Gas Forge Design

Here is a small forge design. 4"h x 6"w x 18" ID dimension it has two burner that i have yet to design but i think overall it looks pretty good. there is 2" of refractory all around and in the doors then wrap in 12gauge brushed stainless steel and the black is 1/8 mild steel cage and legs. I made it to match the grinder and the bandsaw blade i had designed previously.
just wanted to share with you guys to see what you think.

cheers

 

The one thing I thought of when getting the basics of a forge together were how nice would it be if it were modular.

A person could buy the basic unit say 6-10" long and then add on sections 6" at a time or 12" with the additional burner/s. So if the decision to build a sword or very long knives came up then you could purchase the modules needed and not have to purchase a second forge.

 

Nice design. Not sure about the burners being curved. My next forge is going to be more vertical so it will work for casting aluminum with a crucible.

I put a firebrick in mine to block off the rear section and leave that burner off. I like the idea. If it had one small burner per section. Just push them together when you need the extra room.

 

John i think you are on something great this one here would be easy to do just remove the two pins on the back door and pin another forge onto that one

 

Hi, I like the design and you got some pretty cool computer skills! In my experience Ive always found that burns come straight down either have a cold or hotspot directly under them, also 18" is a pretty big area to heat up. Even making sword the only time you need to heat more then 6 inchs is during heat treating. some things to think about...

Only other thing I'd change would be the handle placements, up at the top they might start getting really hot and when opened your hand would catch a blast of flames... or rather then a solid chunk of steel maybe the curly wire handles you see on fire places if you know what I mean!

Hope you make it come to life, share pics of it in progress!

 

Thanks for the input i did not think about the blast of fire with that handle desing i will try to change that. I was working on something a bit different i liked the idea that John pitch in of being modular so i will build the forge 12" long and then make two 6" add on section that you take the door hinge pins off and pin the extension in its place then pin the door to the extension. i think it's a good idea then you can have a 12" 18" and 24" long forge of needed and can make it smaller when your not heat threating

What do you think is the best way to install the burners to avoid that cold spot? on a bit of an angle ? never forge before or else seen a forge before haha but i do want one and will build it eventually

 

I know direct flame impediment onto the steel is a common design feature of home forges but if you look into heat treating furnaces used in industry you will find the flame is not directed directly onto the steel instead they rely on convective heat transfer to heat the steel slowly and evenly.
Now for forging it can be a bit of a mixed bag and for our purposes maybe will work having an indirect flame entering the forge chamber from the side at the top of the box. The real big concern with a diffuser plate of any king or even a deflector is that it can put back pressure on the flame small changes in angle should fix this up.

I really need to get some research done on commercial forges and heat treating furnaces before I go any further on my build.

I did look briefly at two subjects for ideas but the search term was a bit broad
"GAs fired heat treatment furnace"
"Commercial gas fired forge"

 

I may be over thinking things but the typical gas forge was made for farriers and the low carbon steels common in their field.

Just thinking if a forge was designed from the blank paper stage that it would be different for tool steels since loss of carbon (that possible?) from direct flame impingement might cause localized overheating