Thanks for your reply Dan. You mentioned you purchased a burner for your vertical atmospheric, may I ask which you purchased?

I have been giving thought to the T-rex family of burners, though they are not cheap, I figure they will end up about the same as a blown once I figure in the cost of a blower.

I am curious about the Zowada forge, I have never heard of that. Maybe not so practical but an interesting idea.

Anyway thanks for every ones responses, your input has been helpful. -Justin

Justin,

I bought the 3/4" T-rex. No regrets, it's the smoothest atmospheric I've used for sure.

You could probably buy two nice blowers for the price of the 3/4" t-rex though. Plus, if you weld billets of much weight, you will want the 1", or even two of them, which is much more.

You would be money ahead with a blown forge if you need one of any size.

Good luck! Dan

I am coming into the conversation a little late, but here is my two cents worth. I am completely in Karl Anderson's court with the vertical blower forge. These are too easy to make and will get extremely hot. I ahave attached a couple of diagrams of my pot forge. I used the bottom 16 inches of an old water heater I found in the scrapyard, lined it with Kaowool and coated it with refractory cement. There is a needle valve (not shown) on the gas line in between the shut-off vlave and a 4-position ball valve. The needle valve allows for fine tuning the gass/air combination and the 4-position valve gives me two different heat settings: two clicks lights the forge, three clicks for general forging, full open for forge welding. You will notice that I brought the burner into the bottom of the forge at an angle rather than straight into the center. This creates a swirling action with the flame and provides an even heat inside the forge. The doors are in the upper part of the forge keeping the workpiece out of the flame, suspended over it.

So how hot does it get? I accidently melted a piece of 1/2 inch plate into a blob when it fell into the forge durning some damascus making.......

I can email you some drawings and photos if you like. (I seem to have reached my maximum file uploads for this website)

Check out the pics at: http://www.dosgatosdesignsllc.com/#!the-shop

Blown vertical is by far the easiest to build and use!

|quoted:

I'm using an old shopvac that has a "blowing" air port on it. I have a valve on my air duct so I can regulate how much air the forge gets. I have also used the small exhaust blower for a high efficiency furnace. Some have enough air and some don't with those.

Kyle, I can't imagine the amount of noise that old shop vac makes!

I'm with Javan on the Kayne and Son's blowers. I have the 112 cfm blower on my Ed Caffery design horizontal refractory forge. I have to choke it. And, with the round fire box it swirls the air. The fire and air come in at the top on the side and blow across the forge roof, so no hot spot. I plan on building a vertical someday, and will use the same blower.

Good luck on your decision!

Bob

I thought since I've since had time to build a new forge I'd share my current opinion. I went with a blown vertical, previously I had a atmospheric horizontal. I have to say I am a big fan of the vertical forge design. With the horizontal there was always some part of the blade/billet that was directly in front of the burner. It is very nice having the more even heat, and not being in the highly oxidizing path of the burner.

My original plan was to go with a vertical forge with a 1" t-rex burner, but they took to long to get back to me and so I went with a blown burner. I used the blacksmiths depot blower and have been very happy with it. Overall though I think I would have preferred the t-rex. It could just be that I'm used to a venturi burner but the blown design has taken some getting used to, and I'm still not entirely happy. It could be my burner design, but I have a harder time getting the balance just right. My old burner it seemed like once I set the choke it was good to go. All the same it has no problem reaching a welding heat, so maybe it's just me, or maybe I just have to keep getting used to it.

Thanks to everyone who offered their advice. -Justin

I am curious if anyone here actually has Mr. Fogg's plans for the vertical Forge. I am very interested in building one, and I could probably puzzle it out, but his plans would greatly shorten my learning curve. Thank you gentlemen, and ladies.

Erich Orris

Erich

You can find all the info. you need to build a vertical forge on this Forum , and the ABS youtube sight.

Check out Master Smith Ed Caffrey's Building a Vertical Forge, in the Tools and Equipment page, also

Dan Hockensmith, youtube video on the ABS youtube sight.

The internet is full of info. to build one of these forges, the forge is very easy to build if you can

arc weld and fabricate. Do not try and make it complicated. I know if you can forge and complete a knife

you can build a vertical forge/Don Fogg's type.

Anthony