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Gas Forge Pg. 2 |
Firebrick Gas Forges
The building of these gas forges was inspired by the work
of Helmut
Hillenkamp and Jim Kennady. I have seen quite a few gas
forges lately that were made using firebricks for the forge
body. I thought that this is a quick and cheap way to
build a good usable gas forge. So I decided to build a
couple of different size firebrick forges and see how they work.
I will be posting pictures and more information about
building them and how well they work as the building process
progresses. For the body of the first small forge I am
using (9) 9" long x 4 1/2" wide x 2 1/2" thick
2600°F Insulating Firebricks. The dimensions of the
interior are 9" deep x 4" wide x 4" tall. This gives the
interior of the forge a volume of 144 cubic inches.

October 10, 2008: Here is a picture of the initial layout
of the forge with some of the frame work cut for it.

October 10, 2008: I now have the top and bottom frame
pieces drilled and the bottom ones taped for 3/8-16 threaded
rod. I want to be able to take this forge apart so I
can reconfigure or replace any of the bricks.

October 17, 2008: Today I made the burner holder assembly.
I cut a piece of 11 gauge plate for the base of the burner
holder and used a 1 3/4" hole saw to cut the hole in it. I
cut a piece of 1 1/2" schedule 40 pipe 4" long for the burner
holder and drilled and taped three holes for 1/4-20 NC bolts.

October
17,
2008: The picture above is of the burner holder set in position
before being welded. Most of the pieces for the forge are
now cut to size all that needs to be done is weld the frame work
together and drill the hole in the top for the burner. I
used what steel I had laying around in the shop to make the
framework. The side pieces are 1" x 1/8" angle iron and
the flat bars are 1 1/4" x 1/4". The legs on the bottom of
the forge were made from 3/4" pipe. If you decide to build
one, you can see the framework doesn't need to be anything fancy
just functional and you can use what you have on hand.
November 08, 2008: When I first started building this
forge I was trying to think of a way of building it so you did
not need a welder. The only problem was the burner
holder. Bill Heuser saw my firebrick forge and decided to
build one and he came up with the idea of using a 1.5" floor
flange and a 1.5" nipple for the burner holder. So this
away there is no welding necessary. There is a picture of
his forge on my Customer forge page.

October
17,
2008: The picture above is of the drill bit that I made today
to drill the hole through the firebricks. It will act like
a bit in a core drill. I made the bit using a piece of 1"
pipe, 1" coupling, 1/8" x 1" bushing and a 1/8"pipe
nipple. I cut three 1/4" wide slots in the bit using a 4
1/2" angle grinder. The slots can be seen on the bottom of
the bit.

October 20, 2008: The picture above is of the firebricks
after I used the drill bit that I made to drill a hole through
them. I drilled the hole using a drill press and the
homemade bit worked great. The hole is the same size as
the end of the burner flare so this will make a nice transition
for the flame to go through. November 08, 2008:
After running the forge a couple of times I decided that the
hole in the firebrick was causing some restriction of the
flame. I take a round file and tapered the hole from a 1
3/8" at the top of the brick to 2 1/2" at the bottom. This
made a great improvement in the flame.

October
20,
2008: The picture above is the forge with all of the frame work
welded and the 3/4" side arm burner installed. I TIG
welded all of the framework this gives you nice clean welds.

October 21, 2008: This picture is the back of the forge
with a couple of spacers between the two bricks. This will
let you pass the stock through the forge if you are wanting to
heat the middle of a long piece of metal. When you don't
need the hole you can take the spacers out and close the back of
the forge up.

October 28, 2008: The picture above is of the interior of
the forge with about 20 psi on the gauge after running for about
10 minutes and the temperature was over 2200 degrees and
climbing when I checked.

July 06, 2017: The picture above is of a Firebrick Forge that
Bet Smith of Canada built showing the stock holder that she
added to her forge.
Please send
your comments or suggestions to : zman59@earthlink.net
Copyright ©2000 - 2018 Larry
Zoeller / Zoeller Forge
Last Revision 01/26/2018