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Step 5Furnace Refractory
Refractory: The mix of materials chemically and physically will help hold furnaces high temperature avoiding thermal shock (in plain english, cracking).
In the third image you can see 2 bits of ply attached to the inside walls of the furnace, they will be stripped of later and the gap left in the material will be a good handle grip for lifting the furnace.
Start from the base of the furnace and drill the copper pipe to the base center point, after that using a block of timber etc. compact the refractory and remove of all unwanted air bubbles.
Drill the center screw out and leave the copper pipe in its place. Attach the plastic can with the same screw in the center over the refractory.
Cover all sides around the plastic can with the refractory mix and compact as you go.
When you get near the top place the cover and secure it with timber to the furnace plywood walls.
When all is compacted well and covered use a hammer to tap on the plywood sides to get rid of any remaining air bubbles.
(I will not go into details regarding the mixing ratio of refractory so if anyone wants to make somthing similar that will last longer check other sites for proper refractory materials mixing and exact measuring ratio's).
I just used cement+sand+fireclay and a small amount of water just turning it into a nice paste. It will probably crack at some stage but I'm sure I will get a few nice melting before that.
I also recommend placing a wire mesh between the core and furnace walls that will help against cracks.
In the third image you can see 2 bits of ply attached to the inside walls of the furnace, they will be stripped of later and the gap left in the material will be a good handle grip for lifting the furnace.
Start from the base of the furnace and drill the copper pipe to the base center point, after that using a block of timber etc. compact the refractory and remove of all unwanted air bubbles.
Drill the center screw out and leave the copper pipe in its place. Attach the plastic can with the same screw in the center over the refractory.
Cover all sides around the plastic can with the refractory mix and compact as you go.
When you get near the top place the cover and secure it with timber to the furnace plywood walls.
When all is compacted well and covered use a hammer to tap on the plywood sides to get rid of any remaining air bubbles.
(I will not go into details regarding the mixing ratio of refractory so if anyone wants to make somthing similar that will last longer check other sites for proper refractory materials mixing and exact measuring ratio's).
I just used cement+sand+fireclay and a small amount of water just turning it into a nice paste. It will probably crack at some stage but I'm sure I will get a few nice melting before that.
I also recommend placing a wire mesh between the core and furnace walls that will help against cracks.
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Nov 19, 2011. 10:10 AMjspencer17
says:
How many melts did you end up getting out of your refractory mix? How about the second forge that you constructed and posted more recently?
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