Hi to all!!
I've made the forge with a block of insulating bricks with a hole in the center of 110mm(diam), they are made by a very soft material and you can carve them just by a spoon, they accumulate the heat very well but they soffer the melted metal.
The Kaowool is good for the insulating properties cause heats up as soon as it cools down but is too soft for the work i do (some melted metal falls down when i'm forging and the wool is not flux resistant.)
The real problem is......... when i heat up the forge closing the ends the temp inside goes very high...... naturally when i open the ends the temp. falls a little bit down and in the ends the forge is near 250°-300°C colder than the inside, internally is near white colour in both ends is like a yellow.
I can't work with the caps "on" because i must take out the billet for the welding with a powerhammer because i should put them on and off every time.
Is not so good when you must heat the billet equally.... don't you think?
I think i've made pretty good all the things but there must be some particular that escape from my know-how (i'm really new in building the forges)
Sorry if i've been too long but i write/read the mail only at the evening so... I must write more than i can... even if sometimes the peoples doesn't read all that i write!! :-)
Summary:
- Uniformity of the heat all along the chamber
- Material to protect the internal surface from the melted metal (must mantain the heat)
- Excuses for my bad english.
a BIG Thank you for the help, Bix