coops1911

Lately I have been having a bit of trouble getting the burner to light reliably, once warmed up it is mostly fine but the flame will sometimes go from a light blue flame 3" in length to a darker blue shorter ( 1.5"-2") flame, without touching the regulator.. Will see if making a wind/exhaust screen makes an improvement.

also going to check the gas jet orifice to make sure it isn't partially plugged. 

true. maybe amazon too.

Made my first knife from a old railroad spike, I think it turned out OK......lots of room for improvement.

Thank you guys for all the info.

that's good, i know the forge itself needs more work.....having a tough time sourcing fire brick and kiln tiles locally.

so Initially I had a 0.035 mig tip for the gas jet, found a .025 mig tip and wanted to give that a go. I opened up the .025 to about .030 so #67 dill size i believe. using the mig tip cleaners as a guide.

Seems to have a more stable flame now that is a tad less rich, maybe getting the forge a bit hotter.

yea thats what it says but everyone does it this way, you need a hard layer that wont get poked through when working with the metal.

just matrikote over kaowool would not stand up long term.

6 hours ago, Howling dog forge said:

did you apply  Matrikote over refractory cement??

 

yup

1 hour ago, (M) said:

Is it ok to let it air dry?  Im afraid of sending out too many fibres in the firing process

just wear a mask while firing the ridgidizer its not a lengthy process.

most people seem to go with 1/2 inch of kast o lite.

What i did regarding the kaowool was to make sure it is ridgidized first and that there were no exposed fibre ( everything under Kast o lite) and make sure there is no where the work is going to be banging fibers loose.

Was asked to post my experience with Matrikote (wayne spells it with a "e" but company uses "a"), so far with my limited experience I would say its a good product. Again though I havent done side by side testing to know and have never used plistex either.

I started trying to apply it with a foam brush but thought it was withholding a lot of the fine particles in the mixture so I switched to a restaurant squeeze bottle and proceeded to squirt it in the inside of the forge, I then managed to maneuver the forge in a way as to coat the inside with the residual to get an even coat.

I do find that before and after coating it takes a little longer to heat up but once it does it is much more evenly distributed heat and stays hotter for much longer after turning off the gas,.

It also does a good job of hardening ceramic wool, I had some exposed kaowool around the edge on the forge opening and after coating with the matrikote it has sealed the kaowool up pretty good and hardens similar to plaster of paris I suppose.

Link to my thread: 

Here is a short video with the effects ( not mine) 

Made some more progress. got it coated with the metrikote.

not sure how i'm going to finish the floor though, took about 6 spray paint lids full of kitty litter to level it off, thinking that's quite a bit more mass that needs to be heated.

probably better to get 4 little stands and put a kiln shelf on those?

sounds like the 6# density = 2300f the 8 # is better at 2600f

May be worth checking to see if there is anywhere that builds pizza ovens or foundrys, they will know where to get ceramic wool.

could maybe rig the blower on a dimmer switch, depending on the type of motor used.

could also use a old air compressor, they are plentiful at scrap metal places and come in many different sizes.

yea the fragrance worried me a bit, will do a burn test to see if it affects it....pre packaged stuff from the dollar store,.

19 hours ago, ThomasPowers said:

Kitty litter, clay based. to level it then place a section of kiln shelf on top of that.

will this work ?

maybe kaowool with a layer of kitty litter over top??

Also have access to this stuff, was thinking about using some on the floor to secure things from shifting.......good or bad?

9 hours ago, Frosty said:

The flame looks good, the burner looks to be good enough. Try not to EVER use fire brick in a small shop or hobby forge it's too much of a heat sink.

unfortunately i didn't order enough kast o lite o finish the floor ( shipped from Tennessee to British Columbia), going to see if I can find some local material to finish the floor, have some left over kaowool i can use to shape the floor just need something to cover it.......suppose metrikote alone wouldn't do the trick?

today is day 3 since i applied the kast o lite, first day it was rainy so high humidity and i had a heater on it for about 36 hours, did one firing got it up around 500 C and let it cool overnight then next night did the same but hotter and for a bit longer and let it cool for 24 hours which bring us to now.

Should I fire it up as hot as possible now?

9 hours ago, Binesman said:

Your welds look better than mine so dont feel bad.  That type of mounting is fine and probably not whats causimg it to die.  

haha thanks, one question i have is how hot should the exterior of the forge get?,, after running for 20 mins or so the burner mounting area is just barely too hot to touch.

59 minutes ago, Binesman said:

Def frostys business with the burner.  The die out when its hot enough to reignite is usualy from hot exhaust coming up by your air intake.  Can you show us a picture of your burner mount please.

It may of not been the best way to mount the burner because it has zero adjustability but its what i thought of in the moment and just went with it.

I welded a 3" by 1" pipe nipple to the outside of the forge body, then slid the 3/4" burner tube trough that then screwed on the bell reducer from the inside of the forge.

excuse the messy welding its only my 4th attempt. LOL.

got my package from Wayne (thanks). Did my best to put an even coat of the refractory on. It's a bit tough to work with, maybe didnt do the best job but no cracks or anything.

Not sure if the forge is getting hot enough though, got a piece of  half inch round stock cherry red in about 10 mins, haven't put the mertrikote on yet though, and i'm sure that will be an improvement. 

Also sometimes after running the flame will back fire and go out briefly then reignite, perhaps too rich???

Regrets so Far: Should of designed the door better, as it is now its welded sealed, so repairing the inside is going to be tough,

Also should of made the top detachable from the base, its fairly heavy and kind of a pain to move around,

Could of used 15 pounds of kast o lite and built up the floor so that it is flat, I guess i can put a fire brick in there to make the bottom of the door flush all the way along the forge floor, but it will be a heat sink.

Inside volume is on the bigger side and not sure if it will get to welding temps

IMG_0250.MOV

There is a hole in the bottom of the forge where I attached the tripod stand, I think the moisture could escape through the wool down here. should i just poke a hole through the kast o lite before setting?

Have been pondering the door setup and not quite sure what would work best, was thinking about welding a little angle iron shelf to hold a fire brick and just use that as a door.....not sure though.

The T burner works great and is super simple to build. should of done it like that off the get go.

Also one thing about the kast o lite, right now its a bit cold here in the shop (around 0-5 C) was planning on putting a heater and I have a  humidifier was wondering if that will be helpful in the curing process.

Roger that, will fiddle with it some more tomorrow.

thanks guys

whipped up a T burner works well and at much lower psi, was running it at about 10 in the pictures.

now is it normal for the flare to get that hot that quick? only ran it for about 5-8 minutes.

IMG_0235.MOV

yea that's probably best, could make the new flare with this setup I suppose then construct something else.

In hindsight brass was kinda dumb to use, interested to see how long it would last though.

what type of burner would be best with this setup?

internal space is approx 300 cu/in

19 minutes ago, Binesman said:

Rebuild the burner in steel with a stainless steel flare.  That brass flate will not last long.  The flare should be about 1/8" or so inside the wool to protect it from flames.  Even with proper placement brass will melt quick.

Forgot to ask you did ridgidize the blanket correct?

 

yup both layers had the ridgidizer applied, I then fired the 1st layer until most moisture was gone and blanket hardened.

I then repeated the process with the second layer of blanket

and of course everything will be encapsulated in kast o lite and metrikote. I don't want any exposed ceramic fibers.

Any advice is much appreciated.

THANKS!