Old Dried up ITC 100

[GottMitUns]

After 2 years of use I decided to rebuild and mod my gas forge. I have a small tub of ITC-100 leftover from my first build but it is completely dried out.  I think I remember reading a post somewhere that stated if ITC 100 dried out it could not be rejuvenated.  does anybody know if that is true?

Just for grins this is what is left of my flares after 2 years. they were made of 17-4 SS and the OD was straight with a internal 12 on 1 tapper.

 

Thanks

Russell

[Frozenforge]

I believe that if it just dried out and has never been fired it should be able to be rehydrated. Breaking it up into smaller pieces will speed the process along.

[Frosty]

ITC-100 is zirconium silicate and kaolin clay about a 70:30 ratio. Nothing in it to set up it just dries out. Treat it like wetting clay. Put it in a sealed container with water and let it sit. Clay is hydrophilic and a hydro(something else) that makes it distribute water evenly throughout given time.

You're going to want it like thin slip anyway so put at least twice as much water as hard lumpage by weight and give it a day or two without messing with it.

We used to have to turn hard dry lumps of clay into mud then liquid to do hydrometer tests in the materials lab. We'd just drop say 50 grams in a plastic bottle with 100 grams of water and come back in a day or two. It's easy but it takes patience. If you try mixing it it'll be a PITA. You should see the looks on the faces of guys who thought you could mix bentonite with a spoon or paddle.

Frosty The Lucky.

[GottMitUns]

Thanks Guys,  I will give it a try.

 

Russell

[ThomasPowers]

Frosty I remember Bentonite from my oilpatch days "thixotropic"

[Frosty]

I had to look thixotropic up and you betcha that certainly describes bentonite. But it's not the characteristic I was referring to. One may be a function of the other but I don't know and I don't have access to the books.

If you put say 100lbs. of clay in a container and pour 25lbs. of water in with it, close it up and leave it long enough, (different clays take a different length of time,) no matter where you sample the clay it will have exactly the same % of moisture. This was one test we used in the lab to determine if a sample was true clay or just met some of the criteria.

Okay, I've just spent enough time researching clay on the web my eyes are aching. Clay of which bentonites are the most strongly active are colloidal in solution. Individual particles distribute themselves in water as widely separated as possible from each other, making the distribution perfectly even.

This sounds like it might be the mechanism, makes logical sense. I wish I remembered what it was called, that'd be easy to look up.

Frosty The Lucky.