade burner functions this way. Gas is supplied under pressure through a special hose from the cylinder. Most often, propane is used as such gas. The volume of gas supplied is changed by a regulating operating valve located on the cylinder. Therefore, installation of an additional reduction gearbox is not required.

The shut-off valve is located behind the main valve and is mounted on the gas cylinder. It is used to open or close the gas supply. All other adjustments (length and intensity of the flame) of the burner itself are carried out using the so-called working tap. The gas supply hose through which gas is supplied is connected to a special nozzle. It ends with a nipple. It allows you to set the size (length) and intensity (speed) of the flame. The nipple together with the tube is placed in a special liner (metal cup). It is in it that the creation of a combustible mixture occurs, that is, the enrichment of propane with atmospheric oxygen. The created combustible mixture under pressure flows through the nozzle into the combustion area. To ensure a continuous combustion process, special holes are structurally provided in the nozzle. They perform the function of additional ventilation.

Based on this standard design, you can develop your own design. It will consist of the following elements:

housing (usually made of metal);
a reducer, which is attached to the cylinder (use a ready-made device);
nozzles (made independently);
fuel supply regulator (optional);
head (the shape is selected based on the tasks being solved).

The burner body is made in the shape of a glass. The material used is ordinary steel. This shape allows for reliable protection against possible blowing out of the working flame. A handle is attached to the body. It can be made of various materials. The most important thing is that it provides convenience when working. Previous experience shows that the most optimal length of such a handle is in the range from 70 to 80 centimeters.

Gas burner device

A wooden holder is attached to the top. A gas supply hose is placed in its body. This allows you to give the structure a certain strength. The flame length can be adjusted in two ways. Using a reducer located on the gas cylinder and a valve installed on the tube. The gas mixture is ignited using a special nozzle.

Which one should I do?

Before we begin manufacturing, we will select the appropriate type of burner from the following list:

atmospheric injection;
ejection;
supercharged.

The second and third types are more difficult to manufacture. And to organize pressurization you will need compressed air or oxygen, which means a compressor or another cylinder.

The easiest way to do it yourself is the first type; it is the one you should prefer.

The atmospheric burner process is controlled by a control valve. Therefore, the choice of type, as well as the model of the device itself, largely depends on which one turns up.

It must be remembered that the combustion of a particular gas depends on the diameter of the nozzle hole. The hydrogen jet has slightly less of it, the propane jet has more.

Designs, diagrams, drawings, assembly technology

First of all, you will need a drawing of the future device, a sketch or diagram of the burner, with dimensions.

It’s easy to find a ready-made one using the Internet. If you understand the general principles of the device’s operation and know how to calculate it, you can develop the project yourself.

An easy option is to use a valve from a propane or oxygen cylinder, known as model VK-74 (see diagram).

A fitting is machined into the side thread, which will also serve as a handle. You can use a pipe of suitable size. On one side, cut an internal thread, on the other, make a shank for putting on the gas hose.

We screw a plug onto the thread with which it is attached to the cylinder. We drill a hole in its end and cut a thread for the jet. We weld a nozzle to the plug on steel spokes, which will also serve as an injection chamber.

It's even easier if you come across an old acetylene cutter or gas cutter. Essentially, this is a finished burner. It is enough to remove the parts connected with the oxygen supply so that they do not interfere, replace the gas nozzle with a nozzle, and attach the injection chamber-nozzle above it.

IGK burner: how to buy

Buy IGK burners

various modifications presented in the product catalog of PKF Spetskomplektpribor are possible in several ways.

You can order the required number of Kazantsev injection burners by filling out the intuitive order form at the top of the page. Another purchasing option is to directly contact our managers by phone, email or online dialogue form. If you do not know which specific model of IGK burners you need, our professional consultations will help you avoid making mistakes when selecting this or that equipment.

Return to the general price list for burners

Recommendations

The principle of operation of the device is what you should understand before making the device. You can consider it using the example of a burner for roofing work. How does the burner work?

The device is connected to the reducers of oxygen and propane cylinders by a system of supply hoses.
Reducers are placed on the cylinders to create working welding pressure.
A diagram for gas and oxygen is assembled, the tightness of the connections is checked, the nodes are secured, after which the gas can be opened with valves.
The gas pressure is set to the operating value and the valve opens.
The fuel is supplied through hoses to the propane appliance.
The injector carries out the mixing process to form a gas-air environment.
A working flame with a temperature reading above 2000 degrees comes out of the device.

When performing any welding work, you must wear personal protective equipment: gloves and goggles, special shoes. You can work with propane cylinders only in a well-ventilated area, and at sub-zero temperatures, any actions with the burner are excluded.

What you should absolutely not do:

work near open fire;
keep the cylinder tilted;
place vessels under the sun;
carry out work without a gearbox;
Warm up the gearbox over an open fire.

If you can clearly smell the gas, work with the burner should be stopped by closing the valve on the cylinder. Homemade burners, depending on the purpose of use, can be different: burners with a VK-74 valve, devices converted from an acetylene gas cutter and mini gas burners. It is realistic, profitable, and useful to build every homemade device. Only initially you need to decide on the type of structure and its parameters. The gas burner is also used in private households and for commercial purposes. In plumbing, a metal workpiece is heated with a torch, which ultimately comes out quite hardened.

Rules for safe operation of equipment

If used incorrectly, gas cylinder equipment can become a source of a strong explosion or fire.

When performing welding work, you should definitely use personal protective equipment: glasses, gloves, special shoes.

Before starting work, you need to thoroughly inspect the equipment for damage. If the equipment gets dirty, be sure to remove the dirt

You can work with propane cylinders only in well-ventilated areas, and the air temperature should not be below 0 °C.

Absolutely forbidden:

Work near open flames.
Keep the cylinder tilted when working.
Place the vessels in the sun.
Carry out work without a gearbox.
Heat the gearbox over an open fire.

In addition, if you smell gas, you must immediately stop working and turn off the valve on the cylinder. We also recommend that you familiarize yourself with the main reasons for the explosion of gas cylinders.

When working without personal protective equipment, you can get burned, not only from an open flame, but also from accidentally touching hot parts.

If the considered homemade burners are not suitable for you, we recommend that you familiarize yourself with other options for making useful homemade products discussed in our articles - a burner made from a blowtorch and a burner for a sauna stove.

Waste oil furnace

Considering that petroleum products are expensive, it is beneficial to use a forge using waste oil. To make the forge during mining, parts that have served their useful life are used. After processing the furnaces, a significant drawback emerged - the spent mixture did not ignite well. To eliminate this problem, an additional compartment was built into the mining forge. Here the oil is preheated with coal or wood. To improve combustion, waste fuel passes through filters and diesel fuel or gasoline is added to it.

As a result, the mining forge has the advantages of a yellow flame and stable temperature.

You can make it yourself:

It is made from fireclay bricks, dimensions: 85×48×40 cm.
The vault is made in the form of an arch to maintain temperature.
The body is completely covered with sheets of iron. A thickness of 1.5 mm is used on the sides, and the top and bottom are lined with 2 mm sheets.
The supports are made from angles based on the weight of the structure.

Air is pumped into the chamber by a fan. A waste tank is installed on a hill. From it, the oil enters the chamber through a pipeline, where it is picked up by air, which moves under a pressure of 2 atm. The waste is broken up and fed into the nozzle.

Scheme of the furnace during development:

Practical gas nuances

Why and why? Firstly, this thing is not cheap. Secondly, the design of the gas burner is not too complicated, you will be able to handle it, we promise

Before you make a gas burner with your own hands, you need to take into account some special information

Features of gas burners:

The first thing is the material from which the nozzle should be made. Only refractory metal, because your device must produce really high temperatures - up to 1000 ° C, so the nozzle must be stable at such temperatures.
We don’t skimp on the crane, because your safety will depend on its quality. If a leak suddenly starts, the gas supply is instantly shut off using a tap. The faucet must be of high quality; it must not leak.
Another element of the device, the quality of which must be of the highest quality, is the connection point to a gas cylinder with or without a reducer; if the cylinder is small, then it has a valve. We remember that the overwhelming majority of gas-related accidents occur precisely because of a defective shut-off device.
Propane is most often used - this is for your information.
At its core, a gas burner is an evaporative type nozzle.
A gas torch for do-it-yourself soldering is, in principle, no different from a device for hardening metal parts, so it can be made for a wide variety of applications.

How does a gas burner work?

The mechanism of action of the injection type device:

Gas is supplied through a hose as a result of the pressure that is generated during the evaporation of liquefied gas inside the cylinder. This pressure is sufficient to ensure that the incoming gas is sufficient to create and maintain an even, constant flame. Not all cylinders have a reducer; in this case, the gas flow can be regulated by a working tap.
The shut-off valve is by no means functional, it has a completely different function, it is attached to the cylinder valve with the only task - to open or close the gas supply.
A gas stream is supplied to the nozzle through the gas supply tube. This tube goes into a nipple, which shapes the direction of the flame. This nipple, together with the gas supply tube, is located in a special liner, the function of which is to mix gas with air.
The insert, together with the nipple and the gas supply tube, is adjusted with a screw. It is best to make the device collapsible, since the nipple must be cleaned without fail.
After formation in the liner, the mixture of gas and air is supplied to a special nozzle of the nozzle, into which an additional portion of oxygen is supplied from atmospheric air. The nozzle needs ventilation holes; they will make the flame more even and stable.

Appendix 1

Today I received another letter asking me to explain where to get capillaries and, in general, how to make an injector. It was even proposed to use electrical erosion. I had no idea that this could cause problems. So, I do it this way. First of all, I got used to using M3 screws for the injectors (a regular screw with a 3 mm metric thread). So, take your box of M3 screws, dump it out and distribute it in an even layer. Then take a magnet and pull out all the attached screws. As a result, you will be left with screws that do not tighten. The fact that they look the same as the others should not fool you. These are plated brass screws. In the photo under number 1. If there are no brass M3s, nothing prevents you from doing this with M4.

Next, you have five options: – immediately drill a hole with the required drill diameter. But this is for fairly large holes and with a precision drill. – drill on both sides of the screw with a large drill, but not all the way. Then pierce this jumper with a needle or drill it with a small drill. – drill with a large drill, and then fill the hole with PIC solder, and then work with it, which is much easier. – drill with a large drill, and then use POS solder to solder a stainless steel wire of the appropriate diameter coaxially into the screw. And then pull out the wire. And finally, you can solder a capillary of the appropriate diameter into the drilled hole using low-melting solder. So, capillaries, that is, thin tubes. Under the number 2 are capillaries from instrumentation instrument recorders. It’s unlikely that this advice will make you feel any better. But number 3 is the most realistic option. When the doctor gives you an injection, don’t groan, don’t feel sorry for yourself, but gather your willpower and ask the doctor to give you the needle as a souvenir. He will give it back, he doesn’t mind. Thus, over the course of your sick life and that of your loved ones, you will collect an extensive collection of capillaries. And if you are lucky enough to give injections with imported syringes, the range will become much richer. They also have very thin needles, for example for vaccinations. Don’t forget to also collect a collection of steel elastic wires for cleaning capillaries - number 4. Number 5 - my new gas stove came with a whole set of nozzles with different hole diameters. And finally, 6-end clamps for mounting multi-core electrical wires. A whole bunch of different diameters.

Read also: The degree of deoxidation of steel is

Portable

The next design is a portable forge made from... goose horn. The design is clear from Fig. The lining is fireclay marl mixed with fireclay sand (ground fireclay bricks, commercially available). Firing the lining after drying - as work progresses.

Portable goose horn

Pressurization is not necessarily a fan from a manual siren, as in Fig. You can use any suitable one, see below, by attaching it with a metal clamp. This, by the way, will make working with long items more convenient. In this case, at the blind end of the air duct, air drainage is required, similar to that for a mobile forge, which will be discussed later.

The capabilities of a goose forge are wider than those of a 6-brick one, because The workspace is larger and open at the top. But there are also significant disadvantages:

Non-separable design: when cleaning the tuyere (see below about the stationary furnace), carbon deposits fall down and clog the perforation of the air duct, even if its holes are oriented sideways or downwards. To clean you have to break the lining.
Works only on coke or charcoal, because... There is no table with space for burning.
Expensive to operate: carbon consumption is comparable to that of coal in real furnaces.
Low operating temperature, up to 900 degrees, because A lining that is not properly fired will crack.

About cavalry and sewing machines

Cavalry bugle

Once upon a time, every cavalry squadron of all the armies of the world had on its farm a portable forge with a foot drive from a crank mechanism for forging horseshoes and horseshoe nails. It was called cavalry, see fig. If we talk about non-volatile horns, then this is much more convenient than a fan from a siren: both hands are free. Moreover, savvy horsemen taught horses to press the pedal with their hoofs.

Nowadays the cavalry bugle can only be seen in the Red Army Museum. But – let us also be smart – old foot-powered sewing machines are still in use and sold. And this is the same crank with a drive pulley of a suitable diameter and a strong frame for the table. Plus wheels on which you can roll the forge.

Construction of blacksmith bellows

What kind of fan is needed?

Below we will move on to designs that are already quite functional, which require full blowing. And electricity for the fan can be found everywhere. But what kind of fan is needed for a forge? Once upon a time, forges were blown with bellows; For those who are curious about how blacksmith's bellows work, see Fig. on right.

As for productivity, 200-250 l/min is quite enough for a stationary coke furnace. That is, the fan motor power is sufficient from 80-100 W.

Much more important is that we need to push air through a fairly dense mass of sintered fuel

Therefore, when choosing a fan, first of all you need to pay attention to the pressure it creates at zero performance, the so-called

maximum pressure. The meaning of this parameter is simple: the fan will create the maximum pressure by forcing air into a closed cavity.

For the forge you need a maximum pressure of 220-230 mm. Hg Art., which corresponds to approximately 0.3 ati. Axial fans (impellers) of this type are created only by industrial ones, such as VN-2 or its analogues. Household exhaust and industrial cooling systems are not standardized in terms of maximum pressure at all and, as a rule, do not create what is needed.

In addition, they bring the air up to maximum pressure slowly, in minutes, and during delicate forging work, the blast needs to be changed in seconds. It is useless to install a receiver: when the valve is opened, the air in it will expand adiabatically, which at 0.3 ati will only produce zilch.

The final conclusion is that to pressurize the forge you need a centrifugal fan-volute. You don’t need to look at the specification; any centrifugal fan will provide the required maximum pressure based on the very principle of its operation. It is best to take snails from radiation protection systems of military equipment; they also have high productivity. True, the power supply is 12, 24 or 27 V DC, so you will need a transformer and a rectifier of appropriate power.

Any old household vacuum cleaner will work perfectly, but you need to take into account that its power will almost always be excessive. You should not reduce it with an LATR or a thyristor regulator: the motor will work in a difficult mode of excessive rotor slip and the service life of an already worn-out old man will be short. It is best to make a wide air drainage in the tuyere, as in the stationary forge described below.

Remaking a burner from an old stove

You can make a burner for a forge from a device used in gas stoves. To do this, you just need to correctly calculate the power using the following formulas:

determine the power of the stove (W) from which the burner is removed (you can find it out from the instructions or data on the unit body);
multiply W by the fuel efficiency (0.89-0.93) to obtain the required power for the forge (W1);
find out the calorific value of gas (Q). If propane is used, it will be 3600 kJ/m3;
calculate fuel consumption: T = 3.6 × W1 / Q.

Based on the calculation results, you can select all the necessary sealing elements, safety valves and control valves for the old burner, after which the device is mounted in the furnace.

Having manufactured the burner according to the drawings, it is necessary to check its functionality. Particular attention is paid to the tightness of the system. If you detect the smell of gas, immediately close the regulators, ventilate the room and look for leaks to prevent an emergency during operation.

In this article I will tell you how to make a forge that runs on propane.

A homemade blacksmith's forge can be used for forging knives, swords, working with glass, or any other work that requires heating something to a very high temperature.

Some parts of the mini forge are welded with a welding machine, but if you do not have welding skills, be smart - you can bolt the structure together or solder it.

Warning! Do not start making a forge at home using propane fuel if you do not have experience working with propane. Although propane is not dangerous when used correctly, there are still dangers. The burner is large and an explosion can damage your property and harm your health. I warned you and I do not bear responsibility for your further actions.

Always wear protective equipment when lighting and operating the burner. The minimum you should wear is safety glasses or a face mask, cotton or leather protective gloves. Do not wear clothes made of synthetic materials if you are going to work with a burner, as they will quickly flare up.