Furnace build thread

I work on a floor like that, I used to clip and slide all the time...a little bit of glass dust and away you go.

[Ted Trower]

That's how the floors are finished at the Toledo Museum of Art studios.

[Sky Campbell]

Wow those floors are beautiful! I guess that would be considered terrazzo? I always thought that style floor would have a come back. I can only imagine what that would look like with glass for aggregate instead of stone. Either way very classy looking and easy to clean I'm sure.

[Lawrence Duckworth]

This is polished concrete and in some way I guess the process and equipment are similar to terrazzo but grinding and polishing the buildings ordinary concrete slab is a bunch cheaper than the real deal.. http://www.bluefieldfloors.com/ give ‘em a call

[Pete VanderLaan]

I remember when I was a kid and I was making adobe bricks for the first time. I made stationary forms that held four bricks each and I would lay them down and put the red dirt, sand and straw mix in and smooth them perfectly with a wet towel and then let them dry overnight before I pulled the forms and stood them on edge to dry. They were absolutely perfect. I could make about 60 a day that way working hard..

My friend JJ Gonzales came over and looked at it and went off and made a form out of crappy 1x4's and came back and just wet down the entire dirt pile for about an hour with a big pool of water in the center. He threw in the straw and a couple of guys he always broguht up from Chihuahua stomped around in it with their feet. Then they took the single form and proceeded to fill it, mush it down and smooth the top with an old rag. They then jerked the form then and there and moved on to the next one. They made about 750 adobes in a few hours. In seven days we had enough to build the house

At the end, JJ said, "PV, your adobes are made with too much love."

[Lawrence Duckworth]

Nice story…PV

I remember when I was a kid helping my grandfather shingle the toe house atop the ski hill, the highest point around for miles mind you, and him cussing around about me not keeping the shingles square and straight. I said, “Why Grandpa, no one will see this way up here”…..then summmore cussing ensued.

I suspect the 750 brick were of a lesser quality. but like you say, ya got the house built

[Pete VanderLaan]

Actually, the ones JJ made were better. Since you pull the form when it's so sloppy, the corners rise up slightly and dry that way. The brick is laid with that face down. You lay down a line of mud and then plop the brick on. The upturned corners facing down create a suction. If the face was flat, the brick would slide around.

My point is to keep the eye on the prize, in my case a place to live, in yours a place to make good art. . The adobes were part of that process but were never the house. I see a lot of studios where the shop is gorgeous and nothing really good ever gets made in it . I implore you , Don't do that. IMHO.

But it is really nice.

[Lawrence Duckworth]

I’ve never laid an adobe brick…the modern wood molds might be sorta like the adobe in that they have a recess, we always called that recess a “frog” [I laid a lot of brick in my first life]
Heres a photo of the brick wall separating the shop from the guest instructors living area

[Pete VanderLaan]

Well, it's really beautiful Lawrence. When do I instruct?

[Virgil Jones]

What temp. do you bring the batch up to? I understood that it got goopy after a certain temperature, Thanks, Virgil

Originally Posted by David Hopman

I preheated all the pellet/cullet charges for 8 years- it's not a big deal to do it. Stainless restaurant steam table pans make nice containers to heat in, and are about $25, so reasonable. One 4" deep pan holds about 40 pounds of pellets, a 6" deep one will hold a lot more.

[David Hopman]

Originally Posted by Virgil Jones

What temp. do you bring the batch up to? I understood that it got goopy after a certain temperature, Thanks, Virgil

950, still rock hard at that temp.

[Virgil Jones]

thanks, david.
i'll give it a try

Originally Posted by David Hopman

950, still rock hard at that temp.

[Pete VanderLaan]

[quote=Virgil Jones;9453

I understood that it got goopy after a certain temperature, Thanks, Virgil[/QUOTE]

************************
That's called melting Virgil. That's what it's supposed to do.

When doing a pot change... does it matter (for the elements sake) at what rate you cool it down? Can you open the door to speed up the process or could this cause some stress? At what temperature would one say it is safe to open the door and start to disassemble?

[Pete VanderLaan]

I read the super Kanthal handbook and it indicates that the elements are not prone to thermal shock. It is certainly true that you can hot change an element. I don't try to tear things down until I can actually touch the materials without wanting to drop them. I think that would be a good goal when handling the elements or passage bricks. Don't drop them!

So, while there are a myriad of ways to break elements, thermal shocking would not be one of them. Try putting them in a trebuchet and see what that gets you. Shoot for the Nebraska Line.

[Lawrence Duckworth]

This is the start of my 200# furnace build.
Please feel free to jump in with any questions or advice!


Okee-dokeeeee…here's what the 200# stadelman castings look like.

[Pete VanderLaan]

don't forget to flip them over. The pallet goes on top.

[Rick Sherbert]

Originally Posted by Lawrence Duckworth

Are the heaters and crown so fragile that moving or rolling the furnace with the heaters installed a bad idea? Will that lill bit of vibration break ‘em?


I fear I’ve screwed up before even getting started. I may not have the overall headroom to pull the heaters out from the top unless I roll the furnace out into the open shop....[i have an 8 foot ceiling behind the 7 foot hood aprin.]

Lawrence,
That's a sweet looking hood. What material is that? Can you talk about the construction?

[Lawrence Duckworth]

Originally Posted by Rick Sherbert

Lawrence,
That's a sweet looking hood. What material is that? Can you talk about the construction?

Galvanized slab form decking…do you think that will get hot enough to be a health hazard?

[Lawrence Duckworth]

............44" dia. base

[Rick Sherbert]

Originally Posted by Lawrence Duckworth

Galvanized slab form decking…do you think that will get hot enough to be a health hazard?

If you're talking about the zinc getting airborne, I don't think so.

I'm starting to build a 300# moly with the castings from Pete. The more details, the better. On your base, what gauge steel for the drum?

[Pete VanderLaan]

If I might, both Charlie and I think the floor on those could use more insulation. Accounting for that need would be a good plan in my mind when planning that steel depth.

[Lawrence Duckworth]

These are actual dimensions taken from the 200# castings.

The center support piece in the tub is a 3x2x1/4 sq.tube w/ 2x2x3/16 angle fitted.
scrap pieces of stretched metal make up the flooring.
The tub is 12”x ¼ x 44”dia.<(200#)
three casters n brackets welded permanently.

As far as insulating the bottom end, I’ll be using a layer of tin foil, 5 layers of 1900 insblock fiber board, one course of 2300 brick layed flat, plus the 4” of casting….

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I’m needing a 50 kva single phase transformer…so far ebay hasn’t worked out so good...can you help?
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[Patrick Casanova]

Look at the Classified Ads... Jim Bowman has everything you need listed for sale. If I was going to go Molly at some point in my future I'd take a serious look at what he has for sale.

[Pete VanderLaan]

I am very sure the Bowman stuff is sold and it was 208 volt three phase anyway. I would look with local demolition contractors in the Atlanta area.