[TheForge] Re: reducing fuel costs by improving forge efficiency.

[Marc Godbout]

Maybe the SS needles are holding things together. They were recommended
by the refractory guy I bought my bricks from. And to make sure it stays
in place, I welded some scrap SS angle along the bottom edges of the
half-cylinder. If I were to go with Kaowool, I would expect this to work
well enough to hold it in place.

I've only used the back burner a couple times, as most of my hobby-hack
work is pretty small. So far I haven't seen any stress fractures because
of the temperature difference.

--Marc

On Sun, 2004-08-01 at 19:11, Ralph Sproul wrote:
> I think shooting for ends on a dome or barrel would lend itself to better
> support and fastening to the lid........unless this stuff tends to break
> away during temperature changes?
> 
> I know I have to keep my Kaowool M board "loose" fitting by at least an 1/8"
> around the burners and almost a 1/4" on the sides for the expansion and
> contraction during heating and cooling......and when running one burner or
> two.  When your running one burner all the time the front will radiate a
> glowing red while the back where the burner is not lit......will still look
> almost white (which is it's color when cold).  I'm sure there is some
> serious changes going on between that white and glowing red panel and I've
> found my first snuggly fit insulation board to last only a couple
> days........so with that cost, I learned fast.

-- 
Marc Godbout
http://www.ironringforge.com

New England Blacksmiths Membership Director
http://www.newenglandblacksmiths.org