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Rigidizer needed in Louisiana


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I'm running into a problem finding a rigidizer dealer.  It can't freeze so many people including Glenn cannot ship it right now. I found one company, High temp Tools, but they are backordered.  I am looking for somebody local-ish to the Gulf coast who has rigidizer in stock. Hopefully close enough where it wouldn't be sent a hub city like Louisville that is freezing. Any help would be appreciated.  Thank you. 

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First I've heard of rigidizer not being able to freeze. If it's shipped dry and unmixed, what's the problem?

I have a plastic tub of dry silica in my shop, where it frequently gets below freezing. I've not had any problems with using it even after two or three nasty winters.

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Now, colloidal silica that's been mixed with water certainly cannot be allowed to freeze, as this causes clumping. That's a different matter, though.

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He went to the same school where I met my future wife a few years later. Never met him, but had some of the same teachers; this makes me two degrees of Kevin Bacon.

On the other hand, I once met the playwright John Guare at a wedding reception; this makes me one degree of separation from the author of "Six Degrees of Separation".

(Now I'm wondering how many degrees of separation there are between John Guare and Kevin Bacon. Certainly no more than three.)

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Regarding the original question. I bought a pail of commercial rigidizer the first time I rigidized ceramic blanket and will NEVER do that again. The stuff had a limited 6mos. shelf life and about 48 hrs after opening. Freezing killed it immediately. 

What I use now is colloidal silica I bought a quart can at the local plastics supply for under $8. Fumed silica is one method of making silica particles fine enough to stay suspended in water without settling out. = Colloidal.  Most plastics supplies carry it by the 55gl. drum it's used to thicken resins and plaster. 

Mixed it in a clean spritzer bottle with some clean fresh water. If you add a couple drops of food coloring it will be easy to see how well and evenly you've covered the ceramic blanket. You don't even need to let it dry before curing it with the forge burner or a butane torch, dull red is plenty. 

Oh yeah, remember to butter the blanket before spritzing with rigidizer. Buttering is an old mason practice of wetting things to be set in mortar or similar process. The wet fibers cause the rigidizer to flow down the strands and collect at intersections. When cured the rigidizer sticks the intersections together, making it less likely fibers will break loose and become a breathing hazard. Spritzing it onto dry blanket will cause it to flash dry and not only not flow very deeply into the blanket but it won't bond well.

Frosty The Lucky.

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