Looks good. If you are going to develop it any further though an air dump ir
slider valve would improve your air controll. You may burn up some steel and
this may help to control that.
good luck
Doug
Yeah. :) And why an old vacuum? What about a "shaded pole blower"?
These things are almost silent...
http://www.panix.com/~alvinj/blower.jpg
http://www.panix.com/~alvinj/burner.jpg
And with that small (two burner) head on there the air-adjustment
has been used closed lately relying in the leaks... and the gas
adjusted to match that... is just about right. (so there's plenty
of air for blacksmithing if opened-up?)
I'm not a blacksmith so that rig is for heat treating knife blades
and pocket knife springs only.
Ordinary fireplace lining brick at $2 each sounds pretty steep. :/
Are they insulated-ones by any chance? (you can tell by their
weight, if nothing else) I have the lightest-weight insulated type
which are the best insulation for bricks, but can't handle the
highest heat. Look, feel and sound like styrofoam. :)
Early 90's = $2.50 each at the brickyard.
(45c each for the ordinary fireplace liners)
http://www.panix.com/~alvinj/furnace.jpg
The yellow bricks (around the bottom edge) are the 45cent ones.
The rear brick has a gap for exhaust and the funny looking gap near
the front is where I put the knife handle in backwards to heat the
thicker parts first. I hardnen half way up the handle on something
like a butcher knife or paring knife and this gives the thick part a
head start so I can consentrate on the important part, the blade.
I got my fire bricks from a Kiln factory. They cost about $2 USD each. They
measure _approximately_ 200mm x 150mm x 25mm. You may find some that are
different sized, but a hacksaw should make short work of them. And yes, 10 x
means ten fire bricks. The ones I have are rated to about 1800 degrees
centigrade.
Look in your yellow pages phone book under the heading of "refractory".
I have dealt with Inproheat and Clayburn Refractories and got good
service from both, but neither is really set up to do retail so you will
need to bring a cheque, or call ahead to make arrangements and figure
out how much cash to bring.
I'm pretty sure there is a branch of on or both companies in the Lower
Mainland B.C. area.
Second pick is to find pottery supplies places, the bricks are used for
kilns (hint: they buy from refractory suppliers, go figure)
For gas forge use, insulating firebricks are what you want , except for
the floor, which should be lined with hard firebrick or ceramic slabs
called Kiln Shelf, as the flux will eat the soft firebricks.
For a coal or coke forge, hard firebricks are the thing to use, or
castable refractory, which is basically high temerature cement.
Some harware stores or building supply stores will carry hard
firebricks for fireplace construction, check in the area of bricks.
Cheers
Trevor Jones
Can firebricks for fireplace construction take the heat required to make
knives/swords (shields, spearheads, staff caps, armor, and various other
things as well)?
Cuz i could just dismantle my fireplace...
Yes - My wood stove used to eat - and melt down 1/4" steel plate and the bricks
just sat there. I replaced the bricks because the bottom ones were wearing out
due to the scoop I used to get the ashes out. I kept the 'old' - 17 year old
bricks.
Mine are 1" thick.
Martin
Martin Eastburn
@ home at Lions' Lair with our computer lionslair at consolidated dot net
NRA LOH & Endowment Member
NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder
BigHammerBoy wrote:
You really need the 3000 degree ones to hammer weld. Having a brick explode
while red-hot is no fun at all. Look in the Yalu Pages for refractory
suppliers. Fire brick is an industrial material, and has a 'service life',
so big cities should have at least one jobber. They should also handle
castable refractory, which comes in fifty pound bags around here. Plan on
relining the firebox about once every three to five years, depending on how
hard you push it. I'm on my third lining in fifteen years.
Charly (safety first, last, always)
Kiln shelf is certainly a good idea, but wouldn't it be easier to line
with soft insulation all around, then set the kiln shelf on top?
The kiln shelf also wants to be easily replaceable.
I use a stainless steel pan for when I want to weld. My forge has insulating
bricks on the floor and walls, and insulating castable for the arched roof.
If you want, yes. Soft insulation, assuming you mean ceramic wool of
one sort or another, is an order or two more expensive than soft
firebricks, though.
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