In any forge workshop, a forge is used for a number of important operations - to heat up the metal just before forging, to cement it, or to engage in other heat treatment operations. Even outside the production hall, it allows you to get temperatures up to 1200 degrees. Most surprising of all, such equipment can be made by yourself - in its simplified version, it can be assembled in about thirty minutes, using only six fireclay bricks and a few pieces of steel. At the same time, both the temperature and quality indicators of the heating process itself will meet the requirements for small art forging and even melting.
Horns are divided into open and closed... In the first version, the source is warmed up in a special space-chamber.
For the second type, the fuel will be poured directly onto the grate itself, and the air will succumb from below (it is convenient to work with large workpieces on it).
How will homemade equipment work? The operation of any (both industrial and domestic) such equipment is based on the principle of a chemical reaction, which is produced by the combustion of carbon. This element is capable of literally "greedily" wanting to reunite with oxygen (which is what is noted in metallurgy). Ores of iron and other metals are oxides and their compounds. Oxygen, when heated, goes to carbon, and the metal begins to stand out in a free form.
However, you need to make sure that the metal itself does not burn out - overexposed, it will simply become overdried (this is, for example, cast iron).
That is why it is important to regulate the flow of air into the furnace. And this cannot be done without a properly constructed structure.
An industrial apparatus has a slightly different device from a homemade one. Before proceeding with self-production such a product, you need to study its basis:
Of course, in order to comply with all of the above, to an ordinary person not enough knowledge and funds. But a more simplified version is quite realistic to install on its own.
A temporary forge can be easily erected from available tools at hand. To do this, come in handy:
All work must be carried out in a pre-planned fire safe place. The correct sequence of steps can be considered the following:
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The working surface will be a table - that is, the base of the furnace, where the hearth with fuel will be placed. It is on it that metal blanks are heated. This design is usually very heavy. It is easy to make: for example, you can make a metal cover in 4 mm steel sheet.
How is the grille made? You can "adapt" for this an old cast-iron pan (just before that you need to drill several holes with a 10-mm diameter). Alternatively, a rim will do.
After completing work with the lattice, we adjust it by inserting it into the hole in the table. To better "fit", the brick can even be slightly sawn (after soaking it in water). The height of such a table can be chosen arbitrary, but it is better to do this at the level of the master's belt.
Is it possible to replace coal (more often coke) and a blowtorch with some other analogs? For example, it could be a gas burner. In industry - yes, easily for the simple reason that the monogases used there are specially designed for such purposes (they consist of a specially selected mixture). But household gas will not give in the use of optimal heating of air, which can heat the metal. In addition, there is an admixture of sulfur in a household burner, which can simply "kill" everything performance properties metal (for the reverse process, everything will have to be remelted). It also "poisons" steel and sulfur from wood.
Of course, you can fight this. Only the ways are somewhat "exotic":
homemade brick furnace
An additional supply of blowing air can be provided using a foot drive (usually mechanical). It can be replaced with both a fan and a vacuum cleaner. As for the latter, we can say that it is important here that the speed regulator is present and it makes little noise.
The brick forge is almost ready... Now it is important to learn how to use it correctly:
A homemade bugle will even help you do the welding.- only in this case, the parts must be heated to white heat (and this is already a temperature of at least 1300 degrees) and overlapped. But for this, it is better to use low carbon steel materials.
You can even solder on such equipment. For such a part, they are preliminarily tied with wire and covered with brown (or flux) and then sent to the furnace to heat up to a temperature of 900 ° - this will be visible by the orange color of the metal. It remains only to bring pieces of brass into the soldering points and wait until they spread along the seam.
Using such homemade equipment, you can make grates, fireplace tongs, decorative door and gate hinges, and even a candlestick. The assortment will depend only on the desire of the master behind the miner.
For a more detailed disclosure of the topic, we recommend watching the video on making a simple forge forge:
The forge is a very useful piece of equipment that can help the craftsman in the manufacture of various metal products. Having a forge can solve many problems associated with repairing old or making new products.
Of course, there is always the opportunity to purchase factory equipment of this type, if there is a need for it. You can also resort to the help of blacksmith workshops, which can definitely be found in almost every locality. But there is an opportunity to create a forge with your own hands. Having certain skills in handling the tools that will help in this matter, there will be nothing difficult in this. You need to make an effort, find all the components, the necessary tools, spend time, but you will have your own forge for use, which you can put in your workshop.
This device is used by craftsmen for the following operations: heating metal before forging, cementing as well as other operations. In artisanal conditions, a master using a forge forge is able to reach temperatures up to 1100 degrees, in some cases even up to 1200. Forges are usually represented as large stationary equipment, but there are also small portable samples. In principle, creating your own forge is not that difficult. Tips for creating such a forge will be given in the article below.
To use a traditional blacksmithing mine, you need to have certain skills and experience, as well as be sure to have necessary knowledge about which fuel is more appropriate to choose. Using a fuel such as natural gas for heating is unlikely to forge something significant, but it will help significantly simplify the design. The fact is that a gas forge can be assembled in half an hour or an hour, using only six fireclay bricks and a few scraps of steel. At the same time, the quality and temperature of heating will allow you to work with non-ferrous metals and small items.
In order to move on to tips for creating a homemade forge, you should first familiarize yourself with the traditional device of such a device:
In order for the user to make a forge on his own, he needs to first understand the principle of its work, in order to subsequently work with what is, without loss in quality. There is a chemical reaction of burning carbon: 2С + О2 = 2СО2 + 188.1 kcal... It is she who underlies the work of any device. The reaction immediately shows that carbon is a rather strong reducing agent, that is, it greedily combines with oxygen.
This reducing ability of carbon is partly used in the forge to prevent oxidation of the workpiece, that is, so that the metal in the fixture does not burn. Another property of carbon is also very important - its high calorific value. This property lies in the fact that if you blow enough air into the fuel mass, which would be enough for carbon, then you can burn it quite quickly, which will lead to a greater amount of heat released. This will allow you to develop more high temperature.
To prevent metal oxidation, the blast in the furnace should be regulated in such a way that the fuel lacks oxygen a little. But it should be remembered that if the workpiece is overexposed, then carburization will occur. This means that the metal will become overdried, that is, brittle.
A few words should be said about different types fuels that can be used to operate the forge. These are tips to help better deal with forges:
You can go to the procedure for making your own fixture of this type. Below are some of the most popular do-it-yourself forge making options. They differ in structure, but the principle of operation is similar for all of them.
Such a small forge of six bricks is the best option for beginner blacksmiths.
The grate shelves can be made from regular scrap steel pipes, while the grates themselves can be made of steel strip with a thickness of 4-6 mm. The figure shows that the grates must be screwed at an angle to capture the blast flow. For this option, the following fuels are suitable: coal or coke. Blowing and ignition are performed with a blowtorch, gas or fuel-air burner.
It should be remembered that when using a blowtorch, you need to put a partition, with a window under the nozzle, made of asbestos between the lamp and the fixture. This must be done, because the forge emits intense heat, which can cause the lamp to explode... You should use such a homemade mountain outdoors, since it does not have an umbrella with a chimney.
A portable blacksmith's forge can be made with your own hands from a gosper. The design can be understood from the figure below. The lining here is chamotte sand, which is mixed with chamotte marl.
It is not necessary to pressurize with a fan from a manual siren, as shown above. In principle, you can use any suitable one that will be at hand. It will be possible to attach it using metal corrugated steel. This, by the way, will make working with the length meter somewhat more convenient. In this case, you will need to use an air drain at the dead end of the duct.
Of course, such a portable forge forge has more options than the homemade six-brick forge described above, since it has a larger workspace and an open top. But it is worth mentioning the existing the disadvantages of such a device:
This is the most serious, complex and productive version of the homemade blacksmith's forge. It allows you to perform more complex manipulations.
The manufacturing sequence can be identified by looking at the figure below.
The photographs are numbered so that you can track the entire construction process of such a homemade forge.
A little advice for craftsmen who will be engaged in the manufacture of such a furnace: you cannot pressurize the air shower with a vacuum cleaner. In this case, there is a possibility that the fuel will blow out... It is better to find a snail from an auto-oven and subsequently use this particular device. Drainage to regulate the blowing will also not work, since the boost will be too weak. It is better to integrate the throttle valve into the air duct, and the lower lance cover should be made removable only for later cleaning.
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"Horn" is a word of Germanic origin horn, initially - "horn", then horn received many other meanings, if only the object somehow resembled a horn or originated from it; one of the highest peaks of the Alps is called Matterhorn. The ancient smelting forge, in which scorching iron was obtained, looks like a signal pipe from a horn, set with a bell down, so it became a forge, and from it a blacksmith's forge, although it no longer looks like a horn.
In the forge, the forge is used to heat metal before forging, cementing and other heat treatment operations. The horn is a very necessary thing for everyone who works with metal: it allows you to get in handicraft conditions up to 1100 and even 1200 degrees, it can be both a large stationary and a small desktop one, and making a forge with your own hands does not present much work and difficulties.
To use a traditional blacksmith's mine, you need to be a sufficiently knowledgeable and skillful craftsman, especially in terms of fuel selection, which will be discussed in more detail below. The basis of the hearth of the hearth - the tuyere - and the pressurization device also require a lot of experience. Although the use of natural gas for heating does not allow forging a Damascus blade or Indian damask vutz in a home smithy, like a classic coal forge, it significantly simplifies the design: a gas forge can be assembled in half an hour or an hour from 6 fireclay bricks and a few scraps of steel, and the temperature and quality of heating will be sufficient for the now so popular small art forging or melting of non-ferrous metals and alloys for casting.
The classic production forge is structured as follows, see the figure on the right:
In order to make the forge ourselves and use it successfully, we will figure out how the forge works, what is in it for what and what can be made cheaper and simplified in the conditions home use without deterioration in the quality of metal processing. The heart of the furnace is the chemical reaction of carbon combustion 2C + O2 = 2CO2 + 188.1 kcal... According to its energy yield (94.05 kcal / mol, i.e. 12 g of C, completely burned out, will give 94.05 kcal of heat), it can be seen that carbon is a very strong reducing agent, i.e. greedily combines with oxygen.
This property of carbon has been used since time immemorial in metallurgy for the smelting of iron and other metals: their ores are often the corresponding oxides or their derivatives. Carbon unceremoniously robs itself of oxygen, and the dispossessed metal has no choice but to stand out in a free form.
In the forge, the reducing ability of carbon is also used, in part, to prevent oxidation of the workpiece. Simply so that the metal does not burn out. But no less important here is the high calorific value of carbon: by blowing enough air into the mass of fuel for carbon to suffice, it can be burned quite quickly, and a large amount of released heat and temperature will develop high.
The blast in the furnace is regulated in such a way that there is a little oxygen in the fuel, this will completely prevent oxidation of the metal. However, if the workpiece is overexposed in the forge, then carburization will take place: the metal, especially steel, will become, as they say, overdried - excessively, disproportionately to the increase in hardness, brittle. An example of completely dry iron is cast iron. In metallurgy, in order to obtain structural steel from it, molten cast iron is subjected to redistribution: oxygen is introduced into it in a converter or in another way, taking away excess carbon.
This is how the old coal forge works. Initially, it was fired with charcoal, then with coke. Both are almost pure carbon. Basically the forge can be heated with wood, allowing them to burn out beforehand to coals, i.e. to charcoal; how - let's see further.
The device of the furnace is much simpler if you take purified monogas, propane or butane as fuel. They are composed of carbon and hydrogen, which is also an excellent reducing agent and, when combined with oxygen, gives even more heat. Moreover, the gas can be mixed with atmospheric oxygen in advance, even in the burner. How the gas burners for the forge are arranged, we will also figure it out further, but for now we state a fact: a gas forge made of bricks can be assembled in a hurry, as long as there is a burner, see fig. (You can also watch the video at the end of the section how to make the gas forge yourself).
However, this applies only to pure monogas for industrial use. Household natural gas, firstly, consists of a mixture of saturated and unsaturated hydrocarbons, which for complete combustion different oxygen demand and different heat generation. That is, it is fundamentally impossible to adjust the optimal air supply here for heating the metal for high-quality hardening or cementation.
Secondly, in the composition of natural gas in trace amounts there is sulfur, silicon, phosphorus. At least in the form of an "odorant" - mercaptan, artificially introduced into the household gas for immediate detection of leakage. If phosphorus and silicon, at precise dosage, can still be useful (the first is for surface phosphating; the second is for improving the magnetic properties), then sulfur is the worst enemy of steel, completely killing its operational value, and irreversibly, complete remelting is needed for recovery.
Therefore, domestic gas as a fuel for a furnace can be used, firstly, only after purification from sulfur-containing compounds. The simplest, but by no means free of charge, method is to pass gas from the cylinder, before supplying it to the burner, through a container with naphthalene. He is no less hungry for sulfur than carbon is for oxygen. Secondly, to heat in a gas furnace only non-critical parts that are not loaded in the future.; for example, decorative elements of artistic metal products.
Note: in wood, sulfur is also abundant enough to poison steel. But her and others, the so-called. alloying poisons can be burned out in advance, see below.
Now let's go back to the list at the beginning and see what's in the forge for what. And then we will already start making a forge according to the samples discussed below or on our own, based on the materials and capabilities available.
In industry, mainly quartz refractory bricks are used for the lining of the table, it serves for decades under intense workload. Homemade forge is usually lined with fireclay bricks, cheaper and more affordable. With occasional use, it will also last for years.
A firebox with a grate, an air chamber with drainage and a feed pipe with a valve form the heart of the hearth - a lance. In industrial designs, replaceable tuyeres are used under different ways heating and heated workpieces. For an amateur or an individual craftsman, one grate, tightly mounted in a table with one-piece perforated round holes, is often enough.
Air drainage is necessary to accurately and quickly, without taking your eyes off the workpiece, to regulate the blowing... An underheated part cannot be forged and it will not accept quenching; overheated and overdried will break under the hammer, and in the quenching bath it will lead at least, or even crack. And in any case, it will turn out to be unacceptably fragile. How to determine its readiness for forging or hardening by the type of a red-hot workpiece is a special conversation. But experienced blacksmiths know that it is necessary to have time to release excess air into the atmosphere in seconds.
The purpose of the chamber, or tent, forge, together with its umbrella and chimney, is to remove flue gases from the working area. During the preparation of coal mass (see below), they stand out in abundance, and none of them is useful for health. The draft in the chimney needs good, because the front (working) window of the tent and the openings for the long gauge (pipes, metal profiles) are constantly open.
As for the quenching bath and the gas-air chamber, they may or may not be, that's at your discretion. A quenching bath is a must if you are going to forge the so-called. damascus, products from damask steel. They need thermal shock hardening, i.e. from the forge - instantly into the bath.
Note: about the morals of the past. Once upon a time, damask blades were considered the best, hardened in the living body of a captive strong enemy or, in extreme cases, a muscular slave.
The gas-air chamber is used in industry:
At home, super-super specials do not get; the problem of condensate in production occurs when blowing from a common compressed air network. In a low-power furnace, the air heats up enough, passing through the holes of the lance grate, and you can clean the sulfur from the household gas by passing it through a layer of naphthalene, as mentioned above. In general, do a gas air vent, don't do it, it's up to you.
Finally, crucible. This is a heat-resistant hood that expands the extremely high temperature zone.... It is installed if non-ferrous or precious metals and alloys are melted in a crucible in a crucible (melting temperature of gold 1060 degrees, silver 960, copper 1080, brass and bronze 900), cemented parts in a muffle, etc. It makes no sense to look for an expensive ready-made crucible; in a home smithy it will be completely replaced by a dozen fireclay bricks, laid out on a dry basis in detail. In this configuration, a homemade horn will replace an expensive one.
To finally take on your own forge, it remains to find out, but how to drown it? Then it will be easier to understand the structures.
The best fuel for a furnace is fine coke... Blacksmiths call it koksik, and merchants also adopted the name. If there is coke on sale, but there is also coke in small packaging. It costs coke, depending on the region, 3 times more expensive than coal, but it goes for 1 forging, with skillful handling, 4-5 times less.
Coke is an almost pure amorphous carbon, carbon. Really clean: coke oven gas is a valuable chemical raw material, so metallurgists do not cheat. It ignites at 450-600 degrees, so a double kindling is needed: coal is fired with wood, and a layer of 150-170 m of coke is applied to it and the blast is turned on to the maximum. When the coal burns out (this can be seen by the flame), the mass of coke is raked, leaving a layer on the grate 1 / 3-1 / 4 of the height of the entire heap, a workpiece is introduced into the hearth and raked with burning fuel. The blowing is reduced to the norm for this operation and wait until the part matures.
To work with Damascus you need charcoal , it ignites at a lower temperature and burns out faster. preserves the microporous structure of wood. And also, like activated carbon in a gas mask, additionally absorbs alloying poisons. The fact is that damask steel is forged from a bundle of wires or rods of different hardness. The actual product is obtained by their mutual diffusion during forging. The process is very delicate, and the adjustment of the blast needs jewelry, and light porous charcoal responds instantly to manipulation of air drainage.
If fired with coal, it needs to be allowed to burn to carbon., i.e. volatile components, the same coke oven gas, must burn out. This is again evident from the color of the flame. But such a complete extraction of volatiles, as in a coke oven battery, cannot be achieved directly in the forge, so decorative or medium-quality household products can be forged on coal. As a rule, one load of coal is not enough and it has to be burned. Additional loading for afterburning is placed on the side of the table on the side of the hearth and, as it burns out, the resulting carbon is scooped up onto the workpiece.
Firewood is generally heated in the same way as coal, but only deciduous... It's just that a pile of firewood will burn to ash rather than completely release volatiles and form coal. In addition, it is in no way possible to allow unburned chips to hit the part, there are too many impurities harmful to steel in the wood. Therefore, firewood for carbon in the forge is burned in a shell, see fig. The additional loading is burned out by placing it close to it and, as the coals burn out, they are transferred to the shell with tongs.
For a novice blacksmith, to gain experience and flair, it is best to quickly make a mini-forge from 6 fireclay bricks, see fig. An ax blade, so that you can shave, or you can't heat a hunting knife in it for hardening, but you can heat trifle for artistic forging, the ends of a long gauge for forging or bending, or melt a precious stone in a crucible.
The grate shelves are made of scrap steel pipes, and the grates themselves are made of steel strip 4-6 mm thick. The grates must be screwed at an angle with a screw to capture the blowing flow, as shown in Fig. Fuel - coke or coal. Ignition and blowing - with a blowtorch, gas or fuel-air burner. If a blowtorch is used, an asbestos partition with a window under the nozzle must be placed between it and the blowtorch: the blower intensely emits heat and the lamp reservoir may explode. This mountain is used only outdoors, because there is no umbrella with a chimney.
Note: more interesting option- a small whipped-up forge of the minimum cost, see video:
The next construction is a portable horn made of ... a gosper. The construction is clear from fig. Lining - fireclay marl mixed with fireclay sand (ground fire of fireclay bricks, available for sale). Firing of the lining after drying - in the course of work.
The blowing is not necessarily a fan from a manual siren, as in Fig. You can use any suitable one, see below, attaching it with metal corrugation. This, by the way, will make working with the length meter more convenient. In this case, air drainage is needed at the blind end of the duct, like for a mobile furnace, which will be discussed later.
The possibilities of the gosyatnitsy forge are wider than that of the 6-brick one, because the workspace is larger and open at the top. But there are also significant limitations:
Once upon a time, every cavalry squadron of all armies of the world had a portable horn with a foot drive from a crank mechanism for forging horseshoes and horseshoe nails on the farm. It was called the cavalry, see fig. If we talk about non-volatile horns, then this is much more convenient than a fan from a siren: both hands are free. Moreover, savvy horsemen taught horses to press the pedal with their hoof.
Nowadays, the cavalry forge can be seen only in the museum of the Red Army. But - we will show ingenuity - old Sewing machines with a foot drive are still being operated and sold. And this is the same crank with a drive pulley of a suitable diameter and a strong bed for the table. Plus there are wheels on which you can roll the bugle.
Below we will move on to constructions that are already quite functional, for which a full blown is required. And electricity for the fan is everywhere. But what kind of blower is needed for the forge? Once upon a time the forges were blown with furs; who are curious how bellows work, see fig. on right.
Note: It was from the remnants of blacksmith's bellows that archaeologists established that metallurgy among primitive peoples had a mystical and sexual meaning - from Scandinavia to South Africa, the clay nozzle of the forge was made in the form of male genitalia, and the nest under it in the forge was female.
With regard to productivity, 200-250 l / min is quite enough for a stationary furnace on coke. That is, the power of the fan motor is sufficient from 80-100 W.
More importantly, we need to push air through a fairly dense mass of caked fuel. Therefore, when choosing a fan, first of all, you need to pay attention to the pressure it creates at zero performance, the so-called. ultimate pressure. The meaning of this parameter is simple: the fan will create the limiting pressure by forcing air into the closed cavity.
The forge requires a maximum pressure of 220-230 mm. rt. Art., which corresponds to about 0.3 ati. Axial fans (impellers) such are created only by industrial ones, such as VN-2 or its analogues. Household exhaust and industrial cooling units are not standardized at all in terms of maximum pressure and, as a rule, do not create what is needed.
In addition, they bring up the air to the maximum pressure slowly, in minutes, and in fine forging and forging work, the blowing must be changed in seconds. It is useless to put the receiver: when the valve is opened, the air in it will expand along the adiabat, which at 0.3 ati will only give a puff.
Total conclusion: to pressurize the hearth, a centrifugal volute fan is needed... You don't have to look at the specification, any centrifugal fan will give the required limiting pressure by its very principle of operation. It is best to take snails from the radiation protection systems of military equipment, they also have high performance. True, the power supply is 12, 24 or 27 V direct current, so you need a transformer and rectifier of the appropriate capacity.
Any old household vacuum cleaner will work fine, but keep in mind that its power will almost always be excessive. It should not be reduced with a LATR or thyristor regulator: the motor will work in a heavy mode of excessive rotor slip and the resource of an already worn-out old man will be small. It is best to make a wide air drain in the lance, as in the stationary furnace described below.
Here in fig. - Drawings of a well-deservedly popular design: an already fully functional mobile furnace designed for outdoor use. It was this kind of device that was meant when thinking about cavalry and sewing machines.
Pay attention to the node marked with number 1. This is a drainage of the fine adjustment of the blowing. Drainage tube slides out, slides in, and at the bottom, a longitudinal row of small, 1-2 mm in diameter, holes are drilled in it. By letting air into the drain, the boost can be controlled very precisely.
Stationary horns make experienced craftsmen under their anthropometric data. A piece of red-hot to orange iron weighing several kilos in ticks is an extremely traumatic object, so the ergonomics of a stationary furnace must be perfect.
Note: in the novel by A. N. Tolstoy "Peter the First" the case is colorfully described how the young tsar-artisan received a decent haul from a forced blacksmith for awkwardness while welding an anchor leg. Only huge physical strength Petra then prevented an industrial emergency.
The approximate dimensions of the stationary hearth are shown in Fig.
Exactly approximate, but the height of the table and its dimensions must be determined precisely:
Note: you do not need to make the table round, because you will have to take different parts with pliers. And rectangular - you can, if you work together with a henchman.
The manufacturing sequence of a stationary hearth is visible from Fig. It is better to lower the lance air vent with pressurization from a vacuum cleaner or an auto-stove snail lower, and at the same time make the air drainage damper (items 4 and 5) retractable forward. You will get an air receiver of a sufficiently large capacity, and the flap can be pushed in and out with the toe of a shoe.
Pay attention also to the one-piece grate, pos. 2. It is in this case special for forges. The secret is in the criss-crossing grooves dividing the slab into squares. Carbon deposits accumulate in them. If you drill holes in a smooth plate, then after each forging you will have to clean them with a steel bar.
But why is it impossible to make the grate type-setting from strips, like in a stove? Because the mass of fuel is not sintered uniformly. In the cracks between the slats, the air flow will jump to where it is more free to exit. In that place, the temperature will be higher, and the entire workpiece may turn out to be overdried by spots. An amateur master will not notice this by eye, but under load, local fragility will affect. And passing air through a two-dimensional regular structure (one-dimensional furnace grate) reduces the unevenness of air distribution by an order of magnitude. If the grate is three-dimensional, as shown in Fig. with a forge device at the beginning, the uneven air distribution has practically no effect.
But what if there is nowhere to take a special grate? Then an acceptable way out is a completely homemade lance with a concentric arrangement of holes with a diameter of 8-10 mm, see fig. on the right, such a system does not clog up so quickly and the blowing over the area provides more or less uniform. The principle of action is similar to a shower diffuser.
You cannot pressurize an air shower with a vacuum cleaner, the fuel will blow out. You need to take a snail from an auto-oven or something similar to it. In this case, it is also undesirable to regulate the blowing by drainage, the blowing optimum for uniformity of blowing is rather weak. A throttle valve must be built into the air duct, and the lower lance cover must be made removable for cleaning only.
And at the end we will give drawings of several burners for gas furnaces. They are quite suitable for artistic forging, and, whatever you say, it is the most demanded of blacksmithing works. All these burners are direct-flow injection burners. Much more efficient and versatile vortexes are too complex to make on your own.
The first, in the figure, is the most difficult. To do it, you need to be a turner-milling machine operator of at least 5 real grade. But it works on any gas (except acetylene, see below!), A fuel-air mixture and gives a very powerful pressurization: the large stationary furnace described above can also blow.
The next one (see fig.) Is simpler and contains fewer details, although even here it is necessary to sharpen gently sloping cones precisely. It blows fine too, but only works on propane. For butane, a very narrow nozzle is required, but butane is used little.
It is necessary to grind the clean outer surface of the D1 injector and drill the nozzle in one setting. The nozzle is drilled with a carbide drill and swept through. This is the main drawback of the design: a small accurate instrument is required, not everywhere and not always available.
Below in Fig. two burners are simpler. Left - chiseled universal for household gas or propane. A small mobile forge can blow at most, but an average turner can grind out the details. You just need to master the technology of fit of parts in hot interference. Which, however, is not difficult.
On the right is a homemade burner. Most of the parts, including the nipple, are from a bicycle. From a lathe, you only need to grind the smallest sprocket from a bicycle gearbox to size. This burner is omnivorous: propane, butane, household gas cocktail, fuel air. But only small brick closed forges shown at the beginning can be heated with it.
Note: under no circumstances supply these burners with acetylene! You will burn the metal in the forge and it will not take long before the explosion!
Well, we now know how to make a forge. And what to do with metal in it is a separate big topic. Blacksmithing is just beginning with the forge.
In blacksmithing, a forge is used to warm up and heat up metal blanks before heat treatment. The operating temperature in this device rises to 1200 degrees. By design, the device can be stationary and mobile (that is, it can be placed directly in a specially equipped forge or transferred to a place convenient for work). For industry, the equipment is completed with various accessories, for household use the forge is produced in its simplest form.
Due to the high cost of melting plants, not every user can buy such special-purpose equipment. For household needs, it is not difficult to assemble a gas forge forge with your own hands. subject to the correct definition of the shape, power and design of the pressurization system. A simple household forge for art forging or non-ferrous metal casting can be assembled from several fireclay bricks and sheet steel.
Making a horn at home for working with ferrous metal is not difficult. To make the simplest design can be from metal container, in the side of which it is necessary to make a hole for the gas burner. The fuel supply system can be assembled from a piece of pipe and a coupling; long bolts are suitable for the supporting structure under the tank. The lining of the gas hearth is carried out by filling a solution of alabaster or gypsum, sand and water.
The forge needs to be equipped protective cover, a ceramic tube or a matching bottle. After completing the lining and drilling the hole for the gas supply, the fixture is installed in a convenient place, but away from flammable materials. The advantages of the design include the ability to move the furnace, regulate the degree of heating of the workpiece, which is especially convenient when working with different forging materials.
Before proceeding with the assembly of the thermal unit, you need to understand the principles of a homemade forge for forging metal to simplify the design of the oven for home use. The operation of the device is based on the energy output when burning a mixture of carbon and oxygen, the percentage of metal release in molten form. During the smelting process, carbon stops the oxidation reaction of the metal, the constant blowing of gas into the fuel quickly increases the temperature in the furnace.
The process of heating metal requires certain skills and specific knowledge. It is not enough to assemble a mini-furnace with your own hands, you need to learn how to control the supply of oxygen to the fuel, the volume of which should be no more than 95%. If the workpiece overheats, metal carburization occurs, steel becomes brittle, turning into cast iron.
When developing a drawing of a future forging device, special attention should be paid to the type of energetic substance that affects the design of the hearth. The type of fuel for the furnace is:
Depending on the planned work and the size of the workpiece, the thermal furnace can be open or closed area hearth. The home craftsman should remember that household gas can be used in the furnace only after preliminary purification from sulfur by the "sweep" method through liquid naphthalene. Products made of metal heated by a gas burner cannot be used as loaded parts.
The main requirement for securing the wizard is to install a powerful enforceable ventilation system even if a domestic bottled gas soldering machine is used for the forge device. The device will allow you to make decorative elements of the interior and exterior in your own garage.
When making a forging furnace with your own hands, the blowtorch must be installed in a recess, along the perimeter of which a fireclay brick with a grate should be laid. When laying refractory bricks, it is necessary to observe the distance between the enclosing elements in order to ensure the flow of air masses into the combustion chamber. The angle of the blocks relative to each other building material determined by the master.
Charcoal or coke is poured into a recess, equipped with bricks on a grate, a branch pipe is put on the blowtorch, which is fed under the grate. The blank for forging is laid in the gap between brickwork, coal concentrate is ignited from below. To remove smoke, a probe, tent or chimney is installed above the grate.
The simplest model of a solid fuel device for a private smithy is an outdoor open stove, which does not require the installation of a ventilation system to equip. The construction of the structure provides for the pouring of a reinforced concrete base, at the base of the structure it is necessary to lay wall bricks. The table is set at a comfortable height, a hole for a blower is left in one wall.
The mountain underneath is laid out of fireclay bricks supported by steel corners; in the middle of the structure, a cavity is left for the grate. A chimney or probe will help to provide sufficient draft in the hearth, the air supply system is mounted at the final stage construction works... The installation of an electric fan in the chimney or the installation of bellows will help to strengthen the draft.
In a home forge, a quenching container and a gas-air chamber are optional. They can be useful when, in the process of working with damask steel, it is required to carry out thermal or shockproof hardening. In the gas-air chamber:
For the smelting of precious metals and the creation of an alloy of non-ferrous metals, it is necessary to manufacture a furnace from a heat-resistant material. The device, made in the form of a hood, allows to increase the operating temperature in the furnace without the risk of overheating of the workpiece and the formation of carbon deposits.
To make a simple home gas forge, you can use spare parts from an old bicycle. If on lathe turn the "sprocket" from the gearbox, the device can operate on butane or propane, heat closed forges of a small volume. An important condition for using a portable design is the prohibition on the operation of the burner with acetylene, since the high temperature of the flame can burn the former "asterisk", and the furnace will simply explode.
It is not difficult to assemble such a device, while a home-made forging forge is not much inferior to industrial ones, but it is much cheaper. The main thing is to observe safety rules during manufacture and use.
Forged products have long been used in industry and in everyday life. They build beautiful fences, decorate room fireplaces, canopies over front door... Forged flower stands find their place in the rooms of the house. All these things can be made in a home workshop with some equipment.
The forge is capable of heating to high temperatures, so its main purpose is forging decorative metal products.
For forging metal, the main thing is to heat it up to the required temperature. This is done using a forge. If on summer cottage there is a shed in which you can equip a home workshop with a forge, it is recommended to make a forge forge with your own hands. Its different designs differ only in the type of fuel used. The rest of the differences are of no fundamental importance.
Blacksmiths more often use fuel in the form of coke, it gives a high temperature, emits little waste.
Before making a forge, you need to choose a forge type. Horn closed type has a chamber for heating the workpiece. This design is the most economical in terms of fuel costs. But the size of the workpieces has limitations related to the size of the heating chamber.
In the open-type forge, fuel is poured onto the grate from above, and an air stream is supplied from below. The preheated workpiece is placed on the fuel. This allows large-sized workpieces to be heated.
Holes are drilled in a steel plate grid, after which it is inserted into the center of the table
The sequence of actions for making a forge can be as follows:
A homemade blacksmith's forge can be supplemented with various devices inherent in industrial plants... Sometimes these devices cost almost nothing, but add convenience to the work.
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Image 1. Diagram of an industrial furnace.
Industrial forges include (Image 1):
