Q. On Hi-heat Furnace Cement

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SE18

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I am building a forge mostly of firebrick except for a small portion around the burner that's a mixture of high heat furnace cement and scrabble firebrick (to make a sort of firebrick concrete, if you will). It appears to be made at RCC Holdings out of Cleveland, though the ink stamp didn't print well on the plastic container so RCC might be GCC or something. Anyway, it was a paste so no mixing of water was required.

So, I did the work on Monday using a wood form in the shape of a firebrick. I unscrewed one side of the form to see how the curing was going. Much to my surprise, it's still in the same paste state I left it in on Monday. I'm surprised b/c I'm used to working with cement and concrete and seeing it cure then striking the mold.

So my question is, is this some sort of strange cement that needs firing to harden or at least an initial low-heat firing? Instead of instructions on the container, there's mostly safety warnings, spanish warnings and such.

Thanks
 
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I would have to look but as I recall, refractory cement has to be fired. At the very least any excess moisture has to be driven out. The one I used was A.P. Green Kast-O-Lite Refractory Cement. I believe it is just a high temperature fireclay
 
You will probably need to gently fire the cement. A slow run up of the heat, or else the water will turn to steam and spall it, plus it will most likely crack badly if fired too fast. What sort of burner are you using? Can it be adjusted to an extremely low flame? I've a bit of experience with furnaces and foundry work, let me know if you have any questions.
 
That's what I used to build my furnace. I mixed it with perlite and kitty litter and formed it. I dried it very slowly under plastic first then after a week or two removed the plastic and let it dry for a few more weeks. Mine got hard and dry. Then I fired it slowly. It took a long time for it to harden completely. I think my buckets of it had instructions. But it was years ago so I can't recall exactly
 
If you mold is air tight it wouldn't be much different then the bucket of came in.
 
I made mine out of a air tank , the burner was Made like the Oliver down wind burner , I used insawool with a thick coating of Kilm cement on it , it took a while to dry , fired it for 30 sec every day for a week
It has fire brick on the floor. This pic is before I had the burner made, weed burner didn't cut it ,

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Here is the burner , it will heat a 2"X 1/2" strap bright orange in about 4 min ,

image.jpeg
Took a little doing to get the cone rite . I used a .035 mig tip for the orfice , had to order a high volume 35 psi regulator. Hope this helps

image.jpeg
 
Derrick-
I'm going to ask how you formed your flare for your burner? I made a somewhat different burner, but need to add a flare to it for use outside of the forge.
 
sorry, been a way a while; I'm using a Reil burner that I made (custom), if you want details I can. So, I'm thinking rather than fire the burner, maybe propane torch?
 
I cut the flare out of cardboard first extra large adjusted the fit then cut it out of 14ga stainless rolled it around a large live center and adjusted as I went ,then tack welded when correct and trimmed it up
Took a couple try's to get the rite angle/shape for optimum flame in the forge.
 
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