Its time to build a new welding forge..... for several years I've been using a KaWool insulated welding forge, mainly due to the high cost of castable.... but seems I'm doing much more forge welding these days, and the lining only lasts a couple of months.....in short I'm just tired of repairing, and being down for a week until things cure enough to use the forge again. So, time to "bite the bullet" and spend the money on a forge that should last for several years.
First order of business is a "shell". My Pal Steve Kelly donated an old air compressor tank to me a while ago.....and its just the ticket for this project. 16" diameter X 24" long. First thing was to cut the ends out, and then split it down each side.......
I've been forging larger and larger billets, so I decided I wanted a "chamber" size of at least 16" long X 10" Wide. Since the castable needs to be at least 3" thick to perform well, the 16" compressor tank is just right. In order to achieve the distance I wanted, the tank was split lengthwise. First I build the openings of 3/4" X 6" A36, making the front door 10" X 4 3/4". This allows me to stack standard sized firebricks to make the opening smaller, or remove them to enlarge it.....depending on how large the billet is.
I also built a "back door" that is 5 1/4" X 4 3/4"..... that way it can be closed off with two firebricks when not needed as a "pass through".
Once the "doors" were welded to the shell, then it was time to add in 8" extensions on each side to create a large oval.
After waiting for 6 bags of Mizzou 3000F castable refractory to arrive, it's time to pour the floor. Mixing tube, castable, water, and all my homemade tools for mixing and getting the castable in place. I put a thin layer of castable in the bottom, then added 5 fire bricks as "filler" to save as much castable for the walls as possible. I spaced the bricks, filled the gaps, then put about a 1" layer over the top. Now its going to be about a week of cure time before I can locate and install the burner holder, then it will be building the interior forms, and then hopefully I can "fill er up".