Frosty
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Status Replies posted by Frosty
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I thought it better to tell you this one on the side, I'd hate so hear about someone else trying it.
Back when I lived with the folks in S. Cal we enjoyed the occasional BIG red ant colony that were a bear to get rid of. Generally we left them be if they weren't too close. As kids we'd collect black and red ants to watch them fight it out, my favorite was to put the black ants on one model ship and the red ants on the "pirate" ship, pull them together with a little fishing line and watch the battle.
Dad used to spray nuisance ant hills with insecticide that took time but worked. The boys in the neighborhood had progressed to making cannons, rockets, launching balloons, etc. One friend and I had been trying to make gun powder but didn't know it's a wet process ground after it dries so we stole from our Dad's reloading supplies. One of us had access to an older brother that bought us black powder.
Soooo, we mixed powdered sugar and black powder and set a little distance from one of the main red ant trails. We fed that hive almost 3 lbs. of 000 black powder. Before lighting the ant train carrying it back to the hive. We expected (hoped for) an explosion but instead got a jet of smoky flame shooting out of the hole like a rocket. Before long there were flames shooting out of the ground in quite a large circle, in my 14 yro estimate about 120'. We spent the next little while stomping out grass fires till it died off.
Learned later that mixing the black powder with powdered sugar made rocket fuel down to smoke bomb depending on the ratio. Not being quite the idiots it sounds we pulled this one on a hive a long way from people, nearest house was probably 3 miles over a rise.
See why I didn't want to tell this one on the open forum?
Jer
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I picked up a stack of dirty trick explosives books when nobody batted an eye about it, Hi Lo Boom being the most benign. The special forces manual is titled, "Improvised Explosive Devices," and their placement or similar IIRC. It was published shortly after WWII and had some doozies or maybe that's the booby trap manual, that one has some downright silly ones like how to wire a urinal to electrocute the user. The first question we had was, "Who wouldn't see the wires and pee on them? Then, How is the victim grounded?" I've always wondered how many people have been killed by a trick thought up by an office dweeb. The part about "dust exciters" really opened my eyes. It's actually hard not to make incendiaries.
On the other hand it was a pretty standard ranch joke to get new visitors to piss on the electric fence. Brush had grown up on a fence line between corrals and being a "weed burner" the hot wire kept itself a clear path. The horses ate the bushes but stayed about a foot or so ways on both sides. So there was this dense line of bushes and we'd pump newbies full of sodas until they had to pee. There was no WAY Sandy was letting boys use the bathroom in the house to pee, "Go pee on a bush!"
We'd point them to the nice dense bushes, stand back and bet on how far and high they'd jump. Having peed on an electric fence I can tell you from experience that it takes a while to come out of hiding.
Jer
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Do you fire your forges to dry them out before applying ITC or Plistix? I've just about got the castable all smoothed out to my liking and I'm currently working on the part where the halves line up so I don't have gaps. I appreciate any advice, as usual
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Heh, heh, heh. I keep telling Glenn we need a "Do over" or "I Take it BACK!" button but oh nooooo.
I don't know about applying plistex but ITC-100 is pretty straight forward. You can dilute it to spray if you want but I think painting it on is better on a smooth surface. First wet the surface, not dripping wet but more than damp. About where a concrete sidewalk turns dark but isn't shiny wet? The reason to wet the surface is the same reason you "butter" forms, bricks, etc. before applying mortar, concrete, etc.
If the ITC or concrete are applied to a dry material it will dry almost instantly on contact but just the few thousandths actually in contact. It can't bond properly and this is the main reason plaster, thin ceramic coatings, ITC and other thermal coatings, etc. peal.
Yeah, you want it "dry" as in completely set before applying the ITC. Do the hot cures once the ITC is dry. Firing it isn't "drying" the refractory, it's firing it like pottery so if you treat it like pottery you'll be playing it safe. Fire it the first time for a short period of time, stop ad let it coo slowly as soon as you see red in the liner. Once it's cool the second firing should be into the mid to high red and hold it for an hour or so. Let it cool and it's ready to rock and roll.
Doing a gradual fire cure cycle is playing it safe, I don't know what refractory you're using let alone what the factory recommended setting and curing procedure is. Have you looked it up online? Most companies have procedures available for download. My most recent acquisition is Kast-O-Lite 30 Bubble alumina. A water set castable, meaning it comes dry in a bag and you add water, cast it, trowel it on or whatever then let it set. It does NOT dry it sets like concrete and Kastolite products work best if kept damp during the curing process. THEN you take it through a two firing series to bring it to full strength and thermal rating. That info isn't on the bag, I found it online and saved it in it's own file folder.
Jer
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