[TheForge] Strengthening castable refractory

[Marc Godbout]

I picked up my needles today, too. I didn't 'scope them, though, so I
don't know about the dimpling. But the concavity is the same. And they
are pretty sharp. You'll need leather gloves to handle them. They're
going to be really difficult to forge-weld for that hedge-hog project
:-)

The needles tend to clump really tightly, so I had sprinkle by hand,
like hot peppers on a pizza.

But the casting process went pretty well. The refractory guy also
mentioned that you should coat any wooden forms with oil, or maybe
plastic. Otherwise they suck the moisture from the mix and weaken that
area. It also pays to have all your stuff ready and at hand.

So now I wait. It's supposed to take at least 24 hours to set fully.
Then we bake, and bake again, and cure,...

-Marc

On Fri, 2003-08-29 at 18:27, Chuck Robinson wrote:
> Hey Bruce,
> My son just dropped off a box of the needles. Under the microscope they are
> convex on one surface and concave   on the other.
> The overall surface is also micro dimpled. I seriously doubt that they
> could be duplicated using any kind of wire or tooling available to us, and I
> sure wouldn't find the effort, cost effective.
> $ 9 lb looks a lot more reasonable to me now.
> Chuck
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Bruce Freeman" <FREEMAB@pt.fdah.com>
> To: <theforge@mailman.qth.net>
> Sent: Wednesday, August 27, 2003 11:19 AM
> Subject: Re: [TheForge] Strengthening castable refractory
> 
> 
> > What exactly ARE these  SS needles?  Short pieces of wire?  How 'bout
> > just cutting up some SS wire, instead of paying $9/lb forSS?
> >
> > Bruce
> > NJ
> >

> 
-- 
Marc Godbout
http://www.ironringforge.com

New England Blacksmiths Membership Director
http://www.newenglandblacksmiths.org