I am in the process of building a forge.  Anyhow, I happen to also do lapidary work and know that silicon carbide (carborundum) is extremely durable material and has a melting point around 5000 degrees F.  Has anyone used carborundum as a tuyere on a coal/coke forge?  Crucibles for smelting ore or metals are made from Carborundum.  I did a search and some furnaces use a carborundum tuyere. An old carb wheel with a 1 inch hole could be fitted or a piece could be cut to fit and drill some holes in it with a diamond bit in a dremel or drill motor.  

I would think that it would last for years and you'd probably replace the pot and reuse the tuyere.   

Thoughts or ideas?  Just thinking....  I have a piece I am going to make a 2 inch tuyere with and see how it works out.  I might get me a worn out wheel and just put in in the bottom of my brake disk fire pot. 

Before doing a lot of work cutting and potentially burning out a diamond bit I would consider taking a torch to one and see how it fares.  May be the wheel is carborundum in some kind of matrix that would burn out at higher temperatures, or it wouldn't take thermal shock all that well.  Be sure to wear PPE when testing.

Good luck

 

 

 

Thermal shock!  Heat one to 2000 degreesF and pour some water on it and let us know how it fares. 

Using the wheel for a tuyere  is like total over kill.  Drilling holes or make slots in a piece of 1/4" mild steel scrap will last for years and show little or no damage. Hand on to it as you will find a use for it later.

I tried an old crucible as a tuyere and the worst problem was clinker melting into the surface so that when I went to chip it off afterwards it also chipped chunks out of the crucible.  Otherwise it worked well.

 

Andrew

Thanks for all the input.  Well, I ended up making a tuyere vent from some steel plate.  I made a pattern of holes.  That worked well, but clogged pretty quickly with clinkers.  I ended up rigging up a smaller cast iron pipe fitting inside the 2 inch cast iron flange as a clinker breaker and regulator for the air flow.  I put the two inch black pipe on and ground a couple notches in the pipe so I could fit a rod in to adjust the air flow and clear the clinkers and ash.   It is working much better now.  It is pretty rough, but I have a good idea what I want now and will build a better one in the future.