Demne

Yeah, I have been finding this is the case. I literally (as in yesterday) ordered a positive pressure one after reading on the forums here a bit about respirators that work with beards. Tbh, I knew the seal wasn't perfect (I served in the military, so I know the importance of being clean shaven for a seal) but figured it was still decent enough for dust, just not for fumes. Biting the bullet on it now because I know I wont shave my beard and there are more fumes than I anticipated with these processes.

Thanks for the question Lee. It's sitting on a stainless steel workbench, definitely not paint or so there that could produce the smell, but that was definitely a good thing to check.

Thanks Frosty, this is me as well ... probably body's defense mechanism since our lungs are already compromised. The smell is still there, even after running the forge a few times ... I cant really run it for more than about 10-15 minutes before the fumes are really overwhelming, I can smell it through the respirator, and I can smell it afterward presumably either on my clothes or my beard or both, though it doesnt seem constant ... I just get a whiff of it here and there. Just in general, as maybe you might know, if the forge liner was actually burning somewhere, does that emit a strong smell? The layer of refractory/rigidizer does not seem really substantial, maybe 1 mm thick at best and the insulation is soft behind it. I think if I had this to do over again, I would have done it differently despite what the manufacturer suggests (they say just use the rigidizer/refractory powder it comes with and that's it, as mentioned in this original post). There was no kind of spray on rigidizer, so I would have started with that and I might have used a thicker refractory that at least feels a bit more substantial before applying the ITC 100 HT. This was the response I got from Devil-Forge when I mailed: Hello XXXX, It is hard to tell where the smell is coming from. If the wool is sealed under two layers of rigidizer, the smell should not be coming out of it. Our ceramic blanket can withstand a temperature of about 1450 C (2640 F), so I don't think it is burning under the rigidizer. There might be a smell coming out of the paint of the furnace - they can only withstand 650 C (1200 F) (they are the highest temperature-ranked paint we could find), so they might be fuming a little. Whatever it is, I believe it will stop fuming eventually, but we still recommend you to work with a face mask even if you have the insulation perfectly sealed with a rigidizer. Regards, Sales manager Ben On Mon, Jul 10, 2023 at 8:12 PM xxxx wrote:

Hi Toasty, I'm new here and would really like to hear your experience with this. I have encountered the exact same thing at the moment. I bought a Devil-Forge DFPROFK2 recently and applied the coating it came with. I was concerned that maybe I hadn't installed it correctly, because when I mixed it according to the directions, it still seemed really thin and watery, not really a paste but more like melted icecream. I called them up and asked if I should have used rigidizer, and was told the same ... it was all I needed, and I also mentioned that I would put a coat of ITC 100HT on top of that and he said it was fine. Fast forward to now, I finally got it all sorted and over the last couple of days I have been running the forge in small intervals. The coating is REALLY thin, but it is pretty complete as far as I can tell. I put on the ITC 100HT with no issues, waited for a few days and have now started using it. For the first 5 minutes or so, the forge runs amazing but then starts to emit an absolutely awful smell. Is that the ceramic wool burning? Does it have a distinctive smell? I have COPD and my 10 year old son has asthma, and I'm genuinely concerned that I have done something incorrect here and am going to make our health problems worse. If everything is fine, it would be nice to have some reassurance that maybe that smell with burn off or go away, and then it will be safe/fine to work with. If not, do I need to now take all of that apart and start over?