Mikey98118

MonkeyForge, I think a lot of your decision would have to depend on what you plan to cast. At 3.5 % one pound of Veegum would go a long way. What is the shipping cost for that small an amount? from somewhere in Europe? Can you get it from China, where they do everything possible to keep shipping charges low? China is a big exporter of ceramic materials... that seems fair enough; I can think of a few things I'd like to mold from this stuff, along the lines of burner blocks. you may have finally found a way to get me to try multiple flame nozzles; along the Giberson line though. I think this stuff is tough enough to make them worthwhile. Also, I would like to see if vibration would be enough to get this refractory to slip cast; that would open up a whole world of possibilities.

Yes, that is a nuetral 100 % primary combustion single flame envelope, It reminds me of the flames from my early Mikey burners. Congratulations, that is a whole lot of flame perfection, considering the design you wore working from.

Frosty, You will recall that the author of the zircopax/Veegum refractory article noted that by 5%, the Veegum binder creates a stick mess of the refractory. But, I am thinking that "sticky" is a good quality in in a thin hot face coating, yes?

Wow; that takes me back. I had a two lbs. ball peen that I used so much in the ornamental iron shop, that the handle was bowed just right to match my left hand swing My computer is playing games. Stuff dissappears, and then reappears...maybe its time for a defrag job.

Wow; that takes me back; at the ornamental iron shop, I had a two lb, ball peen with a reversed bow in its handle from tens of thousands of blows from my left hand; loved that tool! At any right, all you guys are well grounded in the importance of hand tools; most of this generation are not. But, that just makes them like most of our generation was--starting out.

But you already have those tools. This is a chance for newbies who are already purchasing the materials to build a burner and forge, to acquire the most useful tooling for those projects, at the lowest price. Not to mention that your air powered grinder takes a compressor; more $$$. On top of this expense, they have to cough up more money for the accessories to run in it. At this point, they can't see that this tool will end up as useful to them as the forge; its just more money between them and their original goal. Life ain't easy for youngsters...

The percentage of re-radiation in zirconia coatings is directly linked to the size of the zirconium dioxide particles. Crude particles can go as low as 70%, while small particles can reach 93%; since half the mixture is silica, that 93% figure gets cut in two. BUT, we are talking about re-emission--not reflection. For about every .040" thickness of zirconia, or more probably, every .080" of zirconium silicate, another 46.5% of the heat of conduction gets re-emitted back toward the inside of the forge. So, we find that a hot face refractory layer of Zircopax and Veegum is going to not only take a lot of heat and mechanical abuse, but it is also highly insulating. Not bad for a moderately priced homemade refractory!

Look on latest page of Forges 101 for a better answer to heat reflecting layers. Your wife should get a kick out of it too.

Rotary tool and micro drill Electric rotary tools, are the answer to overpowered electric die grinders, which are a grim necessity to unlucky professionals, and should be avoided like a potential trip to the emergency ward, by novices. This leaves electric rotary hand tools as the frequently under powered and overpriced alternative. There is a type of micro drill that trades lower RPM for higher torque; this tool is just right for power grinding and sanding on small parts. And it’s ability to slide along inside asplit pipe, taking the place of a drill press for micro holes in burner jets, is a nice bonus. Its low price seems almost to good to be true; it isn’t though; I bought one last week; its body is a 1.585” diameter aluminum cylinder, that is 3-3/4” long; its speed is 20,000 RPM; the highest recommended speed for a 1-1/2” cut off disk, and still about right for most micro drill bits. Its price is $27; cheap for two essential tools in one

Guys, you really should take the Bigitalfire.com tour, starting with zirconium silicate. I condensed what I found; but the guy did several test objects, and what he came up with, separates Veegum and bentonite's results by a country mile. Considering that Veegum goes for only about a third more, and how small the amount of this binder plasticizer is in the formula, all you are saving by switching to bentonite is ease of purchase, while what you are losing is a whole lot of thermal cracking resistance; bad trade, that!

You can get a pound of Veegum T for under ten bucks through the raw materials section of Seattle Pottery's e-catalog. That would be Seattle Pottery Supply

Yes; they are very similar; the main difference being that bentonite clays have additional salts and minerals in it, while the Veegum is close to pure aluminum, magnesium, and silica oxides. Like bentonite, its particles are very fine; colloidal in fact. Veegum acts as an adhesive for refractory bodies In the green state, and then allows them to sinter bond during firing. I stumbled accross this information when looking up zirconium silicate on DIGITALFIRE.COM ; this is the most straightforward source for ceramic information I have found. Someone had written an article on using Veegum to turn zirconium silicon into a moldable high end refractory, but he or she wasn't mentioned by name, so I couldn't site the original author, and I had to repackage the information, since I don't think anyone here is interested in pottery. Although, I am a lot more interested in the subject after reading him or her It was you who got me more interested in zirconium silicate than in stabilized zirconia. I couldn't find out enough about the material to satisfy my curiosity, and so kept on looking for more. Veegum would appear to be the perfect binder for both forms of zirconium.

High Heat Refractory formula Zirconium silicate 97%, added to Veegum T 3%, forms a dense mold-able low shrinkage refractory. The Veegum will lower its rated temperature somewhat below zirconium silicate’s 4550 F rating; it has low thermal expansion ( giving terrific thermal shock resistance); it should be excellent for use as thermal tiles, crucibles, burner blocks, and for lining flame nozzles. Zircopax Plus, Superpax, Zircosil, and Excelopax, are brands of zirconium silicate flour (AKA zircon; ZrSio4). Veegum (AKA Veegum T,VGT). Veegum Pro is treated with an amine to allow it to disperse in liquids: In refractory formulas they serve as binders and plasticizers. Veegum is refined from the mineral smectite, in the form of colloidal magnesium aluminum silicate powder, which becomes adhesive. Veegum swells into a gel, rather than dissolving into the water; thus it becomes a nonmigrating form of binding agent. It is best to mix this powder in boiling water before adding other ingredients. Veegum pro will disperse into water, and can be mixed cooled; it allows less water to be used, reducing shrinkage. When 3 to 4% Veegum is combined with calcined materials like alumina and zirconia (as grog) he resulting refractory can be formed like clay. Above 4%. the refractory will become sticky, and also require too much water (leading to cracks as it dries out).

It is hard to beat a two gallon forge, with any kind of a good burner design mounted in it

Yup; just so. Also, the closer you get to right, the smaller every change should become; its easy to lly right past the target.

The forge helps you learn how to tune the burner; it also helps sharpen what you think you see in a burner's flame. The burner, the forge, and the blacksmith all get slicker together.

Tuning is about planning ahead A “perfect” flame is a chemical process, and an ongoing contained explosion; it is contained in a single wave front, also called a flame envelope. More commonly there are two, or even three successive wave fronts, called primary and secondary flames; the occasional third front has been called a “tertiary” flame by Frosty; I don’t know if that is an official term, but it’s more than good enough to run with. So, if the burner is built well enough, how likely is the flame to be perfect? Strictly speaking, no flame is perfect; they are ongoing processes, and your eye can’t follow every moment of action, so you could not prove it, even to yourself, if your burner achieves a perfect flame. Even from a perfect burner, the incoming stream of fuel can have variations in cold weather; this effects the burner’s performance, moment by moment. Your burner isn’t being turned out on a factory assembly line. No two hand crafted burners run exactly the same. With all these factors operating against you, it’s wise to shoot for almost perfect. “Shoot for” implies a goal, but don’t bet the farm on it; its not a serious goal; let’s call it a guiding principle. If you succeed, then that part of your equipment is taken care of; you can put it behind you, and move on to the next step of building your heating equipment. If not, then you may have a problem—and you may not. What you do need is a good enough flame. What that takes isn’t going to be clear until your equipment is built and running; this is the real push behind “perfect” flames, and why almost perfect is perfect enough. If you don’t muff the rest of your forge build, good enough is all you need. To be happy with your forge, it needs to work as a radiant oven. So, if you are looking for success, the better the burner the farther you are toward your goal. Building your forge is kind of like watching a relay race; the better you do with one part the more momentum you build for the team. Finally, we come to tuning the forge; the moment of truth. You may see a joy forever, or a sorry mess. Remember the relay race? It only ends up as a sorry mess if the coach doesn’t choose the team well; not because a runner stumbles. Choosing well requires a good burner design mounted in a good forge design; do that and your sorry mess insurance is all payed up. You can still feel dissatisfied with the moment of truth; but then you can go back over your steps (parts), and adjust your work, until you discover what minor factor is giving you problems. So, can't a poorly designed forge still end up working well? That's a likely as your chance of winning the lotto.

Me too! Your forge is at lemon yellow with both ends wide open, and the kiln shelf yet to be installed. You don't have a problem; not a single one. I expect it to in up at yellow-white before you're done.

the one small worry that lots of copper tubing, and idler circuits bring to mind, is that they both work as heat exchanges. On a cold day in the shop, this is good. But there is an outside chance that, with an extra thick insulating forge wall, the burner won't stay above ignition temperature in the mixing tube. Should this unlikely event occur, the plumbing would require the hard rubber insulating hose, used in cooling systems; just saying... Agreed!

Excellent; once again, political correctness is in tatters. you guys just made my day Give yourself some slack, Scrambler: https://jet.com/product/detail/68fefbbc1f444b5c8058de7c31070c45?jcmp=pla:ggl:NJ_dur_Gen_Appliances_a3:Appliances_Refrigerators_Accessories_Refrigerator_Parts_Accessories_a3:na:PLA_785111959_42767741724_pla-301952126079:na:na:na:2&code=PLA15&pid=kenshoo_int&c=785111959&is_retargeting=true&clickid=25ec46da-ce45-4b1d-9ded-0f0cccbaea8b

Both standard flan-blown, and wasp waist (ex. Ransom brand) burners are available with Giberson ceramic heads (multi-port flame nozzles), so that people who are looking for something similar to a ribbon burner's performance in a more familiar package. s can use them on both standard styles of burner http://www.joppaglass.com/homepg/joppa cat_web.vers.pdf

I'm well pleased with both your points of view; as they can stand their ground.

Everything you've written so far sounds like you're on track, thus far. I would slow down a little bit about doing anything further with the burner, at this time, and continue finishing the forge, instead; just my two cents worth. Why? Because we often overbuild the burner, when it isn't the problem. If your burner is running right--and that includes anywhere near close to right--you are more likely to change the burner closer to wrong, by fiddling too much without bringing the forge closer to right, instead. In a fashion, you can think of your forge as having two flames: the burner flame, and the forge atmosphere. No, the forge atmosphere isn't really a second flame, but it is helpful to think of it that way, if you want to end up with a proper radiant oven.

If art is greater than crafts, than what painting or statue is greater than a Stradivarius?

It will do. POL fittings would also do. Sooner or later a guy puts down his money, and takes his chances