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Home made high temp castable refractory


Norseman C.B.

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Norseman, First of all what recipe are you using. Second home-brew refractories are not going to be as durable, or Hi-Temp as the commercial mixes. One thing you can do to improve the lining after firing it is to wet the lining, Then brush on a mixture of water, silica sand,and fire clay, Then re-fire the lining. You also can buy furnace putty to coat the interior of the forge. Or a combination furnace putty,and fire brick.

Larry

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Norseman, First of all what recipe are you using. Second home-brew refractories are not going to be as durable, or Hi-Temp as the commercial mixes. One thing you can do to improve the lining after firing it is to wet the lining, Then brush on a mixture of water, silica sand,and fire clay, Then re-fire the lining. You also can buy furnace putty to coat the interior of the forge. Or a combination furnace putty,and fire brick.

Larry






Thanks Larry;
The recipe I have been looking at is three parts each of
fireclay, sand,and pearlite one part portland cement for a binder. But the feedback Ive been getting is that it is unstable at forging temps but o.k. for melting aluminum
in a foundry furnace I have a small furnace made from an old
foundry crucible set in a lube barrel with fire bricks set around the crucible and a side arm propane burner. It works fine but I want to make a bigger one, and a vertical forge to
burn waste oil which gets super hot !!
However, budget restraints dictate creativity as storebought stuff aint cheap, and I am, so I must endeavor to find an alternative solution if possible. If not I"ll have to bite the bullet and buy commercial refractory.
Again THANK YOU for your input.
CLIFFORD
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  • 2 weeks later...


However, budget restraints dictate creativity as storebought stuff aint cheap, and I am, so I must endeavor to find an alternative solution if possible. If not I"ll have to bite the bullet and buy commercial refractory.
Again THANK YOU for your input.
CLIFFORD



Some suppliers aren't nearly as expensive as others.

http://elliscustomknifeworks.hightemptools.com/castablerefractory.html

They were relatively cheap, though a 55 lb bag wasn't cheap on the shipping. There was a bit of a shipping snafu, but they eventually got it worked out and I don't hold a grudge. I link to them on my blog as suppliers. You may want to look through the links for other sources too.
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Some suppliers aren't nearly as expensive as others.

http://elliscustomknifeworks.hightemptools.com/castablerefractory.html

They were relatively cheap, though a 55 lb bag wasn't cheap on the shipping. There was a bit of a shipping snafu, but they eventually got it worked out and I don't hold a grudge. I link to them on my blog as suppliers. You may want to look through the links for other sources too.

Kcrucible; Thanks for your input I found your site interesting, looks like you are going through similar growing pains with your projects, I just finished my new forge and will fire it up soon (letting ths tc100 dry out on the kaowool) I'll be posting photos of my shop and toys when I get the bugs worked out of my new used computer. My old E-machines dinosaur underwent a slow agonizng death by slothness.Some young buck hammer swinger saw my old 10"square box forge and made an offer I could'nt refuse. I hope my variation on the Zoeler 3/4" side arm burner works out well on this 10" round forge take care... Clifford B)
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Kcrucible; Thanks for your input I found your site interesting, looks like you are going through similar growing pains with your projects, I just finished my new forge and will fire it up soon (letting ths tc100 dry out on the kaowool) I'll be posting photos of my shop and toys when I get the bugs worked out of my new used computer. My old E-machines dinosaur underwent a slow agonizng death by slothness.Some young buck hammer swinger saw my old 10"square box forge and made an offer I could'nt refuse. I hope my variation on the Zoeler 3/4" side arm burner works out well on this 10" round forge take care... Clifford B)



Glad you found it entertaining. I originally just started it as a way to document what I was doing to show friends and family, store links to suppliers if I needed to find them again, etc, then I realized that other people might find it useful too and have been trying to broaden the appeal... talk about the science of it, why I'm doing certain things a certain way, etc. It's a little funny to me to be an utter novice at this presenting things in a lecture format.

My wife has been keeping me busy the last two weeks on other projects, so haven't had a lot of time for the forge. Still waiting to get the welding done! But at least I now have an answer concerning extra insulation in an insulating castable, and forms made for my rather unique lid. I find half of my entertainment comes from trying to accomplish unusual things. I'll probably spend more time making the foundry/forge than actually using it. Haha!

So, you ultimately went with the "traditional" kaowool after all, eh? I understand it's hard to beat for quick forging work. If I didn't have my heart set on melting glass I'd probably be doing that too. In any event, if you want to give me a link when you get your new pictures uploaded I'd be happy to pass people along to look at your work. What did you do differently with the side-arm burner?
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Glad you found it entertaining. I originally just started it as a way to document what I was doing to show friends and family, store links to suppliers if I needed to find them again, etc, then I realized that other people might find it useful too and have been trying to broaden the appeal... talk about the science of it, why I'm doing certain things a certain way, etc. It's a little funny to me to be an utter novice at this presenting things in a lecture format.

My wife has been keeping me busy the last two weeks on other projects, so haven't had a lot of time for the forge. Still waiting to get the welding done! But at least I now have an answer concerning extra insulation in an insulating castable, and forms made for my rather unique lid. I find half of my entertainment comes from trying to accomplish unusual things. I'll probably spend more time making the foundry/forge than actually using it. Haha!

So, you ultimately went with the "traditional" kaowool after all, eh? I understand it's hard to beat for quick forging work. If I didn't have my heart set on melting glass I'd probably be doing that too. In any event, if you want to give me a link when you get your new pictures uploaded I'd be happy to pass people along to look at your work. What did you do differently with the side-arm burner?

Not doing any wild mods. just used a 2" to 1" bell reducer chucked it up in my lathe and bored it out on the inside to smooth it up then turned the o.d.'s till smooth also, then bored the 90 degree orfice on the 1" to 3/4" tee i.d. and stepped it to accept the now slick smooth bell and sweat in brass rod to stick it together, then re-chucked the whole assembly in the lathe and turned it smooth on the o.d. of the joint again. It looks much better than stock plumbing fittings and should have a much more improved air flow now without the casting flaws and the threads (My theory of course)....This is my first go round with kaowool and ITC my last one was 10"x!0" square tube with fire brick lining, got workable temps. but not welding temps. this new one should get much hotter faster without the heat loss from the untreated brick mass.(Again theoretically)... Still deciding on type of choke system I'll go with, will most likely use K.I.S.S. principal on that part.
Take care... Cliff
O.H. yeah I'm still gonna do the bigger foundry furnace and vertical forge using waste oil as fuel; My neighbor makes bio diesel and the unacceptable stuff for him is useable to me, the site you suggested looks like the one to go to for castable refractory.(Thanks).
And yes the building of toys is at least half the fun
Later.... B)
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