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A talk with my neighbor about my forge changed my whole setup
My neighbor, a retired machinist named Frank, came over last Tuesday. He saw my propane forge and said, 'You know, you're losing a ton of heat with that wide open front.' I always thought a big opening was good for seeing the work. He showed me how to build a simple firebrick door. I cut the bricks to fit, cost me maybe $15. My forge gets to welding heat almost 5 minutes faster now. I was so wrong about needing that big gap. It's quieter and uses less gas too. How many other basic things are we all doing just because it's how we learned?
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abby6756mo ago
It's not just tools or grills either. My old apartment had a drafty window I never fixed. My heating bill dropped by a third after I just used that cheap weather stripping tape. We get used to the way things are and stop seeing the leaks, whether it's money, heat, or even time.
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derek6566mo ago
My uncle was a welder for forty years and he had this same talk with me about my old charcoal grill. He said I was burning through bags of charcoal because the lid never fit right. We bent the hinges back into shape with a hammer, and my next cookout used half the fuel. It's wild how those little gaps you don't even see can change everything.
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wade_hayes6mo ago
Wait you just bent the hinges back with a hammer? @derek656 that's crazy simple, I would've thought you needed a whole new grill. It makes total sense though, all that heat just leaking out. I'm gonna check my own grill lid now lol.
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