Borax Damage

S

Steve Tirdell

Joined
Jul 27, 2006
Messages
12
What Are Some Ways To Protect The Floor Of My Gas Forge From Damage From Borax? What Is The Best Way To Repair It? It Is Made Of Castable Refractory. Thanks!!!
 
Welcome to Bladeforums!

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Steve

If you have a vertical cavity forge the easiest solution I have fount is to make the forge with a removable bottom. Line the bottom with Inswool or Kaowool and set the forge back in place. When the insulation gets too bad, lift the forge peel off the old insulation, throw on a new slab and set the forge back in place. That being said, if you don't have the option of a removable bottom. you can try throwing a section of sheet metal in the bottom to catch the flux. This method is usually good for one heat, since the steel turns to iron oxide, which is what hot flux is used to disolve in the first place. Old cans that are not plastic or galvanized can be but open and smashed flat. Do NOT USE GALVANIZED, you body doesn't like zinc oxide.
Hope this helped.
Jim Arbuckle
 
what i have found to work the best and my current forge welding forge has been going for six months , is three coats of satanite and then a good thick coat of bubble alumina. both can be purchased from elliscustomknifeworks.com
 
I relined my forge recently. I had 1.25 inch thick halfbricks on the bottom motared in place with green cast 94, a 94% alumina refractory. When I cleaned the steel bottom plate off it was in like new condition. This forge has consumed several hundred pounds of anhydrous borax. Greencast 94 is good for temps up to 4500 dF...Take Care...Ed
 
I second the Satanite, I didn't even wrap the bottom with wool, just let it end on eigther side of where I wanted the bottom and put several heavy coats and a slight spiot in the clay to let excess borax run out instead of pooling up in the forge. Been working good for a while now.
 
A good castable should simply handle the borax. Mine does. Of course the borax piles up, but it would take a very long time/lots of welding before it became a problem.

As for wool in the bottom, why? The heat should be rising, and the wool, regardless of coating, is bound to get eaten up.

Ed,

Do you just sit the forge atop the bricks and let the weight hold it in place?

John
 
I put 2 layers of wool, a couple half bricks and then sprinkle cat litter over that. It lasts about 6 months of heavy damascus welding, then I just break up the hardened borax along with the fire brick and replace, takes about 15 minutes. Without the wool it takes forever to come up to welding heat, but my forge sits on concrete blocks so I'm sure they really pull the heat if it not insulated.

Have fun,

Bill
 
The verticle pipe steel body of my forge is tac-welded to the bottom plate. The top of the forge is open and is covered with insulwool board. I cut the tac-welds when I reline the forge...Take Care...Ed
 
Go to a ceramics place, like a supplier or a producer of ceramics products. They usually have broken kiln shelves. Borax won't touch it. I cut a piece about four inches wide by the depth of my horizontal forge, reline the forge in the usual way, then put in the kiln shelf and mud over it with fire clay just to hold it in place. You'll have to use a masonry saw to cut it. I got one that would fit my hand held power saw and it cuts very easily.
 
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