A great deal of thanks go to friend and blacksmithing instructor, Scott Thomas, who has not only been a great inspiration in learning how to forge, but Ardenwood Forge is one of the all time best shops I've had the pleasure to work in. Without Scott's help, I might not had been so persistent to build a forge, or dig deeper into moving metal. Scott is a great help to my local community in helping folks to forge and learn about traditional crafting. I am certain his other students would agree that his help to teach others is nothing short of outstanding. Scott teaches folks to use traditional techniques to solve problems in the modern world. Scott has also helped me out with the sheet steel, as well as some of the tubing, scrap iron for the handle and stock for the base and work supports, etc...Visit Scott's website, Ardenwood Forge to see some of his work.Scott taught me how to roll the sheet of steel on a old roller. I calculated the circumference of the top circle, and divided by 4 to get 1/4 the sum, for each side of the top. The rest was just math to calculate the balance of the sheet and how wide the bottom would be, which was 14". The top was a 14" circle, 7" from the center of the circle to the bottom and 7" on each side to form the bottom. Thanks Scott!

The other person I would like to acknowledge is friend and fellow smith, Ron Reil, whom I know many folks in the blacksmithing community are grateful for all the wonderful information Ron has provided on his excellent website. Such a great resource, more folks 'seem' to have been inspired by Ron's freon tank mini-forge than any one other single forge. This forge borrows off much of Ron's basic design, and makes some modifications to accomodate a larger forge chamber than his freon tank mini-forge, as well as trying to make a more stable (i.e., flat;-) base. The intention was to design a forge chamber that was large enough to accomodate a 3/4" T-Rex burner. Knowing that the freon tank mini-forge was too small for a T-Rex, and that the Shorty was created for that purpose, it made sense to make the chamber larger, if I did plan to use a T-Rex. Thanks also go to Rex Price of Hybrid Burners who makes these great burners.

The next question was how large of a chamber would be needed. I had originally thought that 14" of depth would be good for a slightly larger chamber (and it could very well be a fine size). However, in the end I just left a standard sized piece of 18"x48" sheet of 15 gauge steel without cutting it and ended up with 18" in length and just rolled/folded the sheet. Color me lazy if you will, but the size does seem to make sense to me.

With all the above being considered, I knew I wanted to build a single burner forge, with a chamber large enough to utilize the T-Rex. Ron felt his 4-burner forge is fine with a single T-Rex for most all of his work, and will keep about 75 percent of the forge hot. This suggested that about 18" was about right if the chamber was the same aprox. diameter. Since the sheet was 18", it all just kinda added up in the end somehow. I also wanted to keep the design as light as possible so that I would feel comfortable carrying it around if needed.This is no small challenge in itself, since most of the refactory materials and ceramic shelving is HEAVY!;-) So, in light of that (intentional pun;-) I stuck with a lighter gauage 15 sheet steel, opposed to many of the schedule 40 and schedule 80 pipe that many have used, those are just too darn heavy!

The size of a freon tank only presents a chamber which is about 4"-5" diameter after 2" of insulation. Stepping up to an 8" diameter chamber presents a much greater area to work within.

I also added an extra 1" of kaowool around the chamber than the more common 2". I will incorporate a simple wall of bricks on the front and rear, but will allow for the optional rear wall. This will allow for a means to reduce the size of the chamber. I also incorporated some features from Ron's 4 burner pipe forge, like the idle full loop, to add the energy savings aspect of the design. So much was influencened in this forge from Ron's pages, and from Ron directly, it would be hard to list. But I can certainly applaude Ron for his great generosity to the various smithin' communities at large. Thanks so much Ron!

I bought a used Victor 261-B regulator (Liquid Propane Regulator) on ebay for $25, and paid another $50 to have Jim Billingsley at Regulator and Torch Repair rebuild it with new parts. It came out nice. Thanks Jim! All new gauges and soft parts as well as cleaned up. These regulators cost about $150-$200 otherwise.(ouch!)

I also picked up an idle circuit kit from Larry Zoeller, at Zoeller Forge, down in Kentucky. Nice quality needle valve. I also got the durablanket at Zoeller Forge also, Larry gave me a great deal as he had one last piece of 2" left that was 14"x24". That size worked out perfect for the floor of my 14" wide forge body, and while the 2" is more difficult to work with I'm told, this was perfect to line the bottom.

I bought various pieces locally, ITC-100, 18 sq.ft. of 1" kaowool, ceramic standoff section, refactory mortar, 1/2" x 18" x 18" ceramic shelf for kilns, etc...at the Clay Planet in San Jose. These folks are great to deal with, have great pricing on kaowool if you're local ($2.40 sq.ft), and one of the few places to have refactory products for sale in the Bay area.

News Flasharoo! 04/27/2007...While discussing the plumbing with Ron Reil, he reminded me that in most states of the U.S., flared fittings are required for gas, and that compression fittings as most folks use are technically not up to code. Considering that in the event one of my neighbors would dislike my forging, that could be a flag if the police, or worse building inspectors, came over while I was forging...the small price is worth the piece of mind for me. I was able to borrow a flaring tool from my friend, DL, the ace Porsche mechanic. All fittings that were previously planned for compression connectors have been changed to flared connectors, as code requires.

	Burner/Holder	ITC-100	Sheet Steel	Radius Marks	Before Fold

	Bottom Folded	Bottom Rivets	Inside Rivets	Cut Standoffs	Standoff Bolts

	Standoffs	Shelf	Front	Guides	Installed

	Fugly	Side View	Painted	Bottom Painted	Standoffs

	Durablanket	Durablanket Installed	Testing Floor	Kaowool	Floor Mortared

	Burner Entry	ITC-100 Ready	Burner Plug	Reg. Front	Reg. Rear

	Plumbing	Idle-Full	Regulator	First Fire1	First Fire2

	2nd Fire1	After 2	Entry2	FlareTool	Flared Tube

	Flared Fit	Flare Connected	Idle-Loop-2	Disconnect	Entry Now

	Cleaner Flame	Looks OK	ITC Chamber	ITC Floor	ITC Firing

	1st Steel	About 10min	3 PSI	Pritchel, 2min	Installing Comp Fittings

	Regulator/Idle	Plumbing Assembled	Floor Moved-Up	Chamber Width	Chamber Height

	Walls	Height	ITC Damage	Plumbing	Burner

	Idle Installed	Shut-Off	Master Shut-Off	Fr/Rr Walls	Rear Wall

	Front Wall	Plumbing	Idle Test	1300 Deg.	Stand

	Almost Welding