April 13, 201313 yr I have dozens of cubic feet of perlite because I have a greenhouse business. I thought perlite might be a good alternative to vermiculite, which is hard to get in my region. Is there any down side to using it? I know it's high in silica but I'm not sure that steel heated for annealing would be hot enough to melt it.
April 13, 201313 yr Perlite has a melting temp of around 2,000f and works just fine for annealing, I use it regularly. As I recall it's heat puffed mica, not silicates. I certainly could be wrong though. Frosty The Lucky.
April 13, 201313 yr Perlite has a melting temp of around 2,000f and works just fine for annealing, I use it regularly. As I recall it's heat puffed mica, not silicates. I certainly could be wrong though. Frosty The Lucky. Mica is a sheet silicate (phyllosilicate).
April 14, 201313 yr make sure its very dry... if it gets wet, it doesn't work well i find cerwool, inswool, kaowool works much better
April 16, 201313 yr Vermiculite is a puffed mica; perlite---mined about 2 miles from where I am sitting, is a volcanic rock that is processed to make the gardening stuff. And yes it works well for annealing; Sunday I threw in a couple of handfuls of it on top of the firebrick in my forge that a student had sludged with flux, seemed to help and I had no bentonite handy.
April 18, 201313 yr Thanks for the corrections guys. Mica is a silicate and vermiculite is puffed mica. I'll try to remember. Frosty the Lucky.
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