Over the past week I have been slowly firing the new welding forge… starting out below 1000F several times, shutting it down, and allowing it to cool. Day by day I inched up the temps to 1200F, 1400F, then 1600F… letting it cool down fully after each firing. Today I decided that, for better or worse, I would see what it would do. Any time you build a new forge, that differs as much as this one did from my previous welding forge, there is always some doubt about how it will perform… those thoughts are now long gone!
After starting the forge and letting it idle for about an hour, I inched the temp upward a bit at a time, and, at about 1950F, the steam started rolling, water was dripping off the front and back openings, and out of the burner holder. I just about shut it all down… JUST ABOUT… but took a chance and kept going. The temp stalled for a while right around 2100F, but I suspect it was due to all the steaming/dripping going on. The forge ran, holding at around 2100F for about an hour. As the steam dwindled, the temp started rising again, and before I knew it, the temp was 2430F!
After a sigh of relief, now knowing that this forge is going to reach the level of heat I was hoping for, I tweaked the fuel and the blower a bit, and it just kept climbing. I honestly do not know where “top end” is on this forge… my pyrometer tops out at 2499F… and there have been times when I check the temp readout and nothing but a row of “EEEE” shows… telling me the forge temp has topped 2500F!
And this was WITHOUT any coatings on the interior! I’m going to pull the forge off the table this week, and give a coat of ITC-100, and that should make it even better!
The forge actually got to 2490F, and I figured I’d better not press my luck. So I dialed it back a bit, and used it to forge down some 410SS that, in the future, will become laminated with Mosaic.
So, now you know everything about how I built this type of welding forge and burner. If it works for me, there’s no reason it shouldn’t work for you too!