That kastolite is some interesting stuff to mix. I just finished casting the first one and it turned out ok, I wanted to record the measurements for next time. To cast one of the quart mixing jars I needed about 36 oz of kastolite powder and about 12 oz of water. Both are by volume. I attached photos to this post, I hope they get reduced by the forum software or I’ll have to try to get that done in at the computer. 

I like it. The 2 in the center look a little close together. Looking forward to seeing the results

Kast-o-lite can be a PITA to mix, the aggregate is crushed so it keys and doesn't want to flow easily. I made up a vibrator to get it to flow between crayons. How'd you get yours to flow? Of course now we get to wait till you get the glue sticks cleaned out to see how it works. Thanks for the photo spread.

Frosty The Lucky.

Ok here’s take 2. This time I used the 1” run x 3/4” tee that is used for the frosty t burner, taping off one of the 1” sides and placing that on the bottom. The thought is that I’ll open that up to have a look at the interior after burn out and then plug it when used.  

 

This one also only has 19 glue sticks, which makes for a nicer bundle closer to the 1” size.

When casting its important to stuff some in between each glue stick with your finger before filling the sides or else it’s very difficult to get them to maintain any space. 

4 hours ago, Frosty said:

Kast-o-lite can be a PITA to mix, the aggregate is crushed so it keys and doesn't want to flow easily. I made up a vibrator to get it to flow between crayons. How'd you get yours to flow? Of course now we get to wait till you get the glue sticks cleaned out to see how it works. Thanks for the photo spread.

Frosty The Lucky.

I’m using the side of the blade on an oscillating tool to get it to flow some, but the main part is fingers to stuff it in he right spots. 

NARB update! I pulled the glue sticks from cast #2 - 4 of them remained partially in. On this one I glued it to a tee, and used quite a bit more glue so I’m not surprised it had some “stick”. I demolded it and chipped a little away so I could see the duct tape and then inside the tee.  

Then, since I was a bit impatient and excited, I stuck a MAP pro torch in it to burn out a bit of glue (not too bad of odor). 

Certainly looks interesting.. 

I wanna see it fired up 

34 minutes ago, Jasent said:

I wanna see it fired up 

You made me curious. This is without burning it out, and without a forge, and on very low psi - like 1-2. And it’s a bit windy.  And I need to tune this burner as it’s the first I’ve built  

If I go higher I start smelling gas around the intake, so the NARB is restrictive right now. 

 

I think with a little work your set up is going to work well. Need to see it in a forge

Well burnout didn't go quite as planned - I only had another NARB to use to try to melt the adhesive out of there, so I put one in the middle of a makeshift forge, and fired one up and placed in one end, expecting cracks from the one in the middle.  Some small ones did develop, and the insides didn't get as hot as I hoped (xxxx insulating refractory!), so the glue didn't burn as well as I wanted.  After messing with that for awhile, I grabbed them both and put them on a baking sheet, with crumped foil "rings" to raise the flame face off of the baking sheet, and gave them 450° for about an hour, using a skewer to poke through all the holes to help it flow / drain after that hour.  If you have a hood fan running and wipe off excess glue it doesn't stink too bad. 

Ideally I think 350° for a few hours to melt out the adhesive (and help cure), followed by a coal or charcoal fire would be ideal.  I'll be using something like that on my next experiments. 

Next I went and placed them with flame faces touching at bottom, and 1/2" opening on top, and fired one up.  Flame chases all the way through to the inlet of the other burner, and this helped clear out any remaining glue.  After that I placed it back in my forge, and it runs well from 1 PSI to 20+, very stable even though it's pretty windy today.  Attached are some pictures - it's difficult to see the blue flames from the nozzlets on the pictures, but it shows in person. 

15psi without much time heating up, can see some of the blue jets:

15psi after heating for awhile (there's flame, but you can't really tell!):

 

1psi:

Immediately after testing, face still over 850 degrees (top of my thermal range):

 

Awesome. I may have to build one of these

Looks good, probably need more orifices with such a small plenum, maybe 21 or 22 in the next one, they're easy to block off if you make too many. 

So, what's your impression of using glue sticks? I didn't have nearly so much trouble getting crayons burnt out and heck with a healthy coat of Crisco for a release agent most pulled out cold. You still want to burn out the Lard-like veggy grease and what crayons don't come out I use half a dozen or so charcoal briquettes and just let it cook till it's cool, next day usually. I burn out in my old rivet forge with my brick "fire pot" customizers (fire bricks) arranged to keep the block on the fire.

I used the shop toaster oven to melt out the wax in the first block but it took a long time and I still had to do a charcoal burn out so I just skipped the oven step. Crisco works a treat to release the mold and crayons from the Kast-O-Lite. The stuff is made to STICK, if you don't get it off your mixing tools and putty knife before it sets you almost have to sand it off. 

Frosty The Lucky.

Incredible job and super detailed informational description. ...BRAVO.

On 10/28/2017 at 2:03 PM, Frosty said:

Looks good, probably need more orifices with such a small plenum, maybe 21 or 22 in the next one, they're easy to block off if you make too many. 

So, what's your impression of using glue sticks? I didn't have nearly so much trouble getting crayons burnt out and heck with a healthy coat of Crisco for a release agent most pulled out cold. You still want to burn out the Lard-like veggy grease and what crayons don't come out I use half a dozen or so charcoal briquettes and just let it cook till it's cool, next day usually. I burn out in my old rivet forge with my brick "fire pot" customizers (fire bricks) arranged to keep the block on the fire.

I used the shop toaster oven to melt out the wax in the first block but it took a long time and I still had to do a charcoal burn out so I just skipped the oven step. Crisco works a treat to release the mold and crayons from the Kast-O-Lite. The stuff is made to STICK, if you don't get it off your mixing tools and putty knife before it sets you almost have to sand it off. 

Frosty The Lucky.

The one that was fired up in the pictures was 22.  My next cast will use a 1 1/4" tee, and a 1 1/4" to 3/4" reducer.  That will give me a lot more room to add in nozzlets, so I'll max it out and plug them up to find the magic number.

I think the glue stick is a good idea, as we can get it to flex, allowing for the nozzle to "bloom" out like a flower.  We will be able to build this in 10-15 minutes of work time too, so very low skill and low tool needs.

I would have been fine if I tried to melt out with a little bit of charcoal as you did; I just didn't have any, or an appropriate fire pot.  For mixing the Kastolite, I just use hands covered in disposable gloves and a larger mixing cup.  No tools to clean!

OH, I forgot to mention: these have zero roar.  They are extremely quite.

Here’s 25. I had to pack in 23, then push 24 & 25 in with a nail set / punch. I like this configuration as they aren’t spilling over the edge, and I didn’t have to melt the sticks at all. These are new sticks too, all the other ones I had were old ones that I had inherited from my mother in law so they seemed stickier and may have been harder to pull out. No melting should mean that there’s nothing to burn out too. 

Another thought I had when making this - I could wrap some reenforcement around the outside of the tee and clamp with a hose clamp for added structure, although these things seem tough. I actually dropped one from about 4’, with the frosty t burner attached and it survived. 

Thank you Aalma, I usually forget to take pics when I do stuff. Next time you quote a post please delete as much as you can and maintain continuity in your reply. Reposting pics uses a LOT of bandwidth and Iforge is followed by folk in 150 +/- countries all over Planet Earth, many on dial up connections. 

Joe: I'm thinking things will smooth out if you increase the size of the plenum. However what you made looks to be working fine now. Quiet is one of the benefits of multiple outlet burners almost as good as low velocity keeping the fire in the forge longer.

It's looking good so far, I'll be watching to see what you come up with next. 

I hit submit then noticed I should've refreshed the screen before sending. I don't get the reason for how this set up so I gues I get to wait to see it with the inducer attached.

Frosty The Lucky.

@JoeThePro have you got a chance to play with the 25 stick narb.  I like how simple this setup is.  

Actually yes, finally had a chance to today. The mold is pretty big  and took a lot of kastolite. The new glue stick pulled out great for the most part. I tried to fire it but the forge floor was still cooking moisture out.

The low flame is 1-2 psi, and the high flame is 25 psi or so. 

I think I'm going to build one of these. May start on it today if I can find my glue sticks. I have an extra T burner to play with and about 4lbs of kastolite left over.  I'll try to document the whole thing as you have. Any reason you put the whole T inside the kastolite?  I'm wondering if just one side of the T would be fine?

I actually did a 1 1/4” elbow, and an adapter to 3/4” in one side.  I prefer this, the tee makes it weaker. 

Edit: I put the whole elbow inside as it makes the casting easier, and is quite strong it seems. 

Edit 2: it was a 1 1/4" elbow used.  I cast it inside so that I didn't have to worry about it separating into 2 pieces.

Edited November 14, 20178 yr by JoeThePro

2 minutes ago, JoeThePro said:

I actually did a 1” x 1 1/4” elbow, and an adapter to 3/4” in the 1” side.  I prefer this, the tee makes it weaker. 

What I mean is why put the whole elbow in the cast? Why not just enough to support it? 

Got started on a 25 port. Went well I think. 

6 minutes ago, Jasent said:

Went well

Looks good. Did you do anything to attach the castable to the elbow? I was considering a hose clamp around the elbow and some wire in the cast. 

I didn't use an elbow. I found a 3/4"fpt to 1 1/4" fpt "flare". i think the taper should hold it nicely.  Left it sealed in the bag overnight.  Hard as a block this morning. Hoping to fire it tonight. 

I had thought about adding some SS mesh I had but didn't 

Well not as hard as I had thought this morning split down the side of my form and it's still a little soft so I'll let it sit another day or two before pulling sticks and removing the form