Digitally Controlled Forge

 

Here are a few pictures of my forge/salt tank combo in progress....I am currently gathering all the pieces needed for the propane plumbing and the digital controls. The forge tilts up so it is horizonal and the height is adjustable. When it is being utilized as a salt tank it will be vertical with a stainless tube full of salt inserted in the top. A digital controller will trigger a relay which in turn will trigger a propane solenoid to turn the burner on and off and keep the temperature of the salt tank within 5 degrees of the set point.

The forge body is 14" x 24" and has 2 - 1 1/4" venturi style burners. The burners should put out roughly 320,000 btu.

I finally got around to insulating the forge and putting the ITC100 coating on the inside. I have been testing my burners, trying to get the proper flame shape. I ended up emailing the guy who designed the burner (Rupert Wenig) and found out that I needed a choke plate on the suction end of it. I fabbed up choke plates for the burners and test fired them in the forge.

Flame Swirl
Flame from Burner Port
Forge Interior Glowing
Starting to cool down
Interior almost cool
Front of Forge
Front of Forge and Burner
Forge Burner Side

Back of Forge

 

Since I have gotten the burners to work properly, I started working on the digital controls for the forge. The P.I.D. controller controls the propane solenoid and through fuzzy logic the P.I.D. controller can actually learn how to not over shoot or under shoot the temperature that you program into it. The yellow thermocouple will be inserted into the forge body when used as a forge.

Control Box Wiring
Front of control box with thermocouple
Control box mounted on forge
Forge overall with controller