Hi All, So I got my DF and painted on the refractory over Christmas its taking a lot of drying even though it is inside the house. I have now suspended a light bulb inside it just to finish it off. Any how I am hoping over the next few days it will be dry enough to light it. The instructions that came with it are very limited should I build up the temp slowly over a period of time the first time I light it? should an empty crucible be in at the same time to help with the swirl of gas? It is also a new graphite crucible that I have got. Thanks Dirk
There's no need to have a crucible inside when firing for the first time, just keep in mind it will behave differently when a crucible is in there. This is a hotface over refractory wool type furnace?. A very slow low flame is desirable to give excess moisture time to diffuse out of the refractory without cracking and I think the hotface is a mullite clay type coating that needs high heat to calcine it into the final refractory.
It's unfortunate that Devil Forge didn't provide detailed instructions for firing the refractory. Most of us here built our own furnaces so as to save money, using a variety of different refractory products. If the man from Lithuania can't provide you with firing instructions or at least a brand name to look up for the specific refractory that came with yours, a slow ramp is probably the safest bet. You may want to consult some of the youtubers who have used multiple Devil Forge furnaces extensively. Thewulf 56 seems to know a lot about the different furnace kits they sell and I don't think he is on DF's payroll yet. Jeff
lmFao.... It is shameful they don't provide this, but then again, I've exchanged less than pleasant words with that A-hole so I'm not surprised.
