|
Posted by Greyangel on August 1, 2005, 9:23 pm
Please log in for more thread options It's fun playing around with that stuff. I enjoyed it a lot myself. Keep
posting away. I like getting this from the perspective of sombody fairly
new to it all. I kind of went the "disposable" route and stuck with what
worked well enough. I plan to improve my setup but I wanted to start
hammering and I've learned more about what I want from a forge as time goes
on. There's more to it than how well it heats - you gotta figure out what
design works best for you and that's not something anybody can really tell
you. I spent a lot of time figuring out how to evenly heat an entire long
blade and then realized I needed to be able to heat just a small portion of
it too. This is going to require a different approach. There is a lot to
be said for charcoal because of the versatility of the fire dimentions. Not
much good to those of us living in the burbs though.
GA
> I tried coating my gas forge with ITC-100, after I'd used it some with
> a coating of colloidal silica and zircon. I can say that the forge is
> definitely hotter with the ITC-100.
>
> before it would get to a good orange heat, with maybe half of the
> inside at a "strong glow" at 5 p.s.i. Now, with the ITC-100, at 5
> p.s.i. the whole inside has a "strong glow" and it gets to yellow for a
> six inch radius where the burner flame hits the floor of the forge.
>
> The IR shooting out of the forge is much more intense... I wear a
> kevlar glove, and if I leave my left hand by the opening for more than
> about 30 seconds it'll start to smoke... I've had to start misting it
> with water from a spray bottle...
>
> For the next person to try it, here's some notes:
>
> More insulation is better... I don't think you need more than a 3"
> thick layer, but I'd go for at least 2" of ceramic blanket.
>
> I soaked the fibers of the ceramic blanket with colloidal silica, let
> it dry, and then painted on some more silica and zircon. I don't
> remember the proportions I used, but it was, maybe, as thick as light
> cream... I needed to make more of a thick slurry and add a lot more
> zircon. Also, the zircon I used is fairly fine mesh stuff. The ITC-100
> is a lot more coarse, more like the grit on 120 grit sandpaper. (I
> don't know of that matters)
>
> It would have gone better if I used a mister to spray on the silica,
> and then let it *almost* dry out, and then added another layer of
> silica & zircon. The coating gets pretty crunchy when it dries, and the
> cracks (from brushing on another layer) don't really go away. Once it
> dries it doesn't really get "soft" again. It's better to do the coating
> all-at-once then one layer every couple of days.
>
> If you can, spray it on. Brushing works, too, but spraying causes fewer
> cracks.
>
> I'd try mixing in some satanite, or some other refractory clay, too.
> The ITC-100 has some clay in it, and I can tell there is a difference,
> although I'm not sure how to explain it. It just seems tougher with the
> clay in it.
>
> It's been a hoot making this thing and fooling around with it. I have a
> couple of ideas for making a "poor mans" recuperative forge, so I think
> I'll make one more... I'll take pictures and keep you all posted.
>
| 
XML site map