Making a New Forge - Part 2

The second part of the manufacture of my new forge was finishing the mobile base. It was easy – I just filled the newly made wheelbarrow in three steps.

Firstly I have put a few bad fire clay bricks on the bottom. Their main purpose is to provide ballast and lower the center of gravity in order to stabilize the future forge.

The rest was filled with pearlite. It weighs nearly nothing but it is an excellent inflammable thermal insulator.

And finally, I have put thin (ca 2 cm) fire clay bricks on top. I was considering making one big fire clay slab but I think this is a better solution because the heat transfer between separate bricks will be slower than it would be within one big continuous slab. This way the heat loss should be lower. And whenever a fire clay brick cracks so much it becomes unusable, I can replace it anytime.

Thus filled wheelbarrow is sufficiently heavy so I cannot easily knock it over by an accidental bump, but not so heavy so I cannot move it. And the top layer of firebricks makes a large inflammable working space ca 38x100 cm where I can weld, or put my current small gas forge, or build a charcoal fire. And I also can build a new gas forge on top of it – about that next week.