Finally hit 2000 degrees on my homemade forge

I've been messing with the burner design on my homebuilt propane forge for months, trying to get a stable, clean heat. Yesterday in my Portland garage, the thermocouple read 2015 F for a solid ten minutes. It was the first time I could reliably get a welding heat without the flame going orange and sooty. What's your go-to method for dialing in a consistent high temp? I'm using a basic Venturi burner setup.

3 comments

3 Comments

the_piper10d ago

Honestly, I've never had much luck messing with the air intake on those Venturi burners. For me, the real trick was all about propane pressure. I kept cranking it up thinking more gas meant more heat, but it just made a dirty flame. I found a sweet spot at a lower, steady pressure that let the burner mix everything right. It sounds backwards, but running it a little leaner got me a cleaner, hotter flame.

the_drew10d ago

Yeah, I had the same thing happen with my old burner. I ended up just cleaning the air ports really well (they were totally clogged) and that fixed my sooty flame without even touching the pressure.

mianelson10d ago

Did you try adjusting the primary air intake? I read that a lot of soot comes from not enough air mixing before the flame. Getting that balance right made a huge difference for my setup.