I am on the verge of ordering some fire brick.

I am getting a load of soft insulating brick and some hard brick for the bottom.

At the moment I use a forge made from a large thermalite block. I drilled a 4 inch hole in the middle, running from front to back, and a 2 inch hole in the top. I then attached a weed burner to blow down into the hole choosing the middle burner out of the three options. It gets up to cherry red working heat.

I am going to make a new forge from the fire brick which should hold more heat due to being insulated brick.

What is the best way to introduce the heat to the cavity of the forge, top side or bottom?

I have made top, angled and side entry forges, Mainly because I like to cut my burner flare into the insulation rather than build a metal flare. Overall I like side because the burner tips dont seem to ever melt out like they can in a top mount.

Never tried a bottom burner. I see some people here like them because you can move block around and never disturb the burner. But I have always worried about crud falling down into the burner. not sure if that is ever a real issue or not, like I said I have never played with bottom style.

Good luck with the new forge!

"Yes" all three options are good.

Since you are doing a brick pile forge, a side entry allows for easiest adjustment of the forge volume by re-stacking the bricks without disturbing the burner assembly.

Cherry red isn't very hot, have you looked into home-made burners that are likely more capable than the weed burner?

Having the forge not hot enough means it takes a long time to get the material to forging temperature, and you may not have very long to work the material before it is too cold. Material also move better/easier when at the top of the forging temperature range than at the bottom (or below) the forging temperature range.

Phil

Hi guys.

I ordered the insulating and fire bricks today, they should be here in a couple of days.

I have a temptation to build a forge with a bottom entry burner seeing as how heat rises and all that.

But like most of my ideas it probably won't work.

The walls and both the front and back doors will have 76mm 26GD insulating bricks coupled with 25mm fire brick to prevent damage.

Insulating brick link http://kilnlinings.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=11_13&products_id=185

Fire brick link http://kilnlinings.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2&products_id=2

With such wall thickness I am hoping for less heat loss and as a result less heat needed to bring it to temperature.

But how would I introduce the heat from below.
I am using a conventional blow lamp torch or weed burner as explained before as I cant afford to go down another route at the moment.

I was thinking of drilling a hole through the bottom 76mm insulating brick then a series of holes in the fire brick above it to distribute the heat. Then I would attach the blowlamp nozzle to fire up from below.

The products of combustion could then vent through the door openings front and back.

Am I barking up the wrong tree. Would I be better just attaching the burner to the top in the tried and tested method!!

Cheers Alan

PS I know the burner will not be man enough for the job but will have to do for now!!

Without seeing your burner or torch we can't form much of an opinion.

It sounds like you want to build a ribbon burner, which requires forced air. Your brick choices seem reasonable, soft brick can easily be cut with a hacksaw, but hard brick requires power tools.

Phil