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Disect my forge plan


BKToad

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Hi everybody.  First time poster.  short time (but intense) lurker.

Through research on here and other sites, I believe I am ready to pull the trigger on construction of my first forge.  I would like to outline what I intend to do, and hope those who have the know-how will tell me whether my idea is genius, needs work, or is simply not gonna work. 

My intent with this forge is to be able to shape small tools and shapes of carbon steel as well as heat treating.  Simply to get my feet wet, however not be underpowered or terribly inefficient fuel and time wise. 

I am going to make a 4" long 1/2" burner in the style of Frosty's "T" burner.  I plan on having a flexible (rubber) hose from the 30# regulator to the burner.  I will likely put a 90 degree fitting and a few inch nipple from the mig tip fitting on top of the t fitting just to keep the hose a little farther from the heat.  What size mig tip would be a good starting point on this size of burner?  And is a burner flare absolutely necessary for my forge and burner combination?

The forge I plan on making is going to be a 1 gallon paint can, lined with 2 layers 1" kaowool on the sides and bottom.  I will also have 3 soft firebricks to use to close off the open end of the forge when possible and necessary.  figured it would be better than nothing.  On some of the builds on Zoeller's page, it seems he used Plistix as the rigidizer.  is this an ok practice, or did I misread something and should get colloidal silica?  It is my understanding that the plistix also acts as to protect the kaowool.  Is this correct?  And then make a forge floor over the kaowool with a high temp cement.  This would leave me with about 52 cubic inches (3.5" diameter and 5.5" deep).  The burner is to be installed at 10-15 degrees from the top center and the nozzle just into the first layer of kaowool.

Would the 1/2" burner be overkill for this small of a forge?  I realize I could turn that burner down, but if it is not necessary to dive into getting all the plumbing and fittings right now, I would just as soon wait for my bigger forge build to do so.  I already have a bernzomatic 8000 torch, and if it would be sufficient for this size of forge to do what I want it to do, I would just as well use that torch for this initial forge.  And build a bigger one down the road after I get some experience under my belt.

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25 minutes ago, BKToad said:

Hi everybody.  First time poster.

Welcome to IFI:

https://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/53873-read-this-first/

I will leave the critique to the experts, who have a lot more experience & knowledge of propane forges than I. The only thing I see is the kaowool needs to surround the whole interior, not just the bottom & sides.

 

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8 minutes ago, Irondragon Forge & Clay said:

Welcome to IFI:

https://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/53873-read-this-first/

I will leave the critique to the experts, who have a lot more experience & knowledge of propane forges than I. The only thing I see is the kaowool needs to surround the whole interior, not just the bottom & sides.

 

Please correct me if I am wrong here.  But I think you may have misunderstood (or I mis-explained) how I was applying the kaowool.  The “bottom” of the paint can when standing upright would become the back wall of the forge when on its side.  So I was going to line the back wall with kaowool, and the circumference of the paint can as well.  All the way to the opening (“top” of the can when upright, forge opening on its side)

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You are mistaken; BK he used a layer of Plistex as a stiff seal coat and heat reflector on the hot-face side of his forge's ceramic fiber insulation. He showed me one of his forges with the Plistex layer at the ABANA conference in 2004. I found it to make a nice stiff coating. Nevertheless, rigidizing the insulation first will only help it to support a Plistex (or Matrikoat) layer.

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19 minutes ago, Mikey98118 said:

You are mistaken; BK he used a layer of Plistex as a stiff seal coat and heat reflector on the hot-face side of his forge's ceramic fiber insulation. He showed me one of his forges with the Plistex layer at the ABANA conference in 2004. I found it to make a nice stiff coating. Nevertheless, rigidizing the insulation first will only help it to support a Plistex (or Matrikoat) layer.

Perfect thanks.  Seemed rigidizer would be a necessity, but on the build in question I looked at it seemed the plistex was the rigidizer.  I will coat with both rigidizer and plistex

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Build the burner to get experience.  With a 1/2" T and the set up you are designing you can set it up right and use it as a foundry.

I do think you have your layer orders a little mixed up.  If im reading correctly you intend to put a kiln wash on the kaowool then a layer of refractory.  This is backwards.

 

1.  Ridgidized kaowool.

2.  Refractory (kastolite 30 is great stuff)

3.  Kiln wash matrikote/plistex.

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20 hours ago, Binesman said:

Build the burner to get experience.  With a 1/2" T and the set up you are designing you can set it up right and use it as a foundry.

I do think you have your layer orders a little mixed up.  If im reading correctly you intend to put a kiln wash on the kaowool then a layer of refractory.  This is backwards.

 

1.  Ridgidized kaowool.

2.  Refractory (kastolite 30 is great stuff)

3.  Kiln wash matrikote/plistex.

I planned on simply putting a coating of plistix on the rigidized kaowool.  Thanks for the suggestion, and I will absolutely Add a coating of kastolite or the like as you suggest.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Finally got it all put together.

5 gallon air tank, 2 layers 1” kaowool, 1/2” kastolite3000, and 1/16” plistix.  

Sitting on a couple hard bricks, with a couple more hard bricks for a material rest, and a few soft bricks to close down the opening some.

Putting it together was a learning experience, but I think it all worked out.  I know the flame is hard to see in the forge pic, but please do let me know how my flame looks and if further tuning is necessary.  

Thanks for the input, guys.  Fun times with fire.

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0070D67F-E657-41FC-B341-BE62025E677B.jpeg

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