Propane Forge Reconstructive Surgery

[Toreus]

I decided to try forge-welding using my propane forge. I did manage to get a weld, but some insulation fell out. When I fired it afterwards, there were hotspots on the forge body and so I had to shut it down before it got up to operating temperature. Turns out the insulation had drooped, and the propane-air mixture was burning between the insulation and the forge body and between the insulation layers itself!

I found this:



I've heard scary things about working with ceramic wool after it has been fired and so I haven't messed with it just yet.

(1) I was wondering if it would be safe/possible to make another "holder button" (don't know if there's a term for them) and simply replace the one that had its wires melted.



The green is some high-temperature kiln wire, the buttons are made of soft firebrick coated with high-temp cement.

If repairing this forge is going to be difficult, I may simply build another one- since the wires melted the first time I tried to forge-weld, they might fail after a while at regular forging temperatures.

(2) For those of you who have curved ceilings and don't use castable refractory, how do you keep the ceramic wool from drooping/falling down?

The only place I could find in Manitoba that sold refractory LINK has several months' lead time for bricks or ceramic wool (Fiberfrax brand) higher than 2300F. It looks like I hadn't done enough research when I bought the stuff . Could that temperature rating have something do to with the failure?

Thanks,
Toreus


EDIT: Clarification and added info.

[Toreus]

Update: Got the mask, used disposable gloves, did the repairs and slapped some high-temp cement on everything. Forge works like a charm! LINK!

Cheers!

[maddog]

(2) ....For those of you who have curved ceilings and don't use castable refractory, how do you keep the ceramic wool from drooping/falling down?

Toreus, it's too bad no one answered this question till now. In a tube forge lined with kaowool, like yours, the ceiling is held in place by the "arch effect". You've probably seen arches made of individual bricks or stones arranged in such a way that they lock together under their weight. For this to work best, the kaowool liner should be cut oversized and compressed into its space. You can even pleat it. This way the wool is trying to expand outwards against the shell of the forge. Looks like you might have gone the other way, cut the piece a little short, then stretched it a bit to fit.