clenceo Posted September 25, 2017 Share Posted September 25, 2017 Hello All!! Had a chance to fire up my new forced air forge. I used 1" black steel piping and a stainless steel flare that I TIG welded. Fuel pressure set to around 4-5 psi and used a shop vac for now. Seems to running well to me. Any suggestions/criticism is welcomed! Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikey98118 Posted September 28, 2017 Share Posted September 28, 2017 The bricks are glowing high orange; bordering on yellow, with the reflection of a yellow interior on the surfaces that face the fire. Furthermore, the work is nearly white-hot. There is no doubt that your forge is more than hot enough. However your exhaust gases are blue, so be sure to use powered ventilation in your shop. I wouldn]t mind seeing your forge posted in the Forges 101 thread as a good example of a brick forge; and also a good example of a forced air forge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikey98118 Posted September 28, 2017 Share Posted September 28, 2017 Fire cement is low-priced and readily available in small cans; it is not normally used in place of regular refractory hot faces because it has it is not made to be used in thick layers and will crack and spall if used for a hot-face. Tim Gunn seems to have solved that problem, by watering down the cement so that it can deeply penetrate ceramic wool blanket; so the cement helps strengthen the blanket, and vice-versa. Fire cement comes in more than one temperature rating; use the highest one available. One of the three kinds of commercial rigidizers works the same way, so there is plenty of precedent for this process. I would recommend spritzing colloidal silica rigidizer (fumed silica in water) on the blanket and firing it first, to strengthen the blanket, and then applying the watered down cement to seal and toughen the blanket further. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clenceo Posted October 7, 2017 Author Share Posted October 7, 2017 Good evening Mikey! Thank you for taking a look at my forge. I have tons of photographs on my build. I recently used fire cement rated at 2700 degrees, and it started blistering! I would love to post my forge on the Forges 101 thread, but I'm uncertain of the permissions nor do I want to step on toes. I'm a novice in the forge arena. I think what I will do is create another thread describing my build and maybe a moderator can move it to the Forges 101 section? Once again, thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikey98118 Posted October 7, 2017 Share Posted October 7, 2017 You are invited to place it in the Forges 101 section. I think it is a worthwhile example of a forced air brick pile forge; this gives those who are thinking about brick forges, and people thinking about forced air or fan blown burners a nice example too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.