High Altitude Forging

[LeviC]

Hello everyone. I've been lurking on this site for years. Finally signed up for an account a while back. Mainly I've just been mimicking a sponge. ;-) there is so much to learn. When I stumbled across Don's site many years ago I was looking to get into bladesmithing and built his vertical forge featured on his site. It has worked great for years and has been invaluable as a tool to learn with.

 

However, I'm looking to build a forge for a friend that would like to try his hand at making sharp stuff. My forge is fed with a blower, almost an exact copy of Don's. But I wonder about building a Venturi design. The problem I'm looking at is that we live at 7000' elevation. I don't know if there is enough air up here to make running a Venturi forge possible or worth the time to build. So I thought I'd come to you guys for some advice.

 

What do you think? To Venturi or not to Venturi at 7000' elevation? That is the question. Thanks guys.

[C.Anderson]

Hello everyone. I've been lurking on this site for years. Finally signed up for an account a while back. Mainly I've just been mimicking a sponge. ;-) there is so much to learn. When I stumbled across Don's site many years ago I was looking to get into bladesmithing and built his vertical forge featured on his site. It has worked great for years and has been invaluable as a tool to learn with.

 

However, I'm looking to build a forge for a friend that would like to try his hand at making sharp stuff. My forge is fed with a blower, almost an exact copy of Don's. But I wonder about building a Venturi design. The problem I'm looking at is that we live at 7000' elevation. I don't know if there is enough air up here to make running a Venturi forge possible or worth the time to build. So I thought I'd come to you guys for some advice.

 

What do you think? To Venturi or not to Venturi at 7000' elevation? That is the question. Thanks guys.

 

 

Ron Reil says yes:

 

I used four Reil burners on my 24" long cylindrical forge, but two or three are all that is necessary, and two will probably be enough in most cases. I live at an elevation of 2300 feet, and I can easily weld with only one burner running at 6 psi propane pressure. They are also being used successfully at over 7000 feet elevation, and they can weld easily at that elevation. If you would like to see more images of this forge, please go to my Forge and Foundry Page. Thank you.

 

The mini mongo series of burners, and the Zoeller style sidearms are both supposed to be even better, if you're building your own burner(s). If you are willing to buy...the T-Rex is highly recommended. I chose two mini mongo's for my 15"x6" horizontal forge chamber...but haven't finished it so I can't speak from experience. I'm using a paint can forge to great effect right now =D.

 

Again...this comment isn't based on my own experience...but many are using the Reil style burners (and the derivatives I mentioned) with great results, even at elevation.

 

Cris

[guarnera]

Hello everyone. I've been lurking on this site for years. Finally signed up for an account a while back. Mainly I've just been mimicking a sponge. ;-) there is so much to learn. When I stumbled across Don's site many years ago I was looking to get into bladesmithing and built his vertical forge featured on his site. It has worked great for years and has been invaluable as a tool to learn with.

 

However, I'm looking to build a forge for a friend that would like to try his hand at making sharp stuff. My forge is fed with a blower, almost an exact copy of Don's. But I wonder about building a Venturi design. The problem I'm looking at is that we live at 7000' elevation. I don't know if there is enough air up here to make running a Venturi forge possible or worth the time to build. So I thought I'd come to you guys for some advice.

 

What do you think? To Venturi or not to Venturi at 7000' elevation? That is the question. Thanks guys.

 

 

 

There was a forge built by a by a bladesmith that worked a Sandia National Laboratory. The problem was that at around 7000ft they couldn't get up to welding temp. They made a blown forge that the air intake pipe ran through the exhaust opening, heating the intake air. This seemed to solve the problem. So to answer your question. You probably won't be able to get to the temp you want. But then again, with some of the venturi burner designs, maybe you could. At least forging temps.

[Arthur]

At 6500'I couldn't weld with my "Uncle AL" blowen forge...I switched to a blower with 10% more power and have been sucessfully Forge welding since....my.02

[LeviC]

So, forging, yes... Welding, maybe not so much. Ok. I'll let the guy know. I don't know if he's interested in welding eventually or not.

 

Thanks for the info guys, knew I could count on this board.

[gmerrell]

I'm at 8500" and I can forge without a blower but not weld. If I added another burner maybe but my burner I'm using is one of those weed burners from harbor freight with a 2 foot section of exhaust pipe stuck on (very red neck). Of course I'm using a old electric leaf blower as a dust collector hooked up to a mickey mouse cyclone dust collector with a port to hook up my shop vac for extra suck power.

 

So you you built a good burner you might be able to weld at 7000.

g-

[Gregory Lirot]

or you could run solid fuels, but that may not be an option. Coal/ charcoal seems to be almost idiot proof (at least build wise).

[LeviC]

Yeah, finding good coal around here is like looking for those big wrought iron ships chain links. Just not gonna have lots of luck. He saw me running my forge and really seemed to dig it, so I'm thinking we'll stick with gas. Thanks again for everyones input.

[alexb]

I'm at 6000 and weld with a diamondback forge no problem.............with the forge anyways.