October 22, 20187 yr so i was hunting at a scrapyard and i found a huge kiln or forge not sure what, it had a lot of tungsten rods broken inside. the entire thing was almost as big as my truck. so i pulled what bricks i could out of it. most in it were crushed or broken but i pulled 8 of the ones below. they are heavy as xxxx about 20-25 pounds each. i was thinking of making a forge with them? what type of brick is it and would this be a good idea? thanks Matthew Edited October 23, 20187 yr by Mod34 Inappropriate language removed
October 22, 20187 yr Probably not a good idea. Heavy firebrick is a lousy insulator, so would not be a good choice for an inner liner for a gas forge. If you are planning on a solid fuel forge they might work, or they might have chemical deposits on the surface that could be a problem or not respond well to thermal shock.
October 22, 20187 yr What he said: possibly ok for a solid fuel forge not good for a gas forge. What country are you in?
October 22, 20187 yr Author i wasn't sure about the bricks, i looked around online and didn't find much other then they might be magnesite. i know a few of them have a glassy look but they are eaten into a little seams like the stuff is near bullet proof, i figured they would be great for a forge that does a lot of forge welding, maybe cutting them down to like an inch thick and line a forge. i have a small propane forge but i want to use something i built. thoughts? also my little forge is in my garage so a solid fuel forge was out, im looking to build a small shop to move it but for now i have to stick to propane. also while i haven't done a lot of digging but i didn't found a lot of suppliers of solid fuel around here. i live in the USA in east Tennessee
October 22, 20187 yr If they are hard brick with a high alumina content (Mullite?), good luck on cutting them thinner. The use of the wet diamond saw you would need will likely cost more than just buying an appropriate liner material, and the thermal mass will be considerable (how long do you want to wait for your gas forge to get up to temperature?). In my opinion hard brick gas forges are only appropriate for a factory setting where you have tremendous throughput of steel to be forged and need the thermal mass to keep production moving quickly. In any case you will still need a substantial insulative layer, so using these bricks will not gain you too much. If you can figure a cheap way to slice them down, you might consider using one as a consumable forge floor tile, but I would certainly keep it no thicker than 1" and insulate well underneath.
October 22, 20187 yr If you are concerned at all about the cost of operating your propane forge, you won't use those bricks in any capacity other than a floor liner, and then only if you can successfully get one cut an inch or thinner. If you just want to use something you found and build a forge out of it without concern to cost or effectiveness then go for it. It's not a question of them being able to withstand the temperatures or flux. The issue is that they are large heat sinks. There's no getting away from that fact, so it will take longer to heat up your forge or it will require more burners to get it hot. Either option equals more fuel burned. Beyond that, during use those bricks would most likely bleed a lot of heat from the inside to the outside of your forge. Again, that equals more fuel burned. Once a good propane forge has been built, the only significant ongoing cost is fuel. Barring some really extravagant build, the cost of the fuel will far exceed the cost of the initial build within a a couple years of frequent use. In other words, from an economic viewpoint the focus should be on long term fuel consumption rather than initial construction costs. The only benefit I can think of has been touched on above. When/if you did get that much mass up to temperature, reheat times for stock should be short.
October 23, 20187 yr Author i might have to play with them a bit see what i can do with them. thanks for the thoughts!
October 23, 20187 yr On 10/22/2018 at 2:58 PM, tower0ne said: i live in the USA in east Tennessee We won't remember this after leaving this post, hence the suggestion in the linked thread above to edit your profile to show it.
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