Did I break my forge?

[Jason brooks]

Hi,

I melted some brass inside my new gas forge. My friend Caradoc told me I won't be able to do forge welding, because of the buildup of (zinc?). Is this actually a problem? I can re-apply the refractory coating. Will this fix it?

--jason

[Mike B]

You haven't broken your forge. There's a story about copper preventing forge welds, but it's just that -- a story.

However, you may find that you have copper on your forge floor that melts when it comes up to heat. If a fluxed piece comes in contact, it can become plated with a thin layer of copper. This can cause hot cracking, especially on thin pieces. If you do end up with a puddle of copper, just bend over the end of a piece of flat stock and use that to scrape it out.

[Jason brooks]

Oh good! I would hate to think I made it unusable a mere three months after I completed it.

--jason

[Ryan Wilson]

we have has some oops moments with bronze in our forge at work and we still forge weld just fine. If the bottom of your forge is smooth and has no cracks it sould just chip our fairly easy when cold. If i remember correctly we have scraped it out hot.. Also we have taken a cold piece of flat stock and touched it to the puddle then pulled it out and stuck it in the water back and forth a few times and it sucked up most of it, and we have also taken a piece of long scrap and placed it in the puddle and shut the forge off to give a handle to help pry it out once the forge has cooled.

goodluck!

[Lee Cordochorea]

Not much zinc in brass to begin with. And zinc boils out pretty quickly. Just DON'T breath it - it'll make you sick.