forge building ?

[Whoever Wherever]

Ok, so I have my forge ready to go and have installed the inswool on the top, bottom and sides. I have satanite and mizzou castable refractory. Should I coat the whole thing with a layer of satanite, let that cure, then pour layer of mizzou on the bottom? Or should I pour the mizzou bottom and then coat the sides with satanite? This is a vertical forge. If I pour the bottom first I am afraid to fire the burner up in order to cure it with the inswool on the sides still exposed. Darren's website warns against heating up the inswool without a coating over it. Thanks for any advice.

 

[sharpeknives]

Dustin,
I used IG's method. Cover insowool with ITC-100, Use 1/2 firebrick to cover bottom,on top of the insawool and ITC-100. filled in gaps in-between bricks with kitty litter(clay type) Coated everything with satinite. (I did a mix of kitty-litter and satinite to fill the gaps between the bricks). The firebrick in the bottom helps keep flux from eating threw the bottom.

 

[Whoever Wherever]

I have ITC-100 that I will put over the satanite and mizzou as per Darrens method so I have that covered. I was under the impression that mizzou was more flux resistant than satanite so I thought it would be good enough for a floor material. I will do more forging than welding at first so I wasn't planning on getting to much flux in it. Do you think I can get away without the bricks? I guess I could always put a layer of brick or insboard in and put the mizzou over that. I am not in any hurry to reline it, hehe.

 

[A C Richards]

The reason you do not want to heat the inswool is the particulate that will be blow out into the atmosphere. The bottom does not need to have the wool covering it, actually not a real good idea since flux will eat it like cotton candy if there is any pinholes. I do the walls and top first with a coat of XXX refactory. last week I did a fast rebuild (1 day) lined and coated fully. I actually poured the floor first. I placed as much fire brick/old refactory crushed up in the bottom. Poured the reafactory into the bottom placed a pipe into it to form a trough, and turned on the fire very low. Just enough to keep the flame going. Ran it for about 10 minutes and turned it off. Let it cool then did the sides. I spread a thick layer of mizzou over dampened wool about 1/2 inch thick. Half of the forge at a time to hold it in place. Heated with torch until set then did the other half. Same process. After the whole thing was covered and set I made a light slurry of the mud and smoothed it all over to clean things up and even them out. Normally it takes me a week to do a rebuild but just did not have time and needed to get the forge up and running to finish some projects. It has worked just fine and actually have cracked less than the longer process. The inswool should not give off to much particulate until it reaches a higher temp. If you are worried the spread a slurry of the satanite on first. You just need to fix it into place so it wont sag. Good luck

 

[Whoever Wherever]

Ok, so if I take the inswool off the bottom then I could poor the floor easily without the side and top inswool. Then just add them and coat them. Thanks guys.