75 dollar Amazon propane forge. Is it any good?

hey folks john here with hickory forged welcome back hey my first time here welcome so what's going on today i'm down here in the workshop and i got something pretty cool so a question i'm often asked is about beginner gas forges uh there are quite a few inexpensive options out there these days you know if you're just somebody who's gonna forge on the weekends or every once in a while it may not make sense for you to you know spend several hundred dollars building a professional grade forge when you just want to make little stuff here and there so what i got here is a little single burner gas forge that can be bought on amazon at the time of this recording i'll put a link in the description for 75 if you can believe it so when this little guy first came on the scene a lot of people were like you just you know 75 there's no way it's any good but a few reviews started to come in here and there it's always kind of a toss-up whether or not they actually have them in stock because i guess they tend to go pretty quick but i've been wanting to get my hands on one i finally got one i ordered it i think this past tuesday and today's friday so it got here pretty quick but anyway let's get this guy opened up and see what we got so out of the box i'm actually pretty impressed it comes with literally everything you need to get moving uh even comes with a regulator it's only a 20 psi regulator a 30 would be better but that is serviceable but see yeah that regulator alone is usually like 20 25 so i don't know how in the world they're making these for so cheap but it also comes with a a good bit of satanite refractory mortar burner assemblies right here here's the body of the forge this is pretty interesting it's stainless steel it looks to be about 20 gauge or so but it's made of two pieces you can see they look like they were all bent in a big jig or something and then to actually hold it together they've just got these little divots crimped into it so it's not welded together or anything the burner port is spot welded on it looks like uh made in usa also which is kind of cool but you got your ceramic blanket right there rigidizer do not drink and it even comes with a fire brick so that's kind of cool and we got instructions and warnings and all that it's uh i've read through this and they lay everything out so it's pretty idiot proof so uh let's let's get started on this little guy all so i got the instructions right here step one apply a rigidizer mix the rigidizer vigorously for 45 seconds before using remove blanket from the forge uncurl it and place on a flat surface spray water lightly on all sides of the blanket this is done to prepare the blanket for applying the rigidizer so you will need two spray bottles one for water and one for rigidizer okay let's see where were we spray the rigidizer on all sides of the blanket use all 16 ounces cover evenly make sure the entire blanket is red install the blanket into the hero forge while the blanket is still wet make sure the burner in the forge slides through the round hole in the blanket rigidizer dries slowly about 24 hours so speed is not critical here it's worth mentioning that rigidizer isn't technically a required step um if you watch any of my forge building videos or anything like that i generally don't use it all it does is stiffen up your cable and make it easier to apply your refractory but it doesn't uh at the end of the day if you use rigidizer or not it really doesn't matter but if you're gonna be applying your castable by hand it could help you it's worth mentioning that the uh the loose fibers that come off of this stuff are really really bad for you so uh i'm gonna be wearing a mask while i work with it i do think it's pretty cool the hole for the burner comes pre-cut that's a that's a nice little feature if i sound weird it's because i'm wearing my respiratory first step spray with water pretty self-explanatory so all righty we got our wool installed you know nothing to it really all that brown stuff is just dirt from my work table that's not going to hurt at all uh now we'll just let that guy dry overnight about 16 hours since i put the rigidizer on and it's still pretty wet if you had the patience you could just leave it there until it was completely dry but i'm in a hurry so we're gonna go with option b fired up drawing fire up the forge on low pressure blah blah blah blah 30 to 60 seconds do this several times now let's do it really so let's get this here burner assembled so this right here is the air choke assembly has two little set screws with it and i threw them on the ground no worries but anyway it just slides on just like that put you one of your set screws in and then you can tighten and loosen this part and slide it up and down to control your airflow this is how you control your fuel air gas mix or fuel air mix i should say with an atmospheric burner like this so that's all there is to it and to install the burner assembly it's pretty simple i got the other set screw slides whenever you put the burner in just make sure it's not accidentally protruding into the forge what you see there is the burner port which i suppose is also acting as the flare for the venturi which is kind of interesting because flares are actually normally considered a consumable but this is an integral part of the forage so i'd be interested to see how well it holds up under really heavy long-term use but that's all there is to it so to actually turn the forge on want to make sure your ball valve is turned on right now the regulator is actually turned all the way off so what i'm going to do that's really all there is to it it's pretty normal for the burner to sputter whenever you're trying to dry the forge out or anything like this so uh don't worry about that so we'll let that run for a minute cut it and do that a few more times to dry out the rigidizer let's do it really i don't know if you can see or not but there's a whole bunch of steam coming out of here and that's also completely normal so don't worry about that this is actually taking a little while it seems like as the rigidizer completely dries you know the wall turns back to white instructions say it may or may not do that so if yours doesn't you know don't worry too much but it's not quite dry right there very much so um i got the back blocked off and the front partially blocked off just to keep some more heat in and we'll keep going until dried it's dry is uh good and dry this stuff is uh actually really stiff now that's kind of cool like i said i've never really bothered with using rigidizer before because technically it is an optional step but i can see how it's going to make applying the castable easier worth mentioning that uh once the fibers of the wool are rigidized like this it is a little bit safer to work with as long as you're not cutting it or anything you don't have to worry too much about the fibers coming loose and breathing them in but it's not safe to use the forge like this because the turbulence of the fire going through it as well as you know taking your work in and out rubbing on it will you know damage the rigidizer and make the fibers come loose and then you breathe them in and that just ain't no good so it does need to be sealed with a castable refractory or refractory mortar like what we're going to be using also if you do any forge welding flux will destroy this very very quickly so needs to be covered we're going to put our castable refractory on following the instructions first coat we need 1.25 pounds and 5.6 ounces of water it is pretty cool they put the measurements on the directions for applying you know just kind of moisten the ceramic wool a little bit and then uh just rub it on there they say to use a brush but the best tool i've ever found for doing this is just my hands so i'm just going to use my hands but there really ain't nothing to it alrighty we got our first coat put on as well as the uh the seams on the front and back done i don't know if you noticed or not but i actually forgot a step they say uh to spray down your rigidized wool with a little bit of water before you put the refractory on i forgot to do that honestly i've built dozens of forges and i've never done that and i have yet to have a significant problem some slight cracking in the refractory is completely normal the first time you fire it but they do include extra so if you do get cracks you can kind of repair them as you go so like i said i did accidentally skip a step but i don't think it's going to be in the end of the world and if you're wondering why most forges don't come with this already on because once this stuff is dry it's going to be really really brittle so it uh there's no way a forge that is already coated in the refractory is going to make it through shipping without the refractory falling apart so if you're wondering why doesn't it come already done that's why so i set this outside to let the first coat refractory dry i'm following the instructions as best i can we'll let it dry till tomorrow then we'll put the next coat on all right this guy's set up for a little over 24 hours or so our factories hard and dry to the touch so now we'll put on the second coat using 0.75 pounds of refractory and 3.35 approximately fluid ounces of water second coat's done and we'll just let that guy sit for another day alrighty so last step before the forge is ready to use is firing the refractory so i've got the burner installed i've got the tank hooked up got the regulator that came with the forge hooked up i have the back end blocked off to contain as much heat as possible once i get it going a little bit i'm going to block off the front end too so it heats up as evenly as possible and drives out the moisture from all sides but the idea here is just to drive out where any moisture might be left in the refractory and that's what actually makes it one solid piece and gives it the thermal conductive properties we need for forage lining so you know another do it ball valve is really the regulator's all the way off so we can open the tank get our ignition source going and then just slowly let in the gas just like that leave it on its lowest setting and just kind of drive out the moisture you know like i said it doesn't do it really so for your burner to kind of sputter like that whenever you're firing the refractory is completely normal because all the moisture left in the mix is kind of acting as a heat sink so the burner's not really behaving properly so it's on its lowest setting we'll run it for a minute turn it off and then do that a few more times so you can kind of see what's going on here your refractory will kind of change colors from a gray to a darker gray black ash charcoal color as it's being fired so you know that's just kind of an indicator when you're done another do it really so this is on the third firing cycle as you can see the ford is starting to contain the heat really really well actually even though it's not completely dried out so i'm just going to keep going until i get a nice uniform finished color on my uh my refractory mortar but that's really all there is to it alrighty so we got a nice uniform color change in our factory no major cracks developed or anything like that so that's good to go i've got the back end blocked off i have the fire brick that came with the forge set down on the floor some people will actually put the fire brick in before they put the refractor on and permanently affix it to the floor i don't recommend doing that because if you're going to forge weld the borax you use for your flux is actually really acidic and really aggressive and even before long through that hard fire brick it will eat through it and damage the lining of the forge so it's just a better idea in my humble opinion to have you know a sacrificial fire brick that you put in there every time you need to forge weld or anything like that so you want it to be removable but there's that so uh let's give this guy the real test and see if it'll weld quick note while i'm thinking about it a question that i get a lot of times when people are building gas forges is should i leave the back end enclosed permanently this is usually seen when people build forges out of propane tanks and stuff like that and the answer i'm going to give you is no reason being is you can always close in the back of an open back forge but you can't open up the back of a closed end forge and if you want to do something like architectural iron work or anything like that or ornamental stuff the ability to pass a long piece through and put a twist or bend exactly where you want it is going to be invaluable also with an open back forge by painting the heat you can heat treat a blade that is approximately twice the length of your chamber so if you're building a gas forge you always always always want to leave the back end open but again that's just my opinion so take that for what it's worth so this ir thermometer isn't the most accurate thing in the world and given the fact that regulator has no gauge on it i have no way of knowing what psi we're running at but i didn't turn it much it's maybe running at five or six and let's see what we got about 15 1600 or so and that's running on a pretty low psi so uh we'll get some scrap steel in there flatten out and see if we can forge weld a couple of pieces of some scrap half inch round bar first thing we want to do is take our work pieces and flatten out the last couple inches or so so we got nice flat surfaces for the porch weld but there really ain't nothing to it all righty now that we've got our round bar flattened out ready for the forge welding attempt we're gonna go ahead and crank the regulator up a good bit higher to about 10 12 or 15 psi or so and kind of see you know what happens we'll see if this little guy can weld it's worth mentioning more gas you will need to kind of adjust your air mixture using the air choke here to keep a good mix going but there really ain't nothing to it so as i'm watching this forge heat up and kind of play with the fuel air mix i'm actually really impressed with the adjustability of the air choke normally with atmospheric burners you'll see what's called dragon's breath kind of lazy flames coming out of the forge and what that is is uncombusted fuel so you're really not getting as much heat out of your propane as you could most of the time but as you see there's very very little of that coming out so like i said so far i'm really impressed with this so to get ready for the fork welding you want to take your brush through some flux on there what the flux does is kind of melts onto the metal and prevents any form of oxidation from forming now the next step is to try to feed them together there you go so after using this forge a little bit and kind of put it through its paces and see what it can do i've gathered my thoughts in my little notebook here and i kind of want to talk to you about the pros and cons of the forge first things first nobody sent me this i paid full price for this this video is not sponsored by anyone or anything of the sort so there's that first things first let's kind of talk about what i've determined to be the pros of the forge number one it's inexpensive a question that i'm often asked is you know hey john i want to get into forging i can do gas forges where i'm at where can i get a good forge without spending an arm and a leg so 75 shipped to your door i still for the life of me cannot figure out how they're doing that because to buy all the separate pieces to assemble a forge like this you know the wool the refractory the burner kit the stainless for the body the labor to assemble it all and the cost of shipping it all plus the regulator they must be really really buying in bulk and working on razor thin profit margins so there's that uh number two it's user friendly it comes with every single thing you need as well as some pretty idiot proof instructions they even include extra refractory mortar for down the line when you have to make repairs if you don't know the lining of your forge from getting scraped on and rubbed on and banged against overtime does degrade and does need to be replaced every so often so there's that uh all parts are included number three it will forge weld so if you want to do axes tomahawks or if you want to do some damascus or something like that it it will reach the heat necessary to do that and even the chamber is pretty reasonably sized for a single burner forge that must have something to do with the intentional pentagon design or something like that but you could realistically make a pretty good size pattern welding billet in that forge or even a full-size felling axe or something like that again with the pros it doesn't need power you know if your forging area is far away from your house or your garage or something like that your venturi burners that run off the atmospheric pressure they don't require electricity to run whereas something like ribbon burners or forced air burners you do got to have an electric blower now the upside of that is they do forge well at a much lower psi you use a lot less fuel to reach the uh the high heat you need to work with but that's like i said you know inexpensive user friendly does reach forged welding heat and does not require let's go through the cons real quick cons insulation could be better you've only got one layer of your ins wool which is really your main insulator and your forge having two layers or even three is even better because that's going to contain the heat and much much much more and save you a lot of fuel which kind of segues me into my next target ball which is a bit of a gas hog you have to crank it up to about 15 or 20 psi to reach welding heat and run your air truck all the way open that being said i am pretty impressed with the burner design with how well it maintains a neutral fuel air mix but uh you know with my ribbon burners i can forge well at five psi but again that requires an electric blower whereas the uh the atmospheric burners don't all that being said is this little forge something i would recommend and the answer is actually a pretty hard yes you know like i said before a question that i'm often asked is you know john i want to get into blacksmithing i want to make knives i want to make little ornamental stuff for my house here and there i want to start doing craft shows to make money to start building a side business where can i get a gas forge without spending an arm and a leg and i for the life of me can't think of anywhere where you can beat 75 dollars shipped to your door with everything you need to get it up and running for a unit that will forge weld so for what 95 of what hobbyist blacksmiths want to do it's going to accommodate 95 of what you want to do if you um you know if you're not looking to build this into a huge business or anything like that this realistically could be the only forward you ever need and even if you're a professional smith if you want to travel and do demo work or if you want to have just a nice little backup unit to have in case the power goes out and your ribbon burner forge isn't working or your blower for your coal forge isn't working or something like that for 75 bucks it really wouldn't hurt to have one or two of these little guys sitting around that being said i'm not keeping this little forage i've already got a backup venturi forge in case i ever need it this is going to go to a friend of mine who's another local artist who is trying to get a little bit of a blacksmithing setup going but so if you're considering purchasing one of these forges for your shop whatever your reason may be if you're a hobbyist looking to get started or you're professional looking for an inexpensive backup unit i hope you found this video helpful if you like what you saw like share subscribe all that jazz always more cool stuff coming there's links down in the description to the patreon if you want to support the channel etsy if you want to purchase any of my work as well as my other social medias if you want to follow me instagram is where i'm the most active you know i try to post to the story every day there's always a lot going on so if you want to stay up to date with the day-to-day goings-on here is the shop as well as my business that's where i'm the most active like i said but that's all i got for you and uh y'all take care you

Channel: Old Hickory Forge

Views: 396,700

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Id: gniZXNxXL60

Length: 20min 7sec (1207 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 15 2021