Thread: Planning a new little forge.

What's the first thing your gonna make??

Perhaps a silly question, but how are you going to get the blade out while the torch is burning?
If you put in a razor blank, and it is laying flat on the bottom, it may be difficult to grab with standard tongs through that little window. Especially since you can't really look inside during operation. Or are you going to open the door every time?

Just asking. I never used gas so I wouldn't know.

I was planing on making a little rack type thing that holds the blank right in the middle. I have enough of the insulation to cut out a piece and coat it with clay.

I made a 3D model and took a pic so you can visualize it. It's a simple model just so you can see what's in my mind.



I am also planning on making some tongs that will clamp a blank and hold it in there. Unless they melt while I am using them.
I could also open the door although my quick little clasp will have to be remodeled if I open it that often.

Ok I get it.
tongs in the fire -> not a good idea. They will get soft and lose grip. They'll bend like a noodle if you try to grip your piece. In fact, it'll be worse. If the tongs are plain construction steel whle the blanks are tool steel, you might end up burning your tongs (literally) by the time your tool steel hits welding heat.

the bracket thingy will work. Just be sure to make it out of something that won't melt or burn during extended periods at welding heat.
If you make it in metal, you might be in for a surprise

Originally Posted by Hirlau

What's the first thing your gonna make??

Well I was imagining it fired up and all glowing red inside. I thought about how I would put a piece of metal in it when the thought crossed my mind " I don't have any tongs" . I guess I have to make tongs first :<0).

Another possibility is to temporarily weld a piece of rebar to the tail of the razor blank, as a handle. You can hold it with your bare hand, and don't have to mess with tongs. You would need to add a support to the outside of the door end of the forge to support it.

Well today went well. I got up late but made up the time with some planning.

I mixed up the clay (Bubble Alumina) and went to town. It definitely was named right. The little bubbles are everywhere. The consistency was no where near what I expected and so I only did half the forge. The bottom is what counts for this type of clay anyway. I have 4 pounds of Satanite and I guess I will use that to do the top tomorrow. I hope the Satanite is more like the clay I know. I may have to stand to forge on it's head but I will get the top done. Too much heat comes through the cracks of the brick to the shell which is thin sheet metal. How do I know ? :<0)



Well while the clay set for 3 hours I ran to my metal supply guy and picked up some scrap to make an anvil stand. I got back home and whipped this out. It needs some things still, like I have to come up with a cool way to hold the anvil down and make a few hammer hangers and a tong rack. But it works . How do I know ? :<0)




I fired it up to finish the clay cure. According to the info where I bought the stuff after 3 hours you finish the cure by starting the forge and slowly bringing it up to max heat. So you can't see much in this picture but if you look close you can see the blue flame. This is as low as it will go and I let it sit there for about 20 minutes while I grabbed the rest of the stuff. What stuff ? :<0)



It got freaking HOT quick !! Then I turned it up.

Video coming soon ......apparently it was too big :<0(