Jeff Reed

Thanks Jumbojak. I would have never thought of the cat litter! Mikey, Thanks for the help. The inner layer of the forge is coated with refractory, as I was afraid the perlite/sodium silicate/aluminum oxide would fail. However, I was hoping that the refractory layer would be sufficient. I will take your advice and look for a good price on ceramic fiber...do you have any insight as to which source is the best value? One more question, after the ceramic fiber layer is applied, will it also need to be finished with an additional layer of something like ITC-100? Once again, thanks for the help. Jeff

Thanks for the kind welcome, Frosty! This is the video I referenced about constructing the forge body from a stainless steel liner, perlite, sodium silicate and aluminum oxide.https://youtu.be/vQN7EqGMTuo Again, it is roughly 1/5 the size of the one I made from the 7 gallon propane tank. The sodium silicate, or "liquid glass", isn't readily available, so I made my own. The source of silicate gel was Hobby Lobby, and was originally sold as a flower desiccate product. The quantities of NaOH and silicate gel are 200gm and 300gm respectively, and produce an impressive exothermic reaction when mixed. I pushed the reaction to completion with an humble propane camp stove commandeered for the project. It made a good 2nd choice for the bunson burner I didn't have. The same author for the forge showed how to make the sodium silicate in a different posting. I improved on his technique by using a finer granule of silicate gel, and a stick blender to mechanically expedite the mixing. My apologies for the details not being what you usually need. I will grab some of the picks and make a higher quality video of the forge in operation. The burners are a version of the design posted by David Hammer in his video https://youtu.be/VxzdqcPzXj8. The changes I made were simple substitutions. Rather than schedule 40 3/4 inch pipe for the burner bodies, I used 1/8 thickness stainless with 3/4" internal diameter. The MIG tip I chose was 0.035, and he used 0.025. Hope that helps some. I will get back with the pictures and the better quality video of the forge. Thanks. Jeff

So, I am a newbie...both to the website and to forge making...which may mean my first attempt at building one could be called a "forgery". Sorry. Couldn't resist. Admittedly, there are a lot of great ideas on how to make a forge. Seemingly endless, actually. I decided early on that I was as interested in the process of making this, as I was in "making this". It HAS been a process. Everyone has seen the video on making a small forge with a stainless garbage can using perlite, sodium silicate, and aluminum oxide. The design has drawbacks...they all do. So I played around with making a much bigger version out of an old 7 gallon propane tank, but kept the internal diameter at 3.5". Two burners rather than one seemed reasonable. The wall thickness of the forge body was thereby increased relative to the cavity. It took a heck of a lot of perlite and liquid glass to fill, but casted nicely. It ended up using nearly 3 liters of sodium silicate, so thank god I had a bunch of NaOH. The inner cavity is lined with refractory cement rated at 3000 F. The burners are 1/8 stainless, with a bell I made out of a drift I had previously hammered using a coal forge we built from a brake drum. The mig tips I used are 0.035, and when fed by the 30 psi high pressure propane line, throw off a big hot blue flame. Both ends of the forge are open for now, but can be closed if desired. We tried it out with good results. A leaf spring heated cherry red in 2.5 minutes. The burners are recessed into the forge body, and the 15 degrees off center placement gave a spinning vortex in the chamber. Once I get a heat gun to measure temperatures, I can relay how hot we got, but for now, the example is all I have. As far as durability...yet to be seen. Other than making fun of my choices of materials, I would like to hear what others may think or advise... has anyone made a big perlite/sodium silicate forge? If so, what were the main problems downstream? Thanks, Jeff