Steven D. Lee on mon 16 sep 02
I have looked into some articles about homemade castables
for furnaces and wondered if anyone had experience with
these kinds of recipes and if it is better to try something
like this or go with an industrial castable for
Cone 10 (non-corosive atmospheres) pottery kiln.
I got this information from the following:
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http://www.john-wasser.com/NEMES/MakeICR.html
Excerpt:
Making Insulating Castable Refractory from Common Material
http://www.John-Wasser.com/NEMES/MakeICR.html
Material you will need:
High Temperature Furnace Cement (hardware store)
Perlite (garden store)
A little water.
A rubber spatula.
Making Insulating Castable Refractory
It was easier than I thought to make insulating castable refractory
for a foundry lining from material available from local hardware and
garden stores. I got this idea from a web site about making a natural
gas forge ( by
Raymond "Swage" Maiara, Aurora Forge, New York, New York). The trick
is to glue Perlite beads together with Furnace Cement (a.k.a. Furnace
Mortar or Refractory Mortar). The material is slightly sticky and
holds its shape well when packed. After it is set you can cut it with
common woodworking tools.
The Perlite comes from the garden supply section of your local store
and is used as a "soil conditioner". The price for a two gallon bag
of Perlite was less than $3 in the garden section of my local
hardware store.
The Furnace Cement comes from the furnace or fireplace section of
your local hardware store. Look for Furnace Cement (or Furnace Mortar
or Refractory Mortar) that says something like "Withstands
temperatures to 3000=A1F" and "Contains Silicates". It generally comes
in "11-ounce" tubes (like caulk) and 32-ounce (1 quart) or 64-ounce
(half gallon) plastic tubs. The price of a 32-ounce tub
of: "Worcester Brush HIGH TEMP Furnace Cement (Black)" was less than
$4 at my local hardware store.
You will need about 1 part (by volume) of Furnace Cement for each 4
parts (by volume) of Perlite so for a two gallon bag of Perlite you
will need a half gallon of Furnace Cement. If you use much less than
four volumes of Perlite for each volume of Furnace Cement all of the
passages between Perlite beads will be sealed and it will take a long
time for the cement to set (it needs contact with air). If you use
much more than five volumes of Perlite for each volume of Furnace
Cement the resulting material will be quite weak. You will also want
to have some Furnace Cement to use as a sealing coat on your lining.
The Furnace Cement has about the consistency of roofing tar and is
very sticky. It is MUCH easier to work with if you add about 2 cups
of water per gallon of cement. This makes it more like a thin
plaster. A rubber spatula is good for getting the cement out of the
plastic tub.
You can mix a large quantity and keep it in a sealed container for a
long time. A 5-gallon bucket is ideal for mixing a two-gallon bag of
Perlite with 1/2 gallon of Furnace Cement.
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Steven D. Lee
SD Pottery
www.sdpottery.com
millenial_age@yahoo.com
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