The glory hole furnace

Yup.. Its time for another special use furnace. I'm setting it up to run my existing natural gas ribbon burner. I bought a new air tank from harbor freight and sliced it up. I made the receiver for the burner just like the forge. I'll use kaowool for the interior and cover it with satinite. The plan for now is to not install a door on it. This burner is pretty mean so it should be plenty. I got the idea from the old video below.
They call it the Murphy fire bucket. Mine will be a lot bigger than featured here. If I was a betting man, I bet this thing had no coating on it back in 1987.
Any suggestions for coating the kaowool sure would be appreciated.
Thanks!







This forge has been a great addition to tweaking metal. Yes, that is a garden hose feeding NG to the forge. I need to do something about that one of these days. lol



Feels good to be back in my man cave. I'm sick of airplanes, especially BROKE ones.

 

Go big! I love it. That looks like about 14” dia. (or more).

I personally (probably) would not coat the wool. I would probably go 2” of wool with the seam under the brick.
Something easily lifted out and replaced that takes the brunt of the flame.

Are you doing this primarily for glass?

 

Yeah it's just for glass work. My red forge in the photo above is kaowool and mizzou.
This tank is just 12 dia. It will still be a monster compared to the 1700dollar POS.

 

Bring on the mud. How do you mix this crap anyways? I know Bonz had a good write up somewhere

 

Jason finally gets to try some Satanite...yay
That chunk of glass I offered is still riding around in my truck, when you want it, PM me.

 

What will be the main differences between this and your red forge?

Pete

 

The red forge has a real small opening. It made spinning glass on the end of a tube really hard. I kept banging the walls. Now my manly forge has green bits all over the inside.
This new setup will be make this much easier with it's big opening.

 

Lots of breathing room! I built up the entrance to help trap some heat inside it and create a little turbulence. At least that's how it works in my head.



I misted the kaowool with distilled water and mixed it up pretty thin and applied the first coat. I'm guessing just like most refractories, slow drying is the name of the game? I bagged it up in plastic. Its dry here today at just 19% RH. SO am I correct in thinking I give this 6hrs or so and slowly put some heat on it, say just 150-200degrees, let cool and add another coat? Repeat as needed? Maybe shoot for 3 coats? Bonz, your demo was good, but ya didn't talk to us?????

 

Get that thing out of the bag and fire it to cherry red, let it cool, put on another layer, fire it, cool, layer, fire, you're done.
You didn't pay attention in class...again

 

But I did read the instructions..

How do I mix and apply the Satanite?

Mix the Satanite to a thick paste...just keep adding water slowly until you get a pasty consistency that you can paint on with a paintbrush....roughly the consistency of sour cream. Spray the ceramic fiber insulation down using water with a hand sprayer to wet it lightly. Next, apply the Satanite to the wool using a paintbrush, covering all exposed wool surfaces. To cure it, you want to dry it slowly. First, let the forge sit for a few hours minimum to air dry a little, then fire up the forge just briefly and shut it down. Do this several times, allowing it to cool down in between and increasing the on-time with each subsequent cycle. You'll see water vapor evaporating the first few times you do this. Finally, fire it up and bring it up to full temp to fully cure it. You will probably want to apply at least two coats of Satanite in this manner...it's a little time consuming (do it over a couple of day period) but makes for a more robust coating. a 1/4" layer is a good thickness to shoot for. If you are going to apply ITC-100 over top of the Satanite, be sure to fully cure the Satanite first.

 

Nah, you don't have to go through all that.
I mix mine to buttermilk thinness, paint it, fire it.
Should be done by dark thirty today.

 

You can use your tiger torch to fire it. It turns black and then goes gray.
The mullite goes through a transformation at cherry red which gives it strength.
Put a fan on it to cool between coats.

 

Gotcha.. Thanks!

 

I did it fishbonz style instead of the slow by the book way too: paint it on then fire it still wet. No complaints here. The next coat closes up the cracks, and the very first coat went on pretty thin so it could soak in a bit to seal up the fibers and hold on tight. Use enough coats so you don't worry it's too thin anymore. Easy.

Jeff

 

Okay.. I fired the F outta it with the weed burner. Shes black! Now let it cool and repeat?

 

Didnt see any cracks. The stuff seemed kinda soft as I was painting the second coat. Does this stuff get hard after a few layers? It seemed easily damaged when I bumped it with the end of the paint brush. Check this link out... YUP. Not covered. http://www.glassblower.info/FireBucket/FireBucket.html And to think people freak out these days over baby powder.

Made sense to flip it upside down and crank up the heat. I see what you guys mean. It goes black, then greys out then turns red.






This must be what hell looks like.

 

Ah shit.. might have a problem. Standing 3 feet in front of this is not an option. Its SERIOUSLY hot!. Might need that door after all.

 

I saw where the other ones don't have a back on them. It must radiate the heat out the front.
Grinder time!
How many coats do you have on?

You could cut a 6" hole in the rear.

 

3 coats.. The crappy fire bucket doesnt have a hole on the back from what I can see. I slowed the fan down by switching wires and I can back the gas down a little. I think Ill just try a longer stick and see what happens. 4feet from the entrance is now tolerable. It will be awesome on a cold day. Having it run on cheap natural gas is awesome.