Forge repair/ Vertical Forge / Horizontal Forges... WIP

[SinePari]

I'll be rebuilding/modifying my naturally aspirated Diamondback forge as well as building 1 blown vertical forge and 2 horizontal forges.

Materials on hand for the newly constructed forges;

#55 Kast-o-lite 30 plus

#5 pounds of Bubble Alumina for the forge floor

1 pint of ITC-100

2 yards of 2" SuperWool

Refractory remnants, canibalized Firebrick and Kaowool Scraps, bentonite clay, and other materials that work their way into the equation...


I'll be using this as a blower. 120 CFM might be the high end of "needs", but I plan on diverting some of the excess towards the gate, as I've heard this saves you from singed hair.


http://www.amazon.com/BR-2C01A-120-CFM-Outdoor-Inflatable-0-8-Amp/dp/B00CMQXV3S

The blown forge will be very similar to the Don Fogg forge I've seen via these subforums...


Stay tuned.

 

[SinePari]

Tore apart the Diamondback forge this weekend. After I cleaned all the lumpy crap and slag-like objects out of it, I was quite surprised the bottom bricks, side wall ,and top were in pretty good shape. So, I simply flipped them over. Living up to my brown midas touch, not all of this flipping went up without a hitch and I ended up breaking the ceiling.

Looking at the damage I'm thinking that I might just go ahead and cast a new ceiling and use the broken one for added insulation elsewhere... You can see the bottom layer of bubble alumina has been troweled in and the ITC has been applied atop the bubble alumina. I was initially unimpressed by the bubble alumina thinking that it was going to be brittle, but it seems to have dried into a pretty robust shell. I hope it holds up.

 

[SinePari]

I used heavy duty Freezer paper as the mold shell and was going to used the kaowool as a template for the cast but after reading the directions decided to leave it in. There was a line in the directions of the Kast-o-lite 30+ that said if you were going to cast over existing refractory, remove debris and contaminants... I assume that kaowool was lumped into that categorical "refractory" as there wasn't anything listed as an exception... Rx bottles were a perfect fit in maintaining the circular voids, and I used rain-x as a mold release.

I used math, so fingers crossed... Looked a little wet at first, but after 10 minutes the casting seemed to absorb my concern and solidify a bit...

Covered with Plastic for the 24 hour cure time...