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I Forge Iron

bravoecho1900

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Everything posted by bravoecho1900

  1. I'm quite certain they are fire bricks. This article and this article reference them as being high temperature insulation bricks. They are quite old as the packaging says "top for over 90 years" and the company was founded in 1858 which place them being manufactured around 1948.
  2. At the suggestions provided on my last post, I built a propane forge. The forge works great though the bricks seem to be cracking and deteriorating rapidly. Is that because of the heat? or maybe the humidity? do I need to coat them or something? Also, I just picked up some railroad track and a bunch of tongs from a friend in addition to some "SIL-O-CEL" Johns-Manville arch and straight bricks. Does anyone have any knowledge of these bricks? Would they be usable for a propane forge? And also are there any specific ways to use the tongs? Thanks, Ben
  3. In high school I saw an experiment using borax to change the color of a flame to green, maybe this is the same. Ben
  4. Thanks for the tips! I go to the university that I bought it from so I am asking around to see if anyone recognizes it and can tell me what it's made from. I just bought some parts to make two T-burners as I think propane is a more suitable choice regardless. That box furnace looks really good, I believe I have all of the materials in my workshop! . In the middle of writing this reply I took the white insulation floor out of the kiln/furnace and there are bricks underneath, would these be usable? They are 4.5x3x9 inches and light brown in color, there are appx nine bricks. Frosty, I see your point about how it would be barely helpful to reuse the materials however I have my doubts regarding the viability of selling it. There are no controls/electronics associated with it and I've found out the heating elements are sort obscure and there is no information on them. In addition, part of the more solid insulation on the top is cracked, and it weighs several hundred pounds. I just measured the sides and its 8 inches thick of what I am assuming to be ceramic wool. Another question that I couldn't find searching: should I buy tongs or should I weld up a pair? Also, thanks for the help so far! Everyone is much nicer than some of the forums I have tried to join. -Ben
  5. Not sure how to tell, you can see it pretty well in some of my photos-its the yellow-ish stuff. Is there an easy way to determine if it is? Thanks! I'm midway between Urbana and Marysville, but I go to OSU so I'm back home for the summer. I believe it is all single phase with 120 VAC and 240 VAC, there's two 240 outlets right now and one of them powers my Lincoln buzzbox. Thanks for the welcome! My name is Ben, I guess I should probably change my username. I'll look through the forums a bit and find something, do you think I could reuse the insulation from this furnace? There is tons of it. I believe I paid about $70 for it and if I'm going to get somewhere around the same price reselling it I would rather forgo the hassle and just reuse the materials. Also, is there a certain style of forge that would be a sort of "jack-of-all-trades"? I want to keep my options open for what I could make. Thanks everyone who has commented so far, I really appreciate the advice. It sounds like my best bet is to make a propane fueled forge.
  6. I would like it to be a forge. I’m not sure on the terminology but like hammering, anvils that sort of forge. The current insulation is kind of a mixture, the floor of it is hard, the sides are soft, and there are several layers on the top. The innermost layer on the top is sort of a material similar to the feel of a ‘meringue’ cookie, and then the outer layer is like a softer fibrous material. My location has single phase 120 and 240. I would prefer to keep the costs low. That makes sense, that’s kinda what I thought about this being a little overkill of a furnace. Could I convert this to run on propane? or is that something that wouldn’t be possible? Also, thanks for the response!
  7. A couple years ago I bought an electric furnace from a university's surplus auction. I believe something exploded inside the furnace as some of the silicon-carbide heating elements were in pieces and metal was strewn all over the inside of it. Anyway, I have no experience with this type of metal working, though I do weld and have experience with aluminum fabrication, but I would like to get into forging and learn about it. And so, I am trying to figure out how to convert it into a usable furnace. I'm not quite sure how to do that, so if anyone has any suggestions I would love to hear them. Should I try to keep it electric, or should I convert it to gas? Is the interior too big? Should I weld a stand to set it on its side? Is it even possible to use this as a furnace? I cant Attached are photos of the furnace, it measures almost 3 ft external diameter, its about 4 ft tall, has an inner diameter of ~15 inches and an inner height of 19 inches. The heating elements are silicon-carbide and reach down to the interior floor of the furnace. Not shown is a 12 inch tall circular metal grate that I guess was supposed to prevent people from touching the heating elements. I'm not sure what the red band is around it, there's nothing inside it. -Ben
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