Subject: Claying a Forge

From: [email-masked] (Carl West)
Date: Mon, 19 Jul 1993 16:01:44 GMT

I have a Champion portable hand-cranked forge. Cast into the iron of
the tray/pan/table/top near the tuyre are the words:

 CLAY FORGE 
BEFORE USING

 I have yet to run into instructions on how to `clay' a forge in
any of my books.

Anybody got any good ideas or references?

Carl West

When I stop learning, bury me.

---

From: [email-masked] (David Hoopes)
Date: 20 Jul 93 14:09:11 GMT

>When I stop learning, bury me.

It was common to line some firepots with clay to keep them from burning
up. There are better things that can be used.  The best is refractory
cement.  But I have seen portland cement used (it will crack and have to
be replace periodicly).

The forge I saw done, had a flat bottom with a very simple clinker breaker
in the center.  Cement was poured like:

  \                                             / <--forge and fire
   \---------------\         /-----------------/     pot
    \   cement      \       /   cement        /
     \==============|       |================/
                    |       |

we used a coffee cup to form the hole in the middle.

Hope this helps.

-- 
---------------------------------------------------------------------
David Hoopes                              Exabyte Corp.
[email-masked]                       11100 W 82nd St.          
Voice: (913) 492-6002 x323                Lenexa, Ks  66214

---

From: [email-masked] (Carl West)
Date: Tue, 20 Jul 1993 21:33:36 GMT

I tried using Portland cement to build a forge out of a 55gal drum
once. I cut the top 10" off, turned it over, and welded it back on. I
made the duck's nest too narrow, after about 45min of use, the fire
started to die. I finally dug it out and found that the cement had
melted and run down and clogged the tuyere. Talk about the mother of
all clinkers! After it had `adjusted' the nest it worked ok except for
the lack of a clinker-breaker.

Later I tried `claying' my Champion forge I'm asking about with cement
and a couple of common bricks. It sorta worked, but I couldn't keep
much coal on top of the forge, and there was still no clinker-breaker.
It just didn't seem right.

So far the best plan for dealing with the lack of a clinker-breaker has
come from Thomas Powers who suggested that the tuyere should be a bit
proud of the clay surface so as to allow the clinker to fall away from
the hole instead of into it. Thankyou Tom.

Carl

WISL,BM.

---

From: [email-masked] (Tom Walley)
Date: Mon, 19 Jul 1993 22:58:33 GMT

I can only guess, but when I used to work on the labor gang in a steel mill,
there were two situations which might come close.  The first involved coating
the inside of a bull (a large steel pail which ran on an overhead track) with
clay to keep the molten cast iron from melting a hole in it.

In the second case, I helped to re-line the blast furnace.  The process
involved lining the inside of the steel skin of the furnace with cast iron
brick (which was also made there.)  Next came a layer of refractory brick
and finally a layer of clay to seal the refractory brick.

Claying a forge probably involves putting a clay coating of some sort on
the inside of the forge.  Sorry that I can't give you any more detail than that.

Tom Walley

---

From: [email-masked] (Bart Smaalders)
Date: 21 Jul 1993 16:38:27 GMT

> What is claying a forge?

I recently bought an old portable blacksmiths forge, and a friend of mine
built a really large one using an old blower found in a barn.  In order to
line them with clay, I used the instructions found in Dave Gingery's book on
building a charcoal furnance.  We carefully mixed up fireclay and sand
(1:3), and added water to get it packable (NOT wet).  We then lined each
forge with this material, packing it carefully.  Afterwards we baked it by
build coal fires and covering the top of the forges with old railroad tie
plates, and getting them red hot.

It turns out this material has a higher temp capability than we need, and
less water resistance than might be desirable since we couldn't really fire
the clay properly.  As a result, I'd recomend putting some mortar in the mix
to make it more waterproof.  Otherwise, it was sucessful; the forge seems
to work fine and not much heat comes through the bottom.  I used a piece
of steel pipe as the tueyre (sp); I'll probablt make a little grate out of
scrap stainless or cast iron to keep the coal from falling down the pipe.

- Bart