Gas Burners for Forges, Furnaces & Kilns by Michael Porter ...Skipjack Press

Summary

“Gas Burners for Forges, Furnaces, & Kilns” is a do-it-yourselfers dream book, showing beginners how to make highly efficient gas burners inexpensively. These burners use simple gas accelerators as their central operating principle. All that is needed is a $2 MIG tip and some plumbing parts. This eliminates the need for a blower to supply combustion air, allowing the burners to be built in any size. Burners are featured, which are small enough to be used for a jewelry torch or large enough to heat any ceramic kiln. Because these burners are both powerful and portable, they can be combined with low cost space age insulating materials and common containers to build light compact heating equipment. Also described is a blacksmith's forge that can be carried anywhere and stored under a workbench; a portable metal melting furnace; a portable farrier's forge; a portable glass furnace/glory hole; and a mobile hot-work station that aids in combining several crafts. The burners and equipment provide an inexpensive way to get started in blacksmithing, foundry work, ceramics, or glasswork. General information and specific designs are given, enabling the craftsperson to build equipment tailored to their own desires.

Reviews

Some gas forge designs that have been available for several years, were mostly reconstructions of store bought equipment or complicated and time consuming projects. Recently however, many inventive people have refined home made gas forges into an efficient tool for blacksmiths. The Internet has facilitated the "build a better mousetrap" approach with countless people contributing to the contemporary gas forge construction. Fortunately, through “Gas Burners for Forges, Furnaces, & Kilns,” a consolidation of these efforts is funneled into a very fine and well tuned forge. And the forges may be built with basic skills.

Ideally any fabrication of gas forges should begin with a discussion about safety. And it does so here with excellent instruction about propane tanks and tool safety. The designs are for atmospheric burners using propane for fuel. Four sizes of burners are beautifully detailed, including 1/2", 3/4", 1" and 1 1/4" sizes. To add to the function, the advanced options section in this edition should optimize fuel usage, allowing more cost savings. A very detailed material and tool list accompanies all designs with wonderful directions.

The actual forges are built from propane bottles. But these include a full bottle, a clamshell for farrier use, and a furnace for foundry, pottery or glass work. Construction details include insulation, fabrication of doors, legs and carrying handle. Externally, the valve system design and a unique, insulated forge cart design are also shown.

Michael Porter’s fine illustrations match his excellent writing style. This shows through in the Dedication... to the future of the arts and crafts, allowing a forge for the people. “Gas Burners for Forges, Furnaces, & Kilns” is absolutely one of the best publications on the topic.

— David W. Wilson, Metalworking Associate Coordinator
Reviewers Consortium, Dallas, Texas

Mike Porter has written a great book for the person who needs to build a gas forge, a melting furnace, a gas burner for an existing forge , or needs knowledge about propane and burners in general. This book begins with a discussion of the safety required when storing and using propane, the proper use of tools, and doing shop work in general. The author emphasizes safety throughout the book. Chapter two includes a detailed discussion of just what a burner is, the considerations that go into an efficient design, discusses the fuel, propane, at some length, and describes the hardware that is involved in a successful, proper design. The remainder of the book describes how to build different size burners, forges, forge carts, and furnaces. Each chapter/project has a list of materials needed, the tools needed for the basic project and some extensions of the design to make the design more efficient. To avoid lengthy repetition of processes, the author refers one back to an earlier chapter where the process is described in detail. Included at the end of the book are a glossary of terms, a list of notes cited in the text, and an extensive list of resources.

This book contains all the knowledge needed for a reasonably mechanically-handy person to build and operate a state-of-the-art, gas-fired burner, forge or furnace. The author gives credit to others who helped develop and refine the designs used in this book.

Is this the ultimate book of burner or forge design? No, it’s not. However, it is the best book we have at the present time. This book is well worth its cost. I encourage people to buy this book either as a reference for propane-fired equipment or as a guide to build your own propane-fired equipment or just as a reminder of how incredibly resourceful the human mind is.

— by Mark Williams