Thread: Lpg forge

Making a start on a wee forge, if anyone has done much the same I'd be interested to see/hear opinions.

Debating weather to make my own burner, by the time I buy reg fittings and valves etc it's probably not much different to buying one through artisan supplies, and atleast that would be a proven design.

Likely use a ceramic blanket and rigidizer to stiffen then coat with some mortar.

Bit of scrap stainless and added some legs and burner inlet (excuse the rubbish welding). aiming to have about 150/300mm tunnel after insulation plus mortar. From the research I've done it's quite a bit of trial and error regarding the opening size so probably use a shelf and a bricks for the mean time.

Keen to make some knives and potentially some tooling and possibly try heat treating a reamer.



Knife blank I tried to heat with the map gas but couldn't get it hot enough,hence the forge build (green bit is the 3d print template) single bevel petty knife in 1084.

I Built my own burner and forge , I went for the blown air style burner instead of the venturi. works well and you can control the air flow easily . My first forge i went for the kaowool type which works great , but if you plan on any forge welding and using borax as flux you will want to go castable refractory. the borax will eat the kaowool like candyfloss. the kawol forge will heat quickly , the castable will take longer but will hold the heat better once up to temp. at least go for a fire brick base where most of the flux ends up. you want your burner to be slightly angled too so it swirls the flame around the forge a bit . not critical but will give you a hot spot otherwise.

Originally Posted by c-dog

Making a start on a wee forge, if anyone has done much the same I'd be interested to see/hear opinions.

Debating weather to make my own burner, by the time I buy reg fittings and valves etc it's probably not much different to buying one through artisan supplies, and atleast that would be a proven design.

Likely use a ceramic blanket and rigidizer to stiffen then coat with some mortar.

Bit of scrap stainless and added some legs and burner inlet (excuse the rubbish welding). aiming to have about 150/300mm tunnel after insulation plus mortar. From the research I've done it's quite a bit of trial and error regarding the opening size so probably use a shelf and a bricks for the mean time.

Keen to make some knives and potentially some tooling and possibly try heat treating a reamer.
Attachment 258404


Knife blank I tried to heat with the map gas but couldn't get it hot enough,hence the forge build (green bit is the 3d print template) single bevel petty knife in 1084.
Attachment 258406

Hoki mai. I came across a little devil twin burner lpg forge on dollar reserve, yep, the yellow site. Ended up paying 148 bucks delivered and it is a beaut, better than the shitter coal fired one l built. SIL built his own gas one and cost shit loads more. Just saying, sometimes it pays to check what's there, by the way, it was a brand new unit l got came with all the bricks and other shit that's needed.

You drink good beer

Don't use a standard regulator, you need an adjustable pressure regulator, for the burner 25mm pipe with .6 or .9 mig weilding nozzels and a ball tap you have your basic setup

Originally Posted by ANOTHERHUNTER

I Built my own burner and forge , I went for the blown air style burner instead of the venturi. works well and you can control the air flow easily . My first forge i went for the kaowool type which works great , but if you plan on any forge welding and using borax as flux you will want to go castable refractory. the borax will eat the kaowool like candyfloss. the kawol forge will heat quickly , the castable will take longer but will hold the heat better once up to temp. at least go for a fire brick base where most of the flux ends up. you want your burner to be slightly angled too so it swirls the flame around the forge a bit . not critical but will give you a hot spot otherwise.

no welding planned at this stage so think ill go the ceramic blanket. the inlet already slightly offset so hopefully works ok, should be easy enough to make an angled insert. Thinking the venturi is going to be an easier setup, no mucking around with an external fan. have you got any pics of yours, interested to see the blower setup. cheers

Originally Posted by country cuts

Don't use a standard regulator, you need an adjustable pressure regulator, for the burner 25mm pipe with .6 or .9 mig weilding nozzels and a ball tap you have your basic setup

yea already knew i was in for a regulator, just debating weather to spend the money on a smaller burner already good to go or make a bigger one myself for similar coin.

my mate has a forge. ceramic heat tiles/bricks.

I'd say you'd get better results with ceramic wool and some sort of Ali foil tape. then some way to make a slit to keep most of the heat in.

There was a really good write up on this in a back issue of the Shed magazine. Be worthwhile going to the website and having a look for it...

i used wool for mine and put a brick in the bottom so if your using flux for welding you can replace it once it gets chewed out.

The Gameco ( https://www.artisansupplies.com.au/p...e-burner-65mj/ ) forge kit is the way to go. I have built a couple with one on a 9kg gas bottle using this kit and another 3 burner kit on a longer one for swords and longer chef knives etc. I used the supplied bricks for the forge floor with the rest being the wool with rigidiser. The bricks are supplied as a door but I use a heavy piece of angle iron which I find is much better. I bought an extra $20 soft brick from Mega mitre 10 (200x125x20) as a sacrificial floor for when I am forging using borax flux as that will eat away the wool even with the refractory cement. I am easily able to get to and hold forging temps over 2000 degrees F with the venturi but one thing you will find is that a single gas bottle will "freeze" so it is best to use a pair of bottles with a manifold connection. If you are going to use the forge for more than occasional use you will find that a pair of 18kg bottles will be better with a pair of 9kg bottles as a bck-up in case you are halfway through a project and the main bottles run out of gas so you can easily switch over the the smaller bottles to finish what you started.

Thanks for the replies, I've ordered the small brick kit for now and will get some ceramic blanket and rigidizer locally so should get me going, also got a couple of big bottles for the house cooking and hit water I can borrow if the 9kg doesn't keep up.

Will put up some pictures as I progress

When I went on weekend course to make a knife.his forge was made from old lpg bottle.

Ended up with the kit, few things learnt and ironed out, just using a basic Brick setup and made my own burner, the one supplied wasn't going to well so made a bigger one, 20mm pipe with 1 inch t. .9mm mig tip for the jet. The lpg bottle was a bit low so that was likely the main issue. Gets hot enough to soften 10mm, made some tongs, also got a wee cleaver in the oven for heat treat. Bit of fun anyway.

Finishing the original rig, went to a swap meet, picked up a couple of hammer handles and an abused meat cleaver, will see how the mortar goes on the forge, I'll make up some shelves as required.