Small forge for hardening

[steve355]

Does anyone have any experience with (for example) those little VEVOR forges? I need to harden plane irons/floats etc. I once made a home-made one with some fire bricks and a blow torch, but it wasn’t big enough and didnt really get hot enough.

I also have a home made foundry that runs on waste oil, which is a faff to run and scares the neighbours. Overkill for what I need for hardening small pieces.

Something like the VEVOR forge looks useful, and I can run it on camping gas I assume, which I have already.

Thoughts welcome?

Steve

 

[Ollie78]

No idea if it would work for the purpose but what about a small induction coil. I saw a blacksmith using one and it heated the metal up surprisingly fast and on a controllable area as well.

Ollie

 

[Ttrees]

Not sure if you're following along on David's postings on the ozzy hand tool forum.
Those rasps look very quick indeed.

Tom

 

[raffo]

David's posted his set up on his YT channel. A metal paint can, insulation and a couple of plumbing blow torches.

 

[Trafalgar]

How do you know when somebody needs to up their home forge game?

When you get about an eighth+ of an inch in on a chisel and the edge starts crumbling for no good reason. And you haven't even been taking it to the grinder. Sumpn's wrong boys and girls.

If you move up from using a paint can, nobody is going to criticize you.

If you're watching a movie about somebody heat treating steel in a paint can you just have to take it on faith that it's a thoroughgoing, professional job.
Big stretch.

Search "knife maker's forge" to make sure you're seeing what's out there.

Be wary of somebody whose thought process runs like this: "I have thousands of dollars' worth of woodworking equipment, but I'm going to do my heat treating in a paint can." Something's not right. Don't validate it by following suit.

 

[raffo]

David hardened the plane irons I made. He makes it look easy, and in some ways it is, to harden an iron or a chisel. The amount of steel that needs to be hardened is relatively small, so the paint can is ideal to concentrate the heat in a small space. You can certainly "up your game" by spending a few thousands on a computer controlled furnace and get exactly X degrees for Y minutes with a 0.1% margin of error, that may make you feel important, but the result will probably not justify the cost difference.

 

[--Tom--]

Main thing will be the burner quality and the presence of hotspots
You can reduce hotspots by using a big metal pipe that fits what you’re heat treating inside so that the heat is more indirect

A k type thermocouple rated for your target temp will help with getting the temp right

If the burners are no good worth looking up Amal Venturi injectors and making one.

Benefit of a gas forge is you can run it slightly rich to reduce decarb

 

[Illy]

I think the paint can forge is a right of passage - you make one, realise it's not really doing the job and get what you should have bought in the first place !

I have a Dragon Forge which I'm very pleased with. Not a lot of money (they start at just over £100). Search for DRAGON-FORGE on ebay. There's loads of positive reviews on You Tube etc. as well.

 

[Trafalgar]

That's not much money at all. Glad you found it. Everything I saw when I did a search was less than $1,000 -- not much in the grand scheme of a woodshop these days.

 

[scockram]

I think the paint can forge is a right of passage - you make one, realise it's not really doing the job and get what you should have bought in the first place !

I have a Dragon Forge which I'm very pleased with. Not a lot of money (they start at just over £100). Search for DRAGON-FORGE on ebay. There's loads of positive reviews on You Tube etc. as well.

All I can find is a load of old rubbish, (in my opinion anyway!), Dungeons and Dragons kind of stuff.
I obviously need to dig a little deeper. I've seen references to blacksmithing and forging, but only in the virtual sense. Crazy.

 

[Illy]

All I can find is a load of old rubbish, (in my opinion anyway!), Dungeons and Dragons kind of stuff.
I obviously need to dig a little deeper. I've seen references to blacksmithing and forging, but only in the virtual sense. Crazy

That search term worked just fine yesterday but, as you say, now just throws up D &D stuff ! Try this;

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DFPROF1b...8-617c-4bf2-aca0-4f09419dc1b5&redirect=mobile

 

[scockram]

That search term worked just fine yesterday but, as you say, now just throws up D &D stuff ! Try this;

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DFPROF1b...8-617c-4bf2-aca0-4f09419dc1b5&redirect=mobile

Thank you.

 

[steve355]

I didn’t realise I’d got replies to this, not been online for a few days.…

I came to the conclusion, after watching some YouTube reviews of the Vevor type forges, that they weren’t much good. I realised that I need to harden 2 types of things at present - moulding plane blades, for which the cutting area is small, can be done with a blowtorch (that’s how Larry Williams does it so it’s good enough for me). I have a high temperature laser thermometer which will help.

And also float blades. For that I can use my waste oil forge. I originally built that to melt cast iron, but only managed to melt brass in the end. It was a few degrees short of cast iron, went soft but not properly liquid. So it is very capable of getting to o1 hardening temperatures. It’s just very scary. But I’d like to have another go at casting brass anyway, so I will dust it off.

Steve