Frank1924 Posted November 23, 2020 Share Posted November 23, 2020 Can you build a forge out of solid 1" thick stainless steel 304 and not use any fire bricks? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted November 23, 2020 Share Posted November 23, 2020 You can build a forge out of 1/16" stainless and not use any firebricks. 1" thick would be a terrible waste of money, material and time! People have been forging for over 3000 years now not using fire bricks or even metal forges. I'm assuming you want to build a solid fuel forge and just put this in the wrong subforum. So tell us what you want to do and how you think you should go about it? My solid fuel forge has a table from about 1/8" steel and a firepot of an axle cover from a 1937 Banjo rear end, I ground out the ridges in the interior and added a grate; ben using it over 30 years now. When I use charcoal I can modify it with adobe to make a trench type forge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frazer Posted November 23, 2020 Share Posted November 23, 2020 What kind of forge? Gas? Solid fuel? Either way I don't see why not? Seems overkill, but people will probably need much more information than you've provided here to give any sort of advice. Welcome aboard, have you read this? It contains much of the information that will help you get the most out of the site. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irondragon Forge ClayWorks Posted November 24, 2020 Share Posted November 24, 2020 Welcome aboard... I always suggest reading READ THIS FIRST to help you get the best out of the forum. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank1924 Posted November 24, 2020 Author Share Posted November 24, 2020 On 11/23/2020 at 1:54 PM, Frazer said: What kind of forge? Gas? Solid fuel? I'm looking to use propane 3 burner, the 1" stainless steel is just something i have laying around. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frazer Posted November 24, 2020 Share Posted November 24, 2020 Sorry, I don't have a gas forge so I can't offer too much help other than the shell of your forge can be 1" SS or 1/8" sheet steel or many other things. The general consensus is to line the inside of the forge with 2" of 8# kaowool, which is rigidized and then coated with a layer of kast-o-lite 30. There is a great deal of information (from people much more qualified to provide it to you than I am) on the site, located in the gas forges section. Start with the pinned threads and go from there. The availability of the "building materials" will vary based on your location (see note 1 in the thread linked above). Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buzzkill Posted November 24, 2020 Share Posted November 24, 2020 On 11/23/2020 at 12:35 PM, Frank1924 said: Can you build a forge out of solid 1" thick stainless steel 304 and not use any fire bricks? I would strongly discourage you from attempting this. Can it be done? Probably. Would it be a good idea? Definitely not. Imagine if you will that you are able to bring the inside of your forge up to bright yellow temperatures. How hot do you think the outer surface of that 1 inch thick stainless will be? Not much cooler. It would also be an extreme gas hog. There are both serious safety and efficiency concerns with that idea. If you give us an idea of what kind of work you plan to do with your forge we may be able to offer suitable suggestions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted November 24, 2020 Share Posted November 24, 2020 Yes; the insulating refractory liner is the important part for a gas forge. Many if not most don't have any firebricks and those that do hopefully use the insulating firebricks and not the hard noninsulating type. Now how big a forge do you want to build? What do you want to use it for? Can you make a visit to the Refractory dealer in Albuquerque NM, USA? (Hard to direct you to where you should go not knowing even what COUNTRY you are in---folks from over 100 different countries have posted here so far!) I had two propane forges for about 20 years now: the first was made from 10" diameter grain auger tubing, (thin wall!) and used a single blown burner. The second was made from a section of Oxygen gas welding tank a bit under 10" and uses 2 naturally aspirated burners. Both were made at gas forge building workshops put on by an ABANA affiliate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank1924 Posted November 27, 2020 Author Share Posted November 27, 2020 (edited) On 11/24/2020 at 1:51 PM, Buzzkill said: If you give us an idea of what kind of work you plan to do with your forge we may be able to offer suitable suggestions. Thank You Buzzkill I have decider to use 9" x 4.5" x 1 1/4" fire brick rated at 2700 deg, now can i make the interior size 6" W X 9" T with the 3 burners inserted from the top dropped down 3" so the heat area would be 6" x 6", would this size hurt the heat transfer or should i cut the bricks down, also do I need end caps on this type of forge. Edited November 28, 2020 by Mod30 Trim quote. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted November 27, 2020 Share Posted November 27, 2020 So you are asking if you should close the doors on your house when it's cold out and you turn on the furnace? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted November 28, 2020 Share Posted November 28, 2020 Frank: I'm not trying to brush you off but you're proposing forge designs that are inefficient and worse ineffective. I suggest you do some skimming and reading in the Forges 101 section of Iforge. It's the most current section discussing forge builds, the hows and whys of good ideas, proven plans and some merciless hole punching in bad ideas. Doing a little reading will get you ahead of the curve if for no other reasons than giving you a handle on the jargon so you can ask better questions and understand the answers without us having to ask for clarificatins and explain what are for blacksmiths common terms. Make sense? Below is a link to the gas forges section, Forges 101 is among a number of sub sections to look through. https://www.iforgeiron.com/forum/65-gas-forges/ There are a number of proven propane forge designs to be found here and a raft of guys who'll help and or punch holes in your ideas. Truth is the hole punching is maybe the most valuable help we can offer, most of us have made enough mistakes to earn PHDs and we happily offer you the benefit of what we've learned making them. That way you can make some new and interesting mistakes we can all learn from. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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