Ross_E

Talked to Rex once, before I actually fired it. Pretty cool guy.

At 10psi, I could literally grill hot dogs 6 feet away from the forge. It was a little scary actually. I will check on the jet tip location, the website is somewhat vague.

Here are a few images and a description of the intial firing of my gas forge. If you can't tell, that's a T-Rex 3/4" burner. It is working well, but I do not know if I have it tuned properly. My flame pulsates from time to time, and the flame jumps back to the jet tip from time to time when I am adjusting the PSI and vent slide. The closest I have gotten to the description on the T-Rex website still has quit a bit of orange. Any ideas? Also, with gas pressure nearing 10 PSI, the flare heats to a bright glow very quickly, and flames leaping from the mouth would make it impossible to actually work with. The test burn lasted about 5 minutes, 2 of which was warm up. Note: I will add pictures once I scale them down to fit.

I see. Well, the 2nd cast is done. It's not as nice as the first one but it's one piece! Now about the burner placement. I see it is recommended to be placed at an angle. Question, should the burner be near the middle or closer to one end?

You can de plate the chrome with a simple bath setup, but the chrome will not plate on whatever you use as the cathode so you'll need to use a big one. PM me if you want more info.

Aeneas, thanks for the diagram, that looks like a good idea. I actually thought about doing this and using a soft brink as the floor. My concern was welding temp, from what I understood it might not be a god idea to go that high with wool lining the interior. Frosty, I just used a mix 3/1 mix of cast refractory/gy[sum cement. The gypsum should be okay if I fire it properly. Would steel bands be an option?

Any other ideas on how this can be repaired? I have found an ITC repair kit, it sounds promising, has anyone used it?

This is the inner shell of a gas forge, it will have 2" wool wrapped around it and then placed inside a 12" paint/chemical can. I want to eventually weld so this layer will need to stand up to the flux, that's why I'm not just using wool.

I have always been interested in metal work, forging is my third attempt. First I bought a mill in hopes of making 1911 frames before I realized it was too expensive, the mill now sits with a hogger and no power. I then tried casting before I realized the furnace in my company's lab would only melt aluminum. I also figured out that nothing useful comes from casting! I'm not building a forge, and I've realized it's the least expensive form of metal work, and also the most rewarding!!

I've had a set back, hopefully I can re connect it so I won't have to begin all over. As you can see, my cast broke into two pieces as I removed the plastic container. I basically pressed the container to try and separate the suction between it and the mold, instead it split it in half. Here are my ideas. -Use gypsum cement in small amount to re connect the pieces. -Use steel bands to re connect them. -Both -Do nothing, just set one on top of the other. Any other ideas?

Frosty, I noticed you mentioned this before about the best time to put the holes in it. Will it not be able to be drilled once it's totally set? BTW, I didn't find any sonotube in my area, I had to go the stove pipe route.

Space heater it is then, set to medium ~ 80F. Thanks man!

Hey guys, I cast my forge exactly 48 hours ago, and it's still mushy. It's just soft enough that I would not be able to remove it from the mold. The mix is Ultra Express 70, and I used a somewhat high slump, but nothing extreme. The cast is a 10" tall cylinder with a 6" inside diameter and walls of 1" (making it 8" from side to side). According to the data sheet, set up can take up to 48 hours, but I would expect something much harder by now. It has been cool outside, around 42F at night (I live in Florida). Is this an issue? Should I take a heat gun to it or set up a space heater near it? I wish I could take it out of the mold but I think it's too soft.

That's about 15 less then a factory sealed jar. I just don't know why there would be liquid, mine was like hard paste. Still, newspaper and flimsy containers are not the way to ship stuff.

After looking at the pictures of the ITC half point containers, that is not the way they should ship such material. I wouldn't except it. That's what your wonton soup comes in, not ITC-100. Newspaper, garbage bags and wonton soup containers, not what you would expect to receive your refractory in, huh?