forge design questions.

[Brett Holmes]

hi guys,
im looking at building a small forge, mostly for heat treating but also a little bit of forging and if posible, some damascus welding in the future. i was wondering if i can make one with just a tube shell, with castable refractory lining or is the castable not reflective enough, does it loose too much heat? i was going to go for a one brick, but i thought what i learnt from a cast forge would relate beter to making a bigger one in future.
How does castable refractory compare to kaowool??

thanks brett

[Phantom23]

I used a stainless box with bricks and kaowool with some refractory stuff (white powder mixed with water).

I started to try forge but did not have someone close to teach me. So I have not worried for a while.

Jason Cutter gave me some advice (as always) but I needed to see it. If I made mine again I would make it smaller say 5 x 5 x 12 or 14 (inches).

If you are in Victoria you should go to the Knife Show in May and "suck some knowledge off of the makers" there. I will be there doing the same thing as I want to get into the forging more.

Stewart

[Mike Turner]

Brett,

I had just finished building a forge using a pipe, I used castable because it is more durable. Keep in mind that with castable you have to have mass, the stuff I used they said at least 2 1/2" thick. Take a look. http://www.knifenetwork.com/forum/sh...ad.php?t=34642
Hope this helps.

Mike

[Brett Holmes]

thaks for your replys guys, mike, have you done much forging since that last thread? how well do you think the refractory reflects the heat? does ayoe ever coat the inside with some thing really reflective like ITC100 or is it un necesary?

thaks brett

[Mike Turner]

Brett,

Yes I have forged a lot with this forge. With the refractory it does need to heat up, when I start it up I will do some general forging will it is heating up, once it is hot then I will do my forge welding. The heat up takes like 20 minutes, with kawool it heats up quicker but it is not as durable in my opinion. I have not used ITC100 so I don't have any input there. The other thing I like about the refractory is it holds heat much better hours after I turn it off it is still very hot, you can't hardly touch the shell. I like to leave the piece I am working on in the forge and let it cool down with the forge. For me I would not use anything but refractory after using this forge I think kawool is a waste of money and time just my opinion.

Mike

[Mike Turner]

Brett,

Here is something I came accross today hope it helps. http://www.anvilfire.com/iForge/tuto...wool/index.htm

Mike

[Sweany]

castable is fine if you forge all day. Castable is much more durable. BUT

If you forge a few hours at a time you can not beat a kwool lining with a coating of castable or rammable refract in the bottom of your horizontal forge.


I used a castable forge for a several months, you use a lot of gas gettin up to temp., before you can do any work in it. This was the same forge that I could weld in, when it was lined with kwool. I could not get a weld in the castable lineing with the same burner.

For welding I like a horizontal forge.

my .02

[Mike Turner]

I don't use much fuel in my forge at all! The regulator is set at 3psi and like I said I do general forging until the forge is hot about 20 minutes, I have no problem welding in my forge the last billet I welded was 2 1/2" x 1 1/2" x 6". I do forge in mine all day or a good part of a day, but that is not why I used castable, I used castable because it is more durable, my last forge had a wool board of some type and it did not take much to poke holes in the liner and if any flux got on it it would disintegrate like cotton candy in water. My forge does have a blower, I am sure it would really depend on the type of burner you are using, My last forge had dual burners venturi type and at 12psi could not get it to weld and the atmosphere was not right it scaled the steel real bad. Forges I have found to be very opinionated subject everyone thinks they have the perfect forge design. This is just my opinion.

Mike

[Drunkenduck]

This is how I'm going to be rebuilding my gas forge, just as an FYI. I started out with 8
9x4 1/2x3" insulating brick. I cut a 5 1/2" semicircular arch out of each of them and cemented them together to form a tube. On the back I cemented another brick with the arch cut out but cemented a whole brick on top of it. That gives the forge a back door. I think that the mistake that I made was to coat the inside with just a layer of Satanite and the brick overheated, even though it is rated at 2300 degrees, and started to break down. I'm going to wire it back together, which I probably should have done in the first place and then coat the inside with about 1" of castable refractile cement.

Doug Lester