So I built a new forge from scratch. It's a ribbon burner forge and everything has gone smooth. Except the fact that I broke my burner as I was assembling the last tube and just about to fire up. Anyway, I have been firing the kao-wool & refractory floor, walls and ceiling every night after letting sit for 6- 8 hours in my oven starting at 195 degrees for 3 hours and then 300 for 3 hours. Of course that has only been 1/2" of cement too. I am curious to know if anyone has fired a ribbon burner after letting sit for less than 3 days. Yes I'm impatient. Especially after almost being done once. I was wondering how long it would actually take for 3 inches to set up and be ready for firing. I'm assuming 24 hours per inch, but has anyone done it sooner?

 Chris

 

Chris: A little clarification please and I'll probably be able to help out.

Who recommended such a prolonged curing process? Kaowool doesn't require it and rigidizer heat cures with ONE trip to high red temps.

When you say 1/2" of "cement" what exactly do you mean? Portland cement concrete of any kind won't last at all. Things like furnace and refractory cements or mortars are NOT formulated for flame contact in a furnace so they don't last long.

Most castable water set refractories do NOT dry, they hydrate and form molecular bonds that harden them. The method of curing them works best when kept wet so the calcites in the binders can hydrate completely and form their most stable bonds. 

Let us know what kind of refractory you have, we'll be more than happy to help.

Frosty The Lucky.

Frosty, It is basically Mizzou 3000. The Blacksmith and Farrier supply shop that I get alot of my supplies fro sells 55lb bags. I have experience using this refractory as I've had great results in the past.  I'm just basically wanting to know if I would crack my burner if I didn't let it cure for the 3 days recommended  in the plans for the ribbon burner plans that I printed up from Pine Ridge Burners. Honestly , I don't think I want to go off from the directions. They are written as such for a reason and I don't want any issues with this burner. I was just being impatient. The thing is, The refractory used for the burner is 3" thick so curing time is critical. Here are a few pics of my progress. That burner broke though. I dropped it. Oops

Number 2. Lets not brake this one Chris...

Good Morning,

On mine, I added couple little tabs so the burner would sit on top of the flange of the Forge body. Takes away the force of the bolts pushing on the side of the burner, cracking the bond. I see you have a tab for sitting in the mould.

Neil

Ya know, between me and you, I broke the burner because of the bolts. As I was trying to put the plumbing together I thought I had the set screws tight ( I did) and the burner wouldn't move. I'm pretty sure it did push on the side cracking the bond. It just fell right out of the burner body. Thanks for the advice. I will do that. Hopefully the tabs that I have on there will be good but I know that the metal should absolutely not protrude into the forge body. 

Edited January 12, 20206 yr by Mod30
Remove excessive quote.

3 hours ago, chris freeman said:

I dropped it

I can relate to that. This was going to be the back door to our forge. Settled on soft fire bricks.

For John:  what do you think-----Ostracized or Tesseraected?

On ‎1‎/‎12‎/‎2020 at 3:09 PM, Irondragon Forge & Clay said:

I can relate to that. This was going to be the back door to our forge. Settled on soft fire bricks.

Like I said< Oops!

 

I'm happy...Welding heat achieved easily.

On 1/12/2020 at 11:13 AM, swedefiddle said:

Good Morning,

On mine, I added couple little tabs so the burner would sit on top of the flange of the Forge body. Takes away the force of the bolts pushing on the side of the burner, cracking the bond. I see you have a tab for sitting in the mould.

Neil

Thanks for that idea Neil. I put tabs on by burner body and it does relive alot of stress on the mold. Thans, again for that.