Kerr 666 Part 2: Refractory Brick Repair with Satanite

The door is looking good.















I made a replacement brick with a plaster of paris and silica flour ratio of 1:1 with 3:1 water sodium silicate ratio.   The now expected clumping, curdling, showed up.   I worked through that and added perlite in some unknown quantity.  By then I had lost control and just wanted to finish it.    The brick looked good the next morning but a day later it had self destructed.  This block was only exposed to ambient temperatures.

This is exactly as I found it.   Obviously there has been some expansion and it needs to be avoided.  I am mixing up very small test batches to determine what the problem is or the boundary line is terms of ratios.

EDIT:  it may also be a case of either the silica flour or the perlite sucking water away from the plaster causing it to not set or fail after setting.

I took one of the broken bricks from the side of the oven and encased it in satanite.  The form is covered with packing tape.

To be continued...

Rebar Again

In a previous post I talked about what this rebar is and that it can be water hardened.

Wanted to know how well it worked on the lathe.    I also used a mix of tiki torch and mineral oil for the first time.  The answer is quite well.

I neglected to get a pic prior to hitting this with sand paper.  Will fix that some time.  Coarse sandpaper left larger scratches than the lathe tool.   Worked it down to 400.

The first project for this stuff may be a set of transfer punches

It would be good to grind the ribs and paint off with a flap disk but not on the metal lathe.     I have a Nova chuck for the wood lathe.    Think of it as a self centering 4 jaw chuck.   The only jaws it has are not suited to metal.  Maybe machine a set of metal lathe like jaws for it.  Have to look it over to see if that will work.

Kerr 666 Part 1: Coil Repair - Fail

Today I attempted to splice the broken coil on the Kerr 666 but could not find my good crimping tool.   This will have to be redone.  Thinking of making a die to make sure the wires stay aligned.



Decanted the satanite into two 2 gallon zip lock bags with about 10 lbs each.   Thinking the second bag will keep longer if it is not opened until after the first is used up.   That is unless I do a big job and use it all up.  Who knows. PDF give a 1 year shelf life.

Started on the door tonight.   Both bricks are cracked, one is bad enough to fall out.  In use gravity would hold it in but I opted to repair it.   Buttered both edges and set them in place.  I neglected to wet the firebrick so I don't know how well this will work.

Next I applied water and wet paper towels to the door surface and let it rest about a half an hour rewetting the towels twice.

Where its possible I am going to soak the bricks in water from now on.

Mixed up a small quantity of somewhat stiff santanite and coated the face.  Ran a little short but it will get a second coat after it dries.  The brick face was a bit of a landscape.  Too much to level in one coat.

Pics of lathe gears

Fan motor label

Wondering if I can use a triac to control the speed on this motor.

Murray Spindle Bearings Maybe

This is for my favorite mower and old murray with a B&S opposed twin.   Found a seller with the bearing numbers visible.    Need to check the bearings on the deck but good bet this is it.  Plan is to change out the bearings in both spindles.  Only have one off atm and its not the bad one.