My forge build.....WIP......it's going to take a while!

I don't know how thick your cast able is, but if if fairly thin (1/4" or less) drying is less critical, but with thick castable it 's going to be MUCH more critical to prevent cracking. Most of my castable is <1/8", except on floor where it's perhaps 1/4" in places.

Joe, you're getting close!
 
My floor is probably close to an inch! The walls maybe a 1/4-1/2" in places. the top is an 1/8" if that!

I fired it up briefly. About 1 minute maybe and the temp went over the firing/curing schedule I referenced earlier. It wouldn't sustain a flame with the blower on full (at maybe 2 psi), but I closed the blower damper to about half and the flame (pretty blue) was no problem. And it definitely wraps around the interior of the forge! Plain as day you could see the flame swirling around the forge. I hoped to get a picture but before I could get my phone the temp was over 500 F degrees. The gas solenoid makes an annoying whining sound! The forge itself is pretty much a dull roar. The blower sounds sick like it's struggling or something when I try to use the speed control.

But I guess so far so good!?

When it cools completely I'll fire it again and maybe get a picture.
 
Sounds like winner! Blue flame, and swirling around the interior. Sounds just as it should be. CONGRAT!!! You got a forge!
 
PATIENCE!!! Force curing refractory DRAMATICALLY shortens it's lifespan. You won't think there is anything amiss, until the 3rd or 4th time you fire it up.....then the refractory will crack wildly and fall off. Just sayin.
 
Thank you Ed for the input. I'm trying to adhere to the curing schedule but I don't have near fine enough control on the heat! I waited until the forge body got down into the mid 70's F before firing it up again (and then for less than a minute!) and I shut it down before it hit 450 Degrees F. My plan at this point is to do the same for the next day or so before I shoot for higher temps. I'm a total noob at this stuff. Thank God for Ken for guiding me thus far!

I closed the damper a bit more on the blower before I fired it this time, and the flame didn't seem to wrap quite as completely around the interior forge. But I got a picture.... Next time I'll open the damper a bit more.

fired-up2.jpg


I'll try to give a couple or three more such firings tonight! Any input is greatly appreciated!
 
Joe, that sure is a pretty swirl of flame going there. Sounds like your plan is pretty much what I followed in slow curing of the forge lining. I might have been faster on heat, but I was using Kast-o-Lite as a coating over the kaowool, and only a thin coat. I followed up with a ITC-100, but that stuff goes on more like paint than a coating, from what I remember anyway.

Ed, I hope you've been monitoring this thread to make sure I didn't give any wrong advice.

Ken H>
 
Thanks Ken!

I assume after I think the castable is 'cured; then then I paint on the ITC-100?

At this point even given the my dismal coating of the castable I'm pretty stoked! And you Sir have been the best guide I could have hoped for through this process! Thank you for sticking with me!
 
Well I fired it again, it seems that 5/8's to 2/3 of the blower damper open gives me the best swirl. It gets up to temp very quick and I try to shut it down before 500 degrees F.
 
No rush getting to high temperatures when forge is fully heated you will find it will burn better. With a bright orange glow the flame will be stable even more than now.
 
Agreed! I did another quick fire to about 480 degrees F. I'll try to do another tonight if I don't fall asleep too early!
 
Just a quick update. I'm trying to cure the refractory as slow as I can with very little control. I have been firing the forge up for less than a minute every 2 hours or so after the forge cools completely. It's difficult to keep the temps in the range the 'suggested schedule' specifies.

So I'll finish up today with the 1 minute firings and tomorrow I think I will bring the forge up to 1000 F on a similar schedule, letting it cool in between.

Then on Tuesday I'm going all out and we'll see what she will do!
 
Quick update for anybody watching, I've been firing the forge up to about 1000 F roughly every 3 hours, waiting until it gets under a 100 F before each round. No cracks in the refractory so far, wish me luck! Tomorrow I'll go all out a few times. Try to get some pictures or a video.

In the meantime my shop reorg that I started what seems like forever ago is coming along. I moved most of the bigger pieces in the center around to give myself a good place to bolt the treadle hammer down and parked the hydraulic press right beside it. Should have plenty of room for the forge beside them.
 
jaxxas said:
Quick update for anybody watching, I've been firing the forge up to about 1000 F roughly every 3 hours, waiting until it gets under a 100 F before each round. No cracks in the refractory so far, wish me luck! Tomorrow I'll go all out a few times. Try to get some pictures or a video.

In the meantime my shop reorg that I started what seems like forever ago is coming along. I moved most of the bigger pieces in the center around today to give myself a good place to bolt the treadle hammer down and parked the hydraulic press right beside it. Should have plenty of room for the forge beside them.
Click to expand...

Maybe after I get done I could do a quick walk around video of the shop if anybody is interested.
 
You have a hydraulic press? AND a Power (treadle) hammer. You gonna be in business for Damascus or San Mai. Sure, do a video walk around. I always find other folk's shops interesting.
 
KenH said:
You have a hydraulic press? AND a Power (treadle) hammer. You gonna be in business for Damascus or San Mai. Sure, do a video walk around. I always find other folk's shops interesting.
Click to expand...

Huuuh yes... But I don't have a lathe or a mill with a DRO! ;)

I'll work on a video but I gotta warn you it won't be pretty!
 
Ok I took it up to 2300 F today, maybe a bit more, and I'm pretty sure it will go more if I let it.

I started with the blower at about 3/4ths damped and ended up with it full open. I started the gas at about 2 psi. You can actually hear the gas valve whining over the roar of the forge in I think the first video. Not sure on the second video where I had raised the pressure to about 2.5 PSI. The valve stops whining somewhere around 2.5 PSI.

drive.google.com

getting hot.mp4

drive.google.com drive.google.com

In this video I had opened the damper to about 1/2 way as the temperature climb had started to level off at about 1650 F or so.


In the second and final video I have the damper fully open and the gas up to about 2.5 PSI and when I shut it down at just over 2300 F it was still climbing.

drive.google.com

hot.mp4

drive.google.com drive.google.com

I closed the bricks up quite a bit as my shop temp quickly went up about 105 F. I'll need some better ventilation, and maybe a fire suit to work in front of this forge! I most definitely will not be forging in my shop during the worst part of the Arizona summer. It is pretty hot standing in front of the forge even at about 5 feet. 2-3 feet and hair starts singeing. While taking the videos my phone gave me an over temp warning!

I took some surrounding temperatures, and the steel floor (sandwiched with 1" layer of cementitious board) below the forge only got to about 130 F, the underside of that shelf was about 85 F which is just above the propane. But the cementitious board above the forge was like 330 F. And the plywood on the top that is sandwiched with the 1" cementitious board was about 130 F as well. Seems a bit hot. As I have some more cementitious board scraps I'll probably stick another layer on the bottom of that shelf. If that doesn't bring the temp down to something reasonable I'll replace the plywood with sheet metal.

I'll let it cool down, do a quick inspection and fire it up again this afternoon.

I didn't see any cold spots, I'm a pretty happy guy!
 
Boy Joe, that forge looks good. I could see the blower only part open. You could melt steel in that forge! Looks like you've got a nice dragon's breath coming from the forge? Hard to tell. The heat given off by forge is why I've never even considered using my forge inside, it's always outside winter or summer.
 
Thanks Ken!

Yes I think there is good bit of dragon's breath. And it gets hot in the shop with the forge fired up. But I do have to say it never got that hot that fast with my little old Matheson forge! Next time I'll crack the garage door and turn on my squirrel cage I have mounted at the top rear of the shop for some decent cross ventilation. Well see how that works out. The shop is really the only place I can forge. If I tried it on the drive way the neighborhood blue haired ladies would call the fire department I'm sure. I could conceivably run it in the back yard but that's too far away from the hammer and the press.

So far I can see no refractory cracking.

I forgot to mention it only took about 20 minutes or so to get up to 2300 F!

At what point would I apply the ITC-100? And then I can expect it to heat up faster I guess.
 
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