Freon Tank Forge Construction Page

Well, it's been a couple of months since I built a forge, so here is my next creation. I decided that the Large Propane forge was just too large. It's fine for around the shop, but when I took it out to an event a few months ago it nearly killed me moving it to the site from the parking lot of the event. I decided right there that it was time to build a smaller forge for traveling. I looked around the net at a lot of different designs and decided that the freon tank forge would be just right for the kind of stuff I do. So, in keeping with my past practices I am taking pictures along the way and describing the process. Enjoy.

Day 1: Attaching the legs to the tank.

I bought the tank and legs from Mojave Southern Machine Works. Jim sells the shells with the ends cut out for $10.00. I figured that it would save me the trouble of finding and cutting one. His shop is just down the street from my work, so when I went over to pick up the shell, I saw the legs he does for them and decided to pick up a set of them as well. I ended up going back on another trip and picking up a ceramic plate and 4 stand offs to support it.

Here is a side shot of the shell with the legs attached.	Here is an end shot. You can see the bolts used to hold the legs on. I use 1" bolts so there will be something to go up inside the stand offs.	Here is the ceramic shelf

Day 2: Installing the plate inside

I ran into a few problems here that I feel are important to address so you can avoid them. First off, don't install the ceramic shelf until all the work is done on the shell. I really jumped the gun on this one.

Also, what I didn't take any pictures of, because it happened so fast during the gluing process, is that there is a second layer of Durablanket under the shelf. After I glued it down I noticed a gap underneath it as I was clamping it up. I knew this couldn't be, so I pulled the shelf out and quickly cut a piece of lining to go underneath the shelf. In doing so I screwed up the Tenex that I had already used, and I didn't have any more. I went ahead and clamped it up to see if it would work. Unfortunately, It didn't.

One thing I should have done differently was to attach the standoffs to the forge shell first and let that dry, then attach the shelf to them. I tried to do them all at once and it really didn't come our how I would have liked.

Here the shelf is just sitting in the round hole so I can mark it for cutting.	Here it is after I cut out a notch for the the shelf.	Here you can see the stand offs sitting on top of the bolts that hold the legs on. The ceramic shelf gets glued to them with Tenex.
This is the layer of Durablanket that goes under the shelf. You can see the cutouts for the standoffs.	Here it is clamped up after being glued down with tenex the second time.

Day 3: Lets glue it again.

After un-clamping it the next day The shelf did not stick, just as I thought it might not. Foreseeing this possibility I had stopped by Jim's place that day after work and picked up another batch of Tenex. I pulled the shelf out and cleaned the excess dry tenex from the day before off with a Dremel with a small grinding wheel in it. I then reinstalled the shelf and clamped it again.

In these 3 pictures you can see the standoffs with the old tenex on them. You can also see the second layer of insulation. I had to tear off a couple of layers of it to make it thinner so the shelf would fit without being pushed up by it.

Day 4: Re-attaching the shelf

After I cleaned up the bottom of the shelf and the top of the stand offs I re-attached the shelf. Here are a couple pics of that.

	Here is another pic of the standoffs ready to get the shelf reinstalled.
	You can see in this picture that I tried to seal under the shelf with the Tenex as well. This shot is looking up from underneath.

Day 5: Installing burner holders

This is one of the things that should really have been done before installing the ceramic shelf. I really should have thought this project out better before starting. I just jumped into it, and it made things a little more difficult.

Here are the plates I will weld the burner holders to laid out for cutting.	Here they are after I drilled the hole for the burner holders in them.	Here is the shell after drilling the holes. I laid them out so that they are approx 4" from the ends and have 4" between them.
Be sure to curve the plate to fit the shell before you weld the holder on. I used the step on my anvil and just went back and worth between the tank and anvil till it was right.	Here it is after welding. When I was fitting the plate to the tank I was tempted to hit it a couple of times, but that must be resisted. The shell is way too thin to pound on.	Here I discovered that one of the plates was hanging over the seam, so I marked it and then cut off a little more.
Here are a couple shots of where I am now with it. I used stainless steel bolts to hold it on, but that was probably not necessary. It will have 2 layers of durablanket over the bolt heads. Next I need to add the handle and a way to hold the doors.

Day 6: Attaching the burner plumbing

I removed the plumbing and burners from my large forge and reworked them to fit on this one. The layout is the same, but I have used shorter nipples to get everything closer together.

I took some 3/16" X 2" material I had lying around and made these 2 plates. I decided to also add the 3/4" piece above them to help stabilize the legs. Not exactly pretty, but very functional.
Here is the plumbing installed. I won't add the burners until I have finished the handle & door holders. I labeled the one on the left so you can see what I am doing with it.		Here is a picture of this same setup in the large forge. As you can see, I just tightened everything up using shorter nipples for the smaller forge.
By making this wedge and placing it behind the pipe it allows me to tighten the clamps down and not burn up the gage letting it rest against the shell.	Here is a close up of the wedge of wood I used behind the plumbing to hold it straight when I clamped it. Because of the angle of the legs the top wanted to lay back & touch the shell.	Here they are alone. Nothing fancy really. I used 1" X 2" I had sitting here.
	Here is the holder for the doors. It's a piece of 1/2" tubing that I welded 1/4 20 nuts to each end. It will have a solid rod going through it that will attach to the doors when they are done.

Day 7: Attaching handle & door holder, and installing lining.

It's actually been nearly a week since I worked on the forge. Some friends had a hand fasting in our back yard last Sunday, so I spent all Sat & Sun cleaning out the shop so we would have some place to hang out afterwards. The house is way too small. My shop is under a 16 X 20ft patio attached to the front of the garage door.

Here is the handle and the door holder attached. I still haven't decided exactly how I am going to do the doors. That will come tomorrow or the next day.

After welding on the handle and door holder I installed 2 layers of durablanket inside the forge. Then, I covered that with a layer of ITC 100. The ITC is a ceramic coating that will reflect the heat back into the forge and make it heat up much faster. It also protects the durablanket.

These 2 shots show the rear of the forge.		Here it is from the front.
Here's a couple more shots of it. This is the first time I have used ITC 100, but I really liked how easy it was to use. I plan to buy more and coat my large forge with it as well.

Day 8: Finishing rear door and firing it up.

I started with a piece of stiff paper held against the opening. I reached in with a pencil from the far side and traced the opening. Here it is laid out to cut the opening in the door.	Here is is with the inner lining attached. I didn't really plan it out well when I drilled the holes for the drywall screws I used to hold the insulation.	Once I put it all in place I found that 2 of the screws were in the way.
	I went ahead and welded it together then just drilled new holes.	Here it is after being fired up at 10 psi for about 5 minutes. I still haven't decided what I am going to do for a front door.

I'm not completely satisfied with it right now. I have been using it, and it does work, but I want to do a little more with the ITC 100 on the inside. I will probably wait until the day before the CBA conference so it will have a couple days to dry while I'm there. I also need to do something for a front door.

Update, two years later.

I just realized that I stopped updating this page and didn't finish the story. I ended up doing for the front door exactly what I did for the back, but with a slightly larger opening. Once I put a second coat of ITC 100 in it I was very pleased with how it operates. It has been in almost constant operation for the two and a half years since I first built it. Once I had it done and started using it, I found I liked it much more than the large forge. My original plan had been to buy replacement burners for the other forge so I could have them both available. The large one for the shop, and the freon tank to take to ren faires for demos. The large one has ended up sitting under my bench for over two years now. Everything I need to do I can do with this little guy. I even forge weld billets with it with no trouble.

Other Forges

I have created a page now that has a couple of other guys forges on it. Both used some information from this site, as well as others, to come up with their designs. If you build a forge based all, or in part, on the information here I would love to get some pictures of it to post up here. It will help others see some other design possabilities.

Return to Home

Freon tank forge, Freon tank propane forge, Propane Forge construction, How to build a propane forge, Home made forge, Forge construction, Propane forge construction. Freon tank forge construction, Mini forge, portable forge, mini forge construction, portable forge construction, portable propane forge construction.