Excited to be here!

[JHCC]

2 hours ago, Frosty said:

What John means by prepare yourself to rip that liner out and replace it, to paraphrase. because my memory isn't THAT good. The cement you used has a pretty short life as a flame face in a forge. He isn't saying you should rip it out now, just don't be surprised.

Well, kinda. If you want to get forging right away, go right ahead; just keep an eye on the cement bubbling and falling apart. If you start to see anything looking remotely like loss of structural integrity, STOP RIGHT AWAY. You didn’t say in your original post that you’d rigidized the ceramic wool, and you don’t want that stuff floating around for you to breathe.  Forging is fun, but it’s not worth risking your life and health unnecessarily. 

If you’re not in a hot hurry to start forging, you might find it better to tear it out and start over. This way, you won’t have to stop later on, possibly on the middle of a project. 

You certainly have done well so far, certainly much better than when I first (re)started forging. Don’t worry; your ego is safe with us!

[BillyBones]

You could get one of those cargo racks that go into a trailer hitch for the SUV maybe? That way the tank would not be in the passenger area. 

Trucks are not just for southerners, try getting around in 8" of snow with out one. 

 

[ThomasPowers]

Most of the cars in the Mineral Science and Engineering parking lot would handle 8" of snow better than my little pickup.  Remember you judge a man's manliness by the size of their *ANVIL* not their truck!

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

It all depends on what kinda transportation a body (needs) vs wants 

when I’m taking max to daycare into town 12 miles one way I haul him in a car that gets good gas mileage, 

when I need to haul a couple thousand pounds of feed, hay, firewood, machinery pull trailers ect… I use the truck, 

both have their purpose and both are really good at their purposes, 

it’s kinda funny,

I see these guys with their trucks lift kitted, giant, 4x4, tricked out custom rims and light bars, with custom brush guards and winches ect..

  there’s not a speck of mud on them, not a single scratch!

those dudes keep their trucks all polished and waxed, they don’t use them for work they don’t haul or pull anything and they payed more for that truck an aftermarket do-dads then I did for my house lol, 

my trucks got more dents then the moon has craters, there all scratched up and filthy, 

funny story last spring

 I hadn’t got around to cleaning out all the loose hay an wood chips am dirt in the bed of one of my trucks that had built up all winter, 

I went to the feed store backed up to the dock an gave the boys my order and walked in to pay when I came back out all the guys were standing on the dock behind my truck staring at something,

I walked up an asked what was so interesting and they pointed to my truck bed and apparently a forest of mushrooms was growing back there in the wood chips an I hadn’t noticed, along with some fescue! Lol,

 

 

[ThomasPowers]

Way back when SUV's first came out I used to drive my old 4 cylinder imported PU to work at Bell Labs and have it surrounded by the HUGE SUV's that never did anything more taxing than haul groceries from the store.  Meanwhile my little PU was hauling blacksmithing stuff for week long campouts...

[BillyBones]

May have been the 2" of ice under 6" of snow but just yesterday i had to drop the old truck down to 4lo just to get in my drive way. My SIL tried in his car this AM. Had to get up out of my nice warm bed, get dressed and go help push him back out of the drive way. 

Trucks also do better doughnuts in the snow than cars in my opinion. 

A few years back my dad bought himself a brand spankin new Ford F-150. We made the trip up to the PX, about an hour drive, to stock up. My mom wanted some cold stuff so they got a bag of ice. Of course the ice was in one block so i picked it up and slammed it down in the bed of his new truck he had not had for a week yet. The ice put a huge dent right in the middle of the bed. My dad just kind of sighed and said well it was bound to happen sooner or later. 

When i bought my GMC i tried my best to keep the dents and scratches out of it. Then one day my boss comes in and tells me he hit the side of my truck. Caved in the whole passenger side, both doors. One door still has a huge dent. Only fixed the one that would not open. 

One more, my dad backed a trailer into the side of the Ford i used to have. I may also have to mention my dad also drove a low boy in the Army for a while. 

[TryingLobster]

A quick update on the forge:

Sure enough, after a couple hot firings that cement started the crack and fall apart. Y'all were right, I didn't use any rigidizer the first time around so I stopped using the forge once cracks started to form. I took a break from forging for a few weeks (I had several house projects that needed attention) but recently I've gotten back to it, starting with ripping everything out down to the shell, which I scrubbed clean of rust and old cement with a steel brush.

First off, I didn't care for the size or position of the one burner hole I had previously drilled. It was far too close to the front of the forge. My plan is to have two burners in this forge, so I measured out a ratio of 2:3:2 for the spacings between the front of the forge, the first hole, the second hole, and the back of the forge. I think this will work well for using the full length of the forge or when adding a false wall to use only the front half the forge. I also drilled holes in the steel shell that pointed towards the middle of the future bottom of the forge, instead of pointed towards the center of the forge. This should help me angle the burners further down than previously and keep the burners from sagging so much. By the way, I've significantly shortened the burners, shortened the 1/8" propane pipe, and added right-angle fittings to minimize the strain on the burners.

Next I re-lined the shell with the same kaowool I used previously, but this time I sprayed each layer down with rigidizer after buttering it. I used a good fitting N95 mask to avoid inhalation of any of the silica, don't worry.

After letting that dry a bit, I re-buttered the outer layer and mixed up some Kast-O-Lite 30 and have my first 1/8" layer on. I've wet down some shop towels for extra moisture and covered the shell with plastic wrap to let the whole thing wet cure. Tomorrow morning after letting the first layer cure for a while, I'm going to put a second layer on to get about 1/4" all the way around and also add refractory onto the ends where you can still see the exposed kaowool in the pictures. Eventually I'll also add some Plistix to the lining, but I need to drive out any remaining water from the Kast-O-Lite and kaowool first, and I plan on running the forge up to temperature once or twice to see how it heats before I get to that.

One other improvement is that since I know my burners work, I cast the flares into the lining with the Kast-O-Lite. The previous version of the forge leaked heat around the burner holes and the burners had way too much play. I think the smaller holes combined with the flares being cast into the lining will help reduce heat leakage around the burners considerably.

So, what else am I missing? Any other comments or improvements that I should consider before proceeding?

[Frosty]

Sounds like you're getting it right this time, good job! If you're going to make the Kastolite more than 1/4" thick you can just add it all in one lift. Making several thin lifts is more fitting to some of the older hard refractories and not necessary for Kastolite.

Frosty The Lucky.