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VainEnd84

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Posts posted by VainEnd84

    Burns.

    in Solid Fuel Forges

    Posted

    Applying creams and salves to a fresh burn is actually not a good idea in general, if it is small and minor (like small forge scale touching your skin) it's not likely to matter one way or the other, your body will have done most of the important work before you can apply the salve.

    However, for more serious burns a salve/"sealant"often does more harm than good. A minor burns kit in your shop first aid is a must for us, but in a pinch, cold clean water to remove any remaining heat first, then hydrate, then an very thin antibiotic ointment (polysporin for burns, or similar) then go see a doctor.

    Burns can get serious very quickly, and you really really dont want to deal with an infected burn. I almost had to have a hand amputated due to an infected 3rd degree electrical burn. I had a burn kit and the proper training to treat it.

    3D printed plastic burner experiments (photo heavy)

    in Gas Forges

    First solid fuel forge fab.

    in Solid Fuel Forges

    Posted

    My inner ocd petulant child wants to poke fun and say that the plate in the bottom isn't level ... but that would just be silly. Looks good so far!

    I'm sure it will be said by the more experienced solid file guys but you may want to think about cutting out a section at the back incase you need the heat the middle of a long section of stock.

    Are you going to be fabing a clunker breaker? Also what is your air supply?

    Burners 101

    in Gas Forges

    Posted

    Another Curtis:  out of curiosity, is R-290 pure propane or is it LPG, like we get for running forges/bbq's etc. I know they are virtually identical but my understanding is the LPG fuel differs in some ways compared to pure propane.

    Forges 101

    in Gas Forges

    Posted

    2 hours ago, Mikey98118 said:

    Morgan's K series bricks are far tougher than the foamed clay bricks.

    The engineer I spoke to didn't get into specific manufacturers just general information, that is very interesting.

     

    2 hours ago, Mikey98118 said:

    I suspect that these bricks are only the first of a long line of superior firebricks coming on the market in coming years, but a lot of us have waited a very long time for anything this good to show up at all :)

    One of the things he talked about is the field of high temperature insulating plastics. The way he described it is like two part expanding spray insulation, but that can handle 3000F and doesn't suffer from thermal cycling. Apparently there are many high temperature plastics out there but we didnt get into them as he said they don't really apply to building forges and kilns etc.

    Forges 101

    in Gas Forges

    Posted

    Another thought is if there are any are colleges near you that have glass blowing, you can go and talk to them and ask who builds/maintains their furnaces, that might put you onto another rout. The stock on Amazon is spotty at best, you have to look regularly

    Forges 101

    in Gas Forges

    Posted

    Look up, industrial refractory suppliers near you, not all of them are willing to sell small volume. My biggest problem originally was finding individual bricks locally for less than $13-$15 each at pottery suppliers an the like which is terrible. Then I started looking in other places and eventually I was talking with a guy who makes pizza ovens who put me onto the company he buys fire bricks from. I can buy a case of 12 for $60 as long as I pay cash and go directly to them. Ebay and amazon are the other option.

    Forges 101

    in Gas Forges

    Posted

    I know that the go to soft fire brick, in terms of cost, durability, and ease of access is the k26 fire brick, bit is it actually good enough and If so why? I've been doing some research into soft fire bricks and have learned some interesting things about them recently.

    The most important thing I have learned is that the temperature rating (k26 or 2600 degree rating for instance) is actually the max "short run" temperature load (short run varies by manufacturer but always seems to be less than an hour). So a k26 fire brick will start to thermally decay at temperatures at or above 2600 degrees F fairly quickly. Most seem to have a sustained thermal load capacity of about 200-300 degrees F less, which means that a k26 fire brick will only be sustainable long term for temperatures around 2300-2400 degrees F.

    This turnes out not to matter in forges as much because the fire bricks start to degrade from thermal cycling before the thermal decay has much effect.

    There are 4 other types of commonly available fire bricks, k23, k28, hard fire bricks, and medium duty fire bricks (in talking with some suppliers I have learned that new manufacturing techniques and materials are resulting in stronger and better insulating bricks to be available in the next few years). We can toss out the medium duty fire bricks for use in forges because they generally have a max load of 1800-2000 degrees F and are meant for things like fire places. We can likewise toss out using k23 fire bricks as a max thermal load of 2300 F and a sustained load of 2100 F they will start to thermally decay much too soon. And hard fire bricks have almost no insulating capacity so there is little point in using them either.

    That brings us to the k28 fire bricks. With a max thermal load of 2800 F and a sustained thermal load of 2500-2600 F they are one of the better insulators available as far as bricks are concerned . Their biggest down fall is that they are extremely fragile and are hugely susceptible to thermal cycling. So unless you plan to rarely if ever turn off your forge (not recommended outside of industrial/production line forges) they will fail much too soon.

    In the end we really are best off to use k26 fire bricks for the time being. 

    Can anything be done about thermal cycling degrading fire bricks? I'm happy to say yes, there most certainly is. I had an enlightening conversation with a thermal engineer who works for a local company that deals in refractory materials. The big thing is that soft fire bricks are not actually designed to be brought up to their max temperature and cooled to room temperature more than 6 or 7 times in their life. So how can we counter act that? It's actually very simple:

    1. Make them smaller, you cut the brick in half, take a 4.5"x9"x2.5" and make it in to 2 of 4.5"x4.5"x2.5"

    2. Rough fit them to your final shape, in otherwise fit them to the inside of your forge shell but leave a bit of a gap between all of the bricks about 3/16"

    3. Use the dreaded high temperature cement to cement the bricks together

    4. Coat in a castable refractory and if you like coat with an IR reradiotor

    While all of this will help the longevity of the bricks they will still eventually fracture due to thermal cycling.

    Damascus

    in Blacksmithing, General Discussion

    Posted

    I was told a long time ago, that if you have the option, go with wire that is lower is carbon content than the steel being forged, it will theoretically burn up slower. The other wire option is stainless wire though I doubt it's worth the added cost.

    Also remember that you may end up welding the wire to the billet.

    It followed me home

    in Blacksmithing, General Discussion

    Posted

    17 hours ago, caotropheus said:

    Ausfire, Gentleman, as an entomologist, I have to insist that insects (and arthropoda in general), have their antenna located in fore part of the head, not on the thorax. Best use I have seen of a pipe wrench when not used for the propose it was created for...

    Another biology nerd! Excellent, and I'm glad I'm not the only one who saw that lol

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