You said the ss can be hardened by CO2. I wonder if adding baking soda to the mix, if upon firing, one would get any change in hardness. As I understand it, heating baking soda releases CO2, et al..
I didnt know you could make water glass so easily never mind your own fire brick so this is way cool and going to save me a huge amount of money ...thanks for sharing.
I love that beautiful green color. I extract medicinal mushrooms, like Reishi, Chaga, etc. But I’ve had a problem with my last batch not operating correctly. I tried to do a water extraction. And think I added too much water 😢
@nilamotk - thank you for a detailed video, Loved it. The bag of sand you used, how many Kg's was it? I wish to make sufficient glue to make your bricks for a 44 gallon drum and need to calculate how much of the silica gel and hydroxide I need to accomplish this.
Great video even after so many years - Thanks! The formula you have here is really good. By the way, as you probably know by now, the Hi-Temp compound is actually a mixture of only Sodium Silicate "waterglass" (maybe 1/3, so still uses the CO2 for initial cure) and Kaolin Clay.
So I'm making a pizza oven, and need a span of 24 inches. I used a big hunk of granite before and it worked for about 6 fires until it didn't work anymore. If I put stainless wire in it, do you think if I made a 24"×24" square it could hold up ok?
Great video 👍 Just watched your other video and to increase the strength of your geopolymer blocks you need to use clay instead of sand, mixed with the sodium silicate. That’s what geopolymer concrete is usually made from, clay(aluminum silicate) and sodium silicate.
"These mantles go anywhere from about $50 to $150" Where the fk does this guy live?? "Published 9 years ago" Oh that makes sense then. Sad what the economy is nowadays. You basically have to be a chemist or a drug dealer to get into amateur chemistry now
I went to buy some 2 part silicone from a supplier 2 weeks ago. I bought a gallon kit 3 years ago for ~95$. Its 279$ now... 🙃 Fed reserve be like "money printer go brrrrrrrrrr" 🥴🙄
I'm curious if you could try a piston ring made from PEEK or Teflon. The type used in automatic transmissions. I'd scarf cut one and try it. I feel you could actually reduce drag between the piston and cylinder. It wouldn't exert force between the piston and cylinder the way traditional rings do. If it could handle the heat which I think if designed at the lower skirt of the piston where heat is lower they would last a long time.
I resorted to using a solid graphite piston and and runs well, but it requires pre heating so that the cylinder expands to operating diameter. The graphite makes a good lubricant as well. I think you would have to machine it tight with teflon rigs as well. Ideally, make the piston and cylinder out of the same material, and in theory they will expand at the same ratio and work at all temperatures.
This is amazing! Never knew you can make refractorary brick this way. Thank you so much! I definitely will try this myself. Do you have any links with more background information please?
The top ring around the glass unscrews, regular thread. It might be tight as it's compressing an o ring behind the glass. They might not all be the same, but I'd assume they're similar.
Really AWESOME JOB!! but your flywheels are too heavy. That's why it runs slow. Bit who cares. Your made it work!! You are a engine maker and builder. Great job Sir!
Excellent video! Kudos to you for actually giving the appropriate ratio of sodium hydroxide : silica. Others out there are using ratios that won't produce the silica concentration needed for foundry use. I'm very curious about use of an external heat source. Obviously, you didn't need it, but others say it's necessary to dissolve the silica. Some made water glass that was dark amber, not clear. I want to make clear water glass to make fire bricks, crucibles, and such. I also want to tint the water glass with pigments to add color to certain things. Do you have any idea why the water glass might turn dark? I was planning on crushing the silica beads. Do you think that would help it dissolve?
The reason i didnt need to heat it is because its a relatively high ratio of sodium hydtoxide to water. After dumping the hydroxide relatively quickly, the water gets very hot.. if you work quickly that heat is "enough" to dissolve the silica gel. Extra heat definitely doesnt hurt tho.
Crushing / grinding the silica will 100% help the reaction take place faster. But add powdered silica slowly or it will clump up into 1 big mass and take 10x as long to disolve vs if you left it peletized. The discoluration is likely from the cobalt additives in the blue beads in most gels. The blue turns pink when they're hydrated indicating they wont absorb moisture anymore. If you pick all the blue bits out, or start with strait clear silica beads without the inidcator beads (blue or pink) then it shouldnt discolour.
It's strait sodium hydroxide that will dissolve glass when molten. This is relatively dilute tho and it's nowhere near "molten sodium hydroxide" Temps. The glass held up fine.
I would use an air cooled condenser first and then a water cooled one to decrease the stress on the glass. And you are right, if the glass breaks you would have mercury vapour everywhere, a nightmare cleanup even if you use a mask. At least you have a hood making it less dangerous if an accident happen.
Pretty cool, I wish I had a lathe to do this stuff (along with glassblowing stuff). Might make one some day. I guess it was a bit hard to do as you has to trial and error everything until it runs properly.
