October 7, 20178 yr Hello All!! Finished up my forge a few days ago. My idea was to create a simple forced air forge that can be broken down, easily serviceable and that can be easily duplicated if needed, and maybe manipulated for different types of materials I may be adding into it. Some things that I was able to do at my place of employment was TIG weld some stainless steel nozzles. Although I'm no expert in welding, I have been allowed full access to weld since apparently I have a steady hand. You will see my first attempts to TIG weld stainless steel below. I hope my photos are self explanatory, but if you do have questions....Please ask. I'll do my best to answer any questions. I also numbered the pictures in order....for some reason the file host does not organize them in order. I'm learning here, so please do not take offense if I can not offer a reasonable explanation. https://clenceo.imgbb.com/?list=images&sort=date_asc&page=1¶ms_hidden[userid]=kbD¶ms_hidden[from]=user
October 7, 20178 yr Lots of folks have been down that road, tho your vesian is nicer than most. Hard fire brick I has an r value of about 2 and wile exelent for throwing together quick forge for od shapes and testing burners, the fuel costs will eat you alive. Soft brick is a beter choice, tho most will crack in short order do to thermal cycling. looks like that's what you used for the top. Jerry has 4 burner reconfigurable he uses.
October 7, 20178 yr Hard fire brick is R 2, Charles? I thought it was barely over R 1. Different brand or grade I guess. I know you can buy 2,600 f insulating fire brick but it's more than 2x the cost of standard soft brick. That's a nice looking forge Clenceo. I agree brick is easy to reconfigure but I found I rarely need to. I've only ever had all 4 burners lit on my variable configuration shop forge maybe twice and that was so several people could use it at once. I've never needed that large a forge and it's cost hundreds in soft brick. Hard brick takes forever to come to heat. Frosty The Lucky.
October 7, 20178 yr 1 inch of lime stone to 1" of brick, and a brick is 2" thick Mike has been recommending a new soft (insulation brick) that stands up to heat cycling but they still recomend a zeconium kiln wash for efecency and to protect your investment from flux damage.
October 7, 20178 yr Okay, there's a misunderstanding, R value is based on, one R value per one foot of limestone, inches. Materials aren't judged by what the total insulating value is, it's the equivalent per given thickness. Limestone is R 1 for whatever it's given thickness. Hard fire brick varies but runs something like R 1.04 for a given thickness. A fire brick is 2x the insulation of 1" of limestone but it's a different given thickness it remains R 1 and a bit. The R 20 insulation in your walls is only 3.5" thick but has the same value as 20 feet of limestone. R value also ignores the tremendous heat sink limestone represents, it is only concerned with it's ability to conduct heat. Don't quote me on the numbers I used above I didn't look them up I'm just grabbing them out of my dented memory for purposes of discussion. Make sense?
October 7, 20178 yr Ah. So R.2... all for want of a decimal point, lol My memory sucks. And I don't have your valid excuse!
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