I have heard that kitty litter can be used to protect forge lining from welding flux. If this is true, I would like to know what brand is suitable.
Thanks

I don't know about protecting the liner, I have heard of it being used as a castable refractory analog. To be honest, the CR I used when building my first forge looked a lot like kitty litter which wouldn't surprise me as litter is mostly bentonite clay. As to brand, I'd say probably the cheapest you can get, preferably unscented. I'm only guessing but I would be willing to bet the cheaper brands are almost all bentonite without any sort of more expensive additives.

I have a metal tray that fits in my gas forge to keep the flux from damaging the liner. I have also used a piece of ceramic blanket on the bottom that works well

Cheap clay based kitty litter the "fancy stuff" doesn't work. put it in a SS tray and scrap it out as it gets messy and replace. You can also use it to soak up the oil dripping from your hand crank blower or powerhammer!

Thanks for the info everyone.

On a similar topic, can kitty litter be used for annealing, like instead of vermiculite? (seems like it would have good insulating properties)

Plain wood ashes work. Clay is not know for being that good an insulator---see how thick an adobe wall has to be to equal the R value of a typical fiberglass bat.

The product used for soaking up oil or floor sweep sold at places like NAPA, Costco or Sam's is just unsented cat litter (clay). In fact That's where I get our cat litter cause it's cheaper.

the cheap clay litter is basically bentonite....shrink/swell soil. It is dried out in a kiln and ground up to make the litter.....it will absorb the moisture and expand.....also bentonite is used in drilling mud and all kinds of application....

I was watching a video and the guy used something that looked like kitty litter as flux, I know they use borax as flux could it had just been something added to the borax or a brand of flux?

2 minutes ago, Brayden B said:

I was watching a video and the guy used something that looked like kitty litter as flux, I know they use borax as flux could it had just been something added to the borax or a brand of flux?

the link as reference

Welcome aboard from 7500' in SE Wyoming.  Glad to have you.

It would be nice if you put your general location in your profile.  This is a world wide forum and we don't know if you are in Lapland, Tasmania, or Kansas.

I'm not sure what looked like kitty litter to you.  When he was putting the pins and the chilies (!?) in the canister or when he was welding the slabs together.  Both times it looked like anyhydrous borax to me.  It wasn't regular washing borax because it didn't bubble from included water.  I suspect that he had previously heated regular borax to drive off the water and then ground it up to use as shown in the video.

Kitty litter is mainly clay which woudn't make particularly good flux.  Flux melts and forms a barrier to protect the hot metal from atmospheric oxygen.  Clay has a much higher melting point than borax.

Frankly, I am puzzled as to why you would put flux into a sealed canister anyway.  I suppose the chilies are to add carbon but just regular powdered charcoal would do the job as well or better.  I'd worry that flux in the canister would form inclusions between the pins/nails.

Interesting video but puzzling in places.  I do wish I had all his cool toys.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

NO. Clay kitty litter has a much higher melting temp than steel and would be about as appropriate as a welding flux as putting Pepsi cola in the fuel tank of your car. 

The flux he used when putting the sections together looked to be anhydrous borax because it didn't foam up sprinkled on hot steel.

Frosty The Lucky. (one of the "they")

I agree, it looks like at least partially anhydrous borax. It is bubbling up a little so it doesn’t have all the water driven off. It also has the same fine white powder floating around in the air after putting in on as I get when forge welding with borax…

As for the peppers in the canister, it’s kind of his thing… I’ve heard “shurap” translates to something like “spicy”.

(I’m a big fan of his videos and often worry about his safety so close to and previously in the conflict zone…)
 

Keep it fun,

David