BGE = Forge ?

Marsvigilia

All right, perhaps I should have asked my question more directly.

Has anyone ever tried to use a BGE as a forge or a kiln?

If you use a blower to force feed air through the bottom it should be possible to create some extremely high temperatures.

The question is whether the ceramics could survive the heat. Some ceramics are certainly capable, but I don't know about these.

Anyone have any experience to share?

Or specs on the materials?

Come on, I can't be the only one to think of this.

Somebody has to have tried it.

Celtic Wolf

Question is Why?? It is a cooker\grill not a forge.

stike

in testing the different firebox compositions and configurations, i understand that air was forced through the lower vent for hours on end, and dome temps were around 1800.

it's the temps in the lump that are hottest, so apparently beyond that...

Marsvigilia

Fascinating. Do you know where I could get any details of the setup they used?

As for why. Well... Why not?

It's killing two birds with one stone. And stones are getting a bit scarce these days.

Besides, my wife is not convinced that I need a forge. I can't understand why.

Marsvigilia

stike

anything that forces air in...

i'd be careful. temps that long will loosen the bands on the dome, and you might very well crack the firebox and fire ring.
i think the dealer and BGE HQ would be within their right to decline to honor a warranty under that kind of use.

check this...

http://64.176.180.203/washtubforge.htm

Grandpas Grub

"As for why. Well... Why not?"

It might come to mind that one could ruin their egg. Just because you can do something, doesn't mean you should.

Good luck.

GG

SpanishJoe

Over a thousand degrees on BGE will make the felt gasket get melty melty and seal it shut. Even if you could open it, at 1k degrees, opening the egg is touchy (fireball!!). Replacing the gasket will help, but do you really want to fire stuff in the thing you cook with? As a forge, well, no big deal, I guess, but as a kiln, glazes (especially) and even some raw ceramic clays have all sorts of nasty things that will offgas. Lead! Cadmium! Ribs! Yum!!

What, exactly, are you blacksmithing, anyway? Swords? Horseshoes? :laugh:

Just thought of something else... and one fully lit load of lump will sit at 1000 degrees only as long as that lump lasts, which will be maybe 30 minutes at 1k degrees (it's NOT coal)? I dunno, I'm guessing here :blink:

Oh, and also: [subtle copy paste comin'up]

Earthenwares or Terracotta is the common surface clay that is used for flowerpots, primitive cookwares and common building bricks...it usually fires to be reddish/brown, or even gray, but may appear in the raw state as grey or reddish color. The firing temperature for glazed terracotta is lowest...range between cone 08 and cone 5 (about 1800 to 1950 degrees F. - which is the absolute limit of tolerance for temps on the egg without cracking) Earthenware clays are somewhat porous and not water tight unless glazed.

Stoneware clays range in color from almost white to brown, grey or even black when fired to glaze temperatures. Stoneware clays vitrify and become somewhat glasslike and water tight even without a glaze at their optimum temperature. Glaze firing usually is in the range of 2000 to 2400 F. (cone 6 to cone 10, Way over what the egg can do, even theoretically)

True porcelain clay when fired is white, always pure white. (sometimes referred to as China, or Bone China.)You can of course glaze it with a myriad of glaze colors, like you can with stoneware, but the underlying clay body is white. Maximum Temperatures range from 2200 to 2500 F. depending on the blend. (cone 9 to cone 14) In the raw state a porcelain clay can look slightly grey or even yellowish...but always fires white with no gray tone or specks of iron brown or black.

The more you know!

This reminds me of a story of the guy who put a trailer hitch on a ferrari. You can... but why?!? Kilns are CHEAP! (relatively speaking...) http://www.paragonweb.com/Ceramic_Kilns.cfm

-SJ