Two Brick Forge Shell

[zold]

Many people seem happy with a forge made from two, hollowed out firebricks as a small, portable solution. However, the soft firebricks do seem to take a beating, crack and fall apart fairly easily. Some people will wire them together, but has anyone had any luck with putting them in a casing of some kind? It would seem as if this would extend the life of the forge and also make it less fragile when toting it around if they were in some sort of shell.

[ThomasPowers]

The problem being that the shell doesn't expand and contract at the same rate as the firebrick being made from a different material *and* not being heated as much as the interior of the firebrick. It's the thermal cycle that causes most of the problems!

[RandyScott]

I used a two bricker for four years, hauled it to half a dozen hammerin's too! Yes, they take a beating, inside and out. My solution was to use Satanite, a refractory mortar, and skin coat (a very thin coat) inside and out. Inside I then put a coat of ITC-100, a high emmissive product that will increase the forge temp a couple hundred degrees. The outside skin coat was put on after the edge protectors (aluminum 1/2" x 1/2" x 1") were put on and wire bound. the wire is over the angle to prevent the wire from cutting into the soft firebrick. I used a propane torch played over the refractory coating to cure it and it becomes a hard outer shell very resistant to abrasion, etc. I'll attempt to post a photo, side shot of the burner portal side. Forge entrance is to the right. The black squarish/rectangular markings on the forge shell outline the aluminum angle position under the skin coat.