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Hit 500 hours on my main forge and the firebrick finally gave out
I was working on a set of fireplace tools yesterday when I noticed a pretty big crack running through the back wall of the firebox. I checked my logbook and I've put exactly 500 hours of heat on those bricks since I built the thing three years ago. What's a good sign it's time to replace the whole lining versus just patching the one spot?
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smith.blair29d ago
Did you check if the crack goes all the way through the brick? My buddy Jake had a forge crack like that a while back, and he just patched it with some high-temp cement. It held up fine for another 200 hours until the whole thing started flaking off in chunks. He learned the hard way that if the brick is already soft or feels sandy, no patch is gonna save it. I'd say poke around the crack with a screwdriver first - if it crumbles easy, you're better off just replacing that whole wall section now.
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sandrap403mo ago
Wow, 500 hours is actually a solid run. A single crack like that is often just a patch job if the surrounding brick is still sound. I'd only tear it all out if you see multiple cracks spiderwebbing out or the brick feels soft and crumbly to the touch.
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