Well, it looks like a forge at least. 

Whoo-ha-ha!

Ayup, looks like a forge from here. 

Frosty The Lucky.

I'm not sure if I'm not mixing it right or what, but the kast o lite seems to either be really thick and clumpy or really watery and still somehow clumpy, and it transitions from one to the other in about the space of an ounce of water. It's driving me a little bananas. I've watched a ton of videos on how to use it and literally forbade myself from asking in the forums until I had read everything there was to find but I have no clue what I did. 

Kastolite is NOT easy to mix, you can't just stir it, it'll set up before it's thoroughly mixed. I knead it in a stainless pan with a heavy stainless serving spoon and all but do hand stands on it in the process. It's the crushed aggregate that makes it such a PITA, the broken particles don't slide past each other, they catch and key together. Visualize a sack of marbles compared to a sack of jacks and how much different they'd move.

I had to go a LITTLE over recommended moisture content but we don't need maximum characteristics from the finished refractory. Just don't get carried away with the water, just a LITTLE.

Nothing will make it spread smoothly, that'd be like rolling dominos, it just isn't in the cards. 

Frosty The Lucky.

I also do my mixing in a pan, but I measure everything out by weight first, then sprinkle the water over the entire surface, and finish by chopping it together with a drywall knife. That gives a uniform distribution of moisture throughout, and I know I have the proportions correct. 

Do you guys think one of those grout/cement-mixing drill paddles would work?

Overkill, plus they’re designed for a more fluid mix. 

No, they don't work worth spit.

Frosty The Lucky.

Woo! I have an actual burning forge! My flame is way too yellow, so I obviously need to figure that out yet, and I need to get some shelf-type things welded on to hold firebrick to keep the heat in, but... I'm just so excited to have made all of these things come together! 

 

Good Morning,

Close up the ends, leave an opening to act as a chimney (generally the hole you leave to work out of is good). Don't be in a panic, it takes awhile for the refractory to heat up and consume some of the excess fuel. "Patience, Little One".

If you are after 'OOOOHs and AAAAHs, make it look good!! How about a tongue sticking out of the Forge door, Then you could say you are going to 'give it a Lickin'.

Normal is a setting on the Dryer, Nothing else!!! Some people go to school for years and still don't get it!!

Neil

The yellow may be the refractory curing, give it a little time then make just one change at a time, changing more will make it hard to tell what is working.

I'm trying to take things slowly. I have been the "run to the forums and beg for help every time something little goes wrong" guy before, and it not only annoys the heck out of everyone but I don't get the chance to learn. So everything here is taking a lot longer because I spend about a week reading for every little thing that I need to fix, but I really am learning a lot. 

I'm pretty sure the yellow flame is just because I have too rich a mix. Gotta fiddle with sticking my nozzle a little further down the intake, think. 

My plan was to put rails front and back to slide fire brick into, but I wanted the bigger holes so I can put longer pieces of metal through. Right now I'm just firing the kast o lite after a couple days of it drying in the air. 

This is how I made the channels. Tac welded angle iron together to make a channel wide enough to hold the soft fire brick, then welded them to the body.That way the opening front & back stayed the same but can be closed down easily.

That looks like it's a better version of what I was planning. I will probably steal the design.

Doesn't sticking the nozzle deeper; tend to make things richer?

My understanding is that there's a point in the bell where you start creating a vortex that pulls oxygen down the tube with the propane. If you're too far back the vortex keeps the Propane from going adequately down the tube and as you move forward it gets richer until you get far enough in that the vortex itself has to taper, making it less rich, but the further down the pipe you move the less time the propane has to dispurse and mix with the oxygen, making your flame anemic. So there's like an effectiveness bell curve. You combine your nozzle depth with a baffle to create optimal mix and dispersal for a flame. 

Of course I could be completely wrong. I'm very good at being wrong. Just ask my wife. 

No. Whoever told you that has it backwards.

The deeper the jet is in the burner the richer the ratio. If the jet is aligned straight down the mixing tube you don't get weird vortices developing.  These are the kinds of things written by folks who don't understand what's happening trying to explain them. It's like someone translating a language they don't speak. 

The orange/yellow dragon's breath are the calcite binders in the hard refractory oxidizing. Wait until it finishes curing before you start messing with the burner.

Right now it needs doors or better thermal baffles.

Frosty The Lucky.