first question from a complete noob building my first small firebrick forge, with a 1/2" black pipe tee burner.
The forge will have a welded angle-iron external skeleton/ frame, tightened up with all thread.
It likely won't be taken apart or reconfigured once assembled.
It will see occasional uise for heat-treating and forging of small parts for custom muzzleloader guns.
would there be any thermal efficiency or advantage to coating the inside surfaces of the soft firebrick with plisitix 900?
thanks for any insight... great site !
/mike

Definately coat either hard or soft brick with Plistix. You will be amazed at the difference. I suggest that you build the forge and use it, timing the length of time to get to forging temp. Then paint it with Plixtix or Metrikote and time it again. I suspect that you will see that with the Plistix it will take about half the time. Now, what does that mean? You will work twice as fast, use half as much gas,,,,,and work twice as hard.

Do it! When I re coated the inside of my forge I did the fire brick too. Works like a charm. Plus you can get it from the guy above me, Wayne Coe.

Still working on my tiny little forge.
wondering if its obvious I need to tune the 1/2" tee burner ?
this is the flame with the temporary black iron flare:



i then procured a 3" piece of stainless and flared it a bit and now the flame looks like this (at fairly high pressure - just under flame-out);



this is with a .023 MIG jet, 4" black pipe, plus about another 1.5" of SS flare sticking past that.

heat chamber will be formed by these two firebricks assembled together, which will be surrounded on all sides by more bricks in final design.
Chamber will be about a 3"x5" oval, about 8" long and coated with Plistix.


Am i in the ballpark ?
thanks for any tips, MIke

The burner will operate differently when it is actually shooting its flame into the forge.

In other words, if you get it to burn perfectly in the open air, it won't burn right in the forge. You won't know what adjustement to make until the forge is done and the fire is blasting into it.

Caleb Ramsby

Looks good. I found the Plistix made a big difference. It cut heating time on a piece of 1/2" stock by about 40% vs. uncoated. Ramsberg is right about the adjustment, you'll have to readjust once it's in the forge.

On 7/8/2012 at 7:24 PM, WayneCoeArtistBlacksmith said:

Definately coat either hard or soft brick with Plistix. You will be amazed at the difference. I suggest that you build the forge and use it, timing the length of time to get to forging temp. Then paint it with Plixtix or Metrikote and time it again. I suspect that you will see that with the Plistix it will take about half the time. Now, what does that mean? You will work twice as fast, use half as much gas,,,,,and work twice as hard.

Hi Wayne,

I'm new to forging. me and a buddy built one with "Insulating FireBrick 9" X 4.5" X 2.5" in (6 Pieces)" from Amazon in 2020. Never thought to coat it, because it is just brick (as far as I know).

Move to now... I got a Diamondback forge for my Birthday and started researching the brick they use. I wrote them and they said that I don't need anything.

Hard to believe because the Safety Data Sheet on them says differently.

So now I am in pursuit of finding the best sealer and came across Plistix 900f (which is hard to find. At least on my end).

So the question is... should they be coated or not? Should I believe the Sheet or the seller? Hmmm.

Any info greatly appreciated.

Check with Glenn, I've purchased Plistex from him.

I coated the brick I use as a door with Plistix on the side exposed to the forge. It's more durable than I thought it would be too. It fires to a hard finish. I also coated the entire interior of my forge with it. 

PM Glenn. He can help you out. 

Pnut

 

11 hours ago, FruzzinForge said:

should they be coated

In a word, absolutely, if you want the best out of the forge.

Where can I buy some plistix, doesn't seem to be available in europe.

On 2/12/2022 at 2:39 AM, DennisCA said:

Where can I buy some plistix, doesn't seem to be available in europe.

I know this is a year old thread, but the info is still good my friend.  In Europe it's called Plico®️ Stix 900 F