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| Cookie Dough Starlite* Forge by NightHawkLight His YouTube Channel Show You How To Make It |
Propane gas produced during crude oil & natural gas refining, bottled & sold worldwide for barbecue ovens & for water & air heating in RV's & for generators & vehicles & small DIY metal forges :)
In a properly designed propane torch or burner flame temperatures can achieve temperatures of 2560 F or about 1400 C, as complete propane releases ~ 50 MJ of heat per kg of fuel consumed with oxygen from earths atmosphere. Similar to other hydrocarbon alkanes, propane burns to form water & carbon dioxide emissions. Special thanks to Wikipedia articles & YouTube for much of this information :)
Propane Tanks
A three carbon alkane C3H8 its also a gas at standard temperatures & pressures, conveniently converting easily to a compressible liquid for storage & distribution in lower pressure tanks made of aluminum, steel, or fiberglass with brass valve fitted to the top, the most popular the standard 20lb barbecue tank. See image below.
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| Widely available 20lb Propane Tank |
Image a Home Depot website example of a 20 lbs empty propane tank that holds up to 4.7 Gal & refillable. Steel construction powder coated for enhanced durability & longevity, the OPD brass safety valve enables filling & discharging of the tank, including a blade screwdriver purge valve to enable some vapor pressure to escape when filling so as to enable a greater fill volume & safer filling operation.
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| Torch propane tanks, single use Refillable w/ adapter from 20 lb tanks |
Common propane tanks also available in smaller single use containers (image above) for use with pencil torches & other torch tools handheld used for brazing, soldering, weed removal & other high temperature applications where many KW of thermal heat impractical to produce with batteries & able to heat copper pipes hot enough to allow solder to flow into a flux applied joint or even to melt metals like silver, copper, gold & aluminum in small hobby scale metal forges.
Propane in small 14.1 oz pencil torch cans & larger 16 oz camping cans with a screw in top fitting for handheld torches used in soldering for jewelry making, crafting, industrial & commercial pipe working & other applications, often to apply solder to copper fittings, many other applications make use of propane torches for rapid part heating, annealing or other processing.
DIY Metal Forge Build Upcoming
I am building a small propane fueled metal forge with a metal bucket & some intumescent carbon ablative liner made of flour, corn starch, powdered sugar, baking soda, borax & water, into a dough that is shaped into a metal bucket or large soup or paint can as the heat resistant liner using this formula for Starlite* intumescent carbon foam dough captured from the YouTube link below /
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| Intumescent Forge Liner Formula Add ~250 grams of water & blend |
A propane torch setup used to inject heat at an oblique angle into a hole cut near the base of the forge to create a swirl heating pattern that pumps heated combustion gases around a clay or graphite or silicon carbide or ceramic crucible to melt wires or cans or scrap metals for hobby casting or blacksmith works. NightHawlkInLight has a YouTube channel where he explains how to do this.
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| 50,000 BTU landscape torch on Amazon |
I found a landscape torch of 50,000 BTU on Amazon to use with a metal bucket forge DIY made that can run for about 40 min using one of these small propane tanks. I collect scrap copper wire from ballast recycling where I work & my wife saves aluminum cans from her workplace for crushing & later melting & casting. A #6 silicon carbide crucible to be utilized in the core of the forge heating the scrap metals to the melting point for casting metal ingots or blocks. (see image below) A series of upcoming YouTube videos on my channel will cover this activity :)
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| #6 Silicon Carbide Crucible on Amazon 45% C, 26% Al203, 23% SiC & 6% SiO2 |
Propane Powered Vehicles
Propane discovered in 1857 by French chemist Marcellin Berthelot, its a byproduct of natural gas & petroleum refining. Propane retrofitting of regular gasoline vehicles offers a much cleaner & lower cost fuel cycle, a popular conversion in Germany. While propane has a lower energy density than gasoline or diesel fuel, it burns much more cleanly, producing far fewer air pollutants in the exhaust emissions of propane fueled vehicles.
Vehicles powered by natural gas or propane have much longer engine oil life as these fuels do not foul the engine oil with blow by products nearly as much or as quickly as the same engine burning gasoline or diesel. Measured tailpipe emissions of CNG & LP vehicles also significantly cleaner, containing much less air pollution components than the tailpipe emissions of gasoline & diesel fueled vehicles.
Forklifts, busses, taxies, outboard boat motor, ice resurfacing machines, for heat & cooking in recreational vehicles for campers to boil water & cook foods on the go at campsite without grid connections or other utilities common in homes or other buildings in developed areas where natural gas & electricity are the dominate energy sources.
I spent much of evening last night making up 3 batches of Starlite intumescent forge liner & line a galvanized steel bucket. I used a drill & some tools to bore a hole in the size for my 50,000 BTU propane torch & fired it up & formed come carbon on the lining & called it a night. Woke up early this morning & started stripping copper wire of its insulated & rendered about 38 grams to use in tiny ceramic crucible & while I was able to melt the copper wire it did not reach a high enough temperature to become a liquid.
Propane More Practical than HHO
I would prefer to use a Hydrogen & Oxygen torch setup, as that HHO fuel able to produce a much higher flame temperature, but a completely different type of forge required, able to handle the higher temperatures. Making H2 & 02 gases in an HHO generator of sufficient quantity using electrolysis also not exactly practical on a small hobby scale & much more likely to cause an explosion since its not possible to safer store browns gas or HHO in a pressurized container. Cooling & liquifying H2 & 02 gas into cryogenic fluids in dewar tanks also not exactly practical on a low budget hobby scale.
Safe Gear to Operate A Propane Forge
Heat resistant gloves, long tongs to handle the hot crucible, fire bricks, eye protection & a fume mask also means a propane forge must be operated outside since carbon monoxide also formed during propane combustion. Other emissions from the melting metal & scrap metal cans & wire are toxic to breath in concentration present near the forge when its operation, so an activated carbon filter mask setup wise to protect your lungs, throat, nose & brain!
Failure not an End
I spent much of evening last night making up 3 batches of Starlite intumescent forge liner & line a galvanized steel bucket. I used a drill & some tools to bore a hole in the size for my 50,000 BTU propane torch & fired it up & formed come carbon on the lining & called it a night. Woke up early this morning & started stripping copper wire of its insulated & rendered about 38 grams to use in tiny ceramic crucible & while I was able to melt the copper wire it did not reach a high enough temperature to become a liquid.
I tried again by putting the small ceramic crucible in the metal bucket forge & firing it with as much energy as the 50,000 BTU torch could throw, but it was not enough. The liner of the bucket also slid down the size forming a bowl of refractory liner. 1200 grams of flour, 600 grams of corn starch, 600 grams of powdered sugar & 600 grams of baking soda & 130 grams of boron hydrate // Its not a total loss & made the garage smell like baked goods or barbecue or similar from the ablative carbon Starlite liner combustion.
Remaking the Forge Starlite Liner Rev. 0.02
(Thiner & with heated drying to bake before firing)
I need to remake the forge by starting over with the Starlite. I have a theory about how I can render the exiting liner into a hybrid mix for the next try & will likely do that to avoid waisting all of my ingredients. I am extremely tired & running on very little sleep, 5 hours because I woke up fully at 6am but did not get to bed until after 1 am. A personal body fluid disaster at home had Meg & I busy playing cleanup.I had not finished the forge until just after midnight, so coming inside to a body fluid dribbled over a large part of our home due to a human body accident issue, no worries everyone ok now. After 3 hours last night & 2 hours this morning, I only have the rest of today off & have to start work again tomorrow, so I will be trying to take it easy, just working on laundry at the moment!
Loud // The propane combustion produce a lot of expanding gases & sound energy // I did not measure the dB rating but it seems really noisy // 50,000 BTU of propane combustion from a 1 inch diameter landscape torch pumping heat into an improvised metal bucked lined with cookie dough Starlite liner to heat a small ceramic crucible filled with copper wire & borax //
Working overtime make life blur by & my soul & spirit deep down pines for a different less stressful lifestyle of relief & healing, but as they say, there ain't no rest for the wicked, money doesn't grown on trees & making it happen means tenacity & persistence & endurance & the human spirt of rising up & overcoming challenges & difficulties.
Its ok to remake the liner of the Starlite improvised metal forge because its a consumable liner anyway. It works as a foam that heats up to produce an ablative carbon surface that resists the heat from the combusting propane torch input // it almost seems like a propane oxygen mix needed to get to the higher temperatures.
Its ok to remake the liner of the Starlite improvised metal forge because its a consumable liner anyway. It works as a foam that heats up to produce an ablative carbon surface that resists the heat from the combusting propane torch input // it almost seems like a propane oxygen mix needed to get to the higher temperatures.
A Forge Lid to Raise Temps & Improve Efficiency
I also need to make a lid for the forge to reflect more IR back at the crucible to enhance the energy economy & performance for further attempts & trials to make it work. Engineers are never done & I watch a lot of how things work & real engineering videos & other educational content on Youtube & if there is one thing to remember, failure just another chance to start again. No one is perfect & no one has all the answers.
Never Give Up / Have an Enduring Attitude of Resilience & Tenacity & a Can Do attitude!
When you are trying something new for the first time your likely going to fail, everyone does. Everyone makes mistakes & has to try again. Exceptional people keep trying & some achieve mastery of topics they focus on. I make this blog happen by actually writing things! Keep it going friends!
Going Hobby Pro Propane Metal Forge
After 2 more rounds of playing the the home made cookie dough forge Meg & I agreed to buy a proper one on Amazon & a 20lb propane tank from Home Depot. I also ordered a pop can smashed on Amazon to melt aluminum cans my friend Jaeson diverting to me for smelting. It will also be used to smelt scrap copper wire I harness from recycling projects. I saved my slag from the borax copper melt earlier in a 16 oz plastic single use wide mouth water bottle, cleaned & dried first // OG cookie dough forge can be used as a casting holder for graphite moulds etc since it heat resistant & if I spill liquid metal it can catch it in the intumescent foam liner //
A smaller graphite casting mold & an even smaller one //
possibly for silver or gold casting in the future // or fun alloys --
These are the larger brick casting graphite molds to make 1KG bl
ocks off aluminum or copper
A simple face shield to protect your eye & face from the forge setup, also useful during COVID19 debacle fallout! 
A set of super useful heat resistant gloves that can also be used when welding all sorts of other extreme conditions.
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| Graphite stir rods also for electrode use in my electrolytic cell experiments :) |
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