Sand under microscope

Sand at 60X

Same image 3X'ed in the editor.

Not mine below.  Waianapanapa, Maui Sand   Much larger.

After some debate it is not volcanic.   Would need to be more solid and this is much too fine.  A better guess is fine shale.   Shale on its way back to clay.

But I emailed the images to a Mineralogist at The University of Oklahoma and he stated "Difficult to tell from these photos, but yes it looks like volcanic sand, not river sand. Besides
being dark in color, it is very angular. It has not been transported by water."

The following maybe wishful thinking or it may apply.  As things generally go I aspect it does not.  On the off chance this stuff is refractory it needs exploring.

I dug around the internet and found
Series: National Park Service Geodiversity Atlas NPS Geodiversity Atlas—Capulin Volcano National Monument, New Mexico

The pertinent paragraph follows.

"Capulin Basalt. Capulin Volcano National Monument and the surrounding area are composed entirely of a single, formally named map unit— Capulin Basalt. Analysis of rock samples from Capulin Volcano and nearby Baby Capulin, a cinder cone outside the monument, found that the rock is technically a “trachybasalt,” having more abundant alkali elements, such as sodium and potassium, than true basalt. The presence of Dakota Sandstone xenoliths (foreign rock fragments) and xenocrysts (foreign crystals) is a characteristic feature of Capulin Basalt. Silica from Dakota Sandstone quartz grains is a factor in the relatively high amount of silica (50%–55%) in Capulin Basalt."

and from various places on  Wikipedia
Jump to search

Trachybasalt is a volcanic rock with a composition between trachyte and basalt. Minerals in trachybasalt include alkali feldspar, calcic plagioclase, olivine, clinopyroxene and likely very small amounts of leucite or analcime.^[1] Trachybasalt is a basalt with high alkali content (5 to 7% Na₂O + K₂O, see TAS diagram).

"Feldspar is a common raw material used in glassmaking, ceramics, and to some extent as a filler and extender in paint, plastics, and rubber. In glassmaking, alumina from feldspar improves product hardness, durability, and resistance to chemical corrosion: …. Chemical weathering of feldspars results in the formation of clay minerals^[16] such as illite and kaolinite.

Kaolinite has a low shrink–swell capacity and a low cation-exchange capacity (1–15 meq/100 g). It is a soft, earthy, usually white, mineral (dioctahedral phyllosilicate clay), produced by the chemical weathering of aluminium silicate minerals like feldspar. In many parts of the world it is colored pink-orange-red by iron oxide, giving it a distinct rust hue.    

Kerr 666 Autopsy

I opted to move the Kerr 666 from out behind the door.  Rather unhandy when pouring outside.  Along the way I took it over to the east shop to pour an ant hill.  It came up to 600C and stopped heating.

Today I pulled out the heating element.   

The heating elements are surrounded by thin soft fire brick.

The resistance coil failed inside the ceramic that encased it.  The resistance increases in this section until it self destructed.

There is little damage on the interior side of the element.

The element is laying on its side.   When installed the bottom of the U show here is the oven top.

It is possible that the destructing tin can and the flux mix it contained burned a hole through the element.   The black stain seems to indicate that.

The logical thing to do is to replace the element with coils cut into the fire brick.  If there is room.



But first I may try opening up the wound and crimping the wires together then encasing them in clay or glass of some sort.

Brain Storm: Fpimdry furnace preheat (bad idea)

I have been thinking about foundry furnace insulation.

If one were to use an open space between the hot face casting and additional insulation it should be possible to blow cold air through it.    What if one were to take that now warm/hot air and run it back into the burner.    

Obviously one would be in trouble if the air was hot enough to ignite the fuel in the burner pipe.

But why do this:

1: Less heat would get to the insulation.  Cheaper insulation maybe?

2: The reclaimed heat would be recycled back into the furnace.

There are several things I don't like

1. Added complexity

2. Greater temperature differential between the two sides of the hot face. stress?

3. The possibility of light off the fuel inside the burner.

As I have envisioned it there is little doubt it is a bad idea.  So why did I write it down.   Because it was a tool for exploring the concept.  And maybe it will lead to something better.   

Update

Last year I dried the sand on carboard sheets and the clay in plastic tubs.  Today I tried drying both on corrugated galvanized roofing sheets.  If I remember I will add pictures later.

 The sand was freshly harvested from the separation process.  It dried enough to where I could run It through my normal riddle if a bit reluctantly.  Switched to the 1/4" riddle and it was much easier.  The mix is mostly sand and a few rocks that the larger riddle catches.  So the end result is nearly the same.   Saved the small rocks for making thin concrete slabs.

The clay was pulled from the bottom of the processing tank.  Where I save the water that runs off the round tubs.  The clay settles to the bottom and I reused the water to wash the 'dirt' again, rinse repeat.
Anyway the clay is much denser but still wet as I write this.  I moved it into the shop so as not to loose it to rain which seems to be every other night.  Last two totaled 80 hundredths.

My hope is that the clay will dry in a form that is easier to powder than the stuff which has been allowed to dry to where it feels like pottery clay.

 

Zombie Labs Looks at my local sand, is it volcanic ?

Introducing a new group of vids "Zombie Labs".  The first video  is a work in progress and I will not make it public on YouTube  until it is finished.

In this the first I compare my local sand to play sand.

Although it is not yet in this video it looks like my local sand may have come from Mt Capulin in New Mexico not far away.

"     The color of basalt is usually gray to black with weathered flows having a dark brown to reddish rust color. Common minerals are plagioclase feldspar, pyroxene, and olivine, and less commonly biotite, hornblende, magnetite, hematite, apatite and quartz.  Basalt flows commonly form rough terrain, very difficult to cross with horses, that the Spanish immigrants called malpais"

Sounds about right.  Need to toss it in the oven and see if it melts.  Thinking not or it would be sticking to the aluminum.

Bandsaw table insert.

Made this a while back for Emma's Spare Room Tool Competition.  What you see is what came out of the sand.

Rebar Again

Heated the rebar in the burnout oven to approximately 740C.

Dumped in a pan of water did not swish.

Kind of files.   Much harder then earlier.

Brittle.

Shop vac bearing replacement.

The top bearing is a bronze bushing.  It dries out and they howl.   Turns out you can pull the bushing out and fudge a roller skate bearing aka 602 in its place.   The outer race is a loose fit.  I used goop to hold it from turning.  3m super black weatherstrip adhesive.  Quite sticky stuff.

DIY Refractory test to determine yeild (updated)

Recipe is from  BackYardMetalCasting.   Found the same at Delft Clay NZ
I expect there are better formulations for refractory but his one is all easy to get stuff.  The original formulation calls for fire clay but the Delft site says "or drillers mud" which is bentonite.

This is a corrected table.  I originally stated quarts but had used pints.
A pint is one part

1.5 parts Portland cement 1.8 lb
2.0 parts play sand 3.4
1.5 parts perlite 0.13 lb
2.0 parts western bentonite clay 2.0 lb

Total 7 pints and it weights 7.3 lb

Image of same

Combined first 3 ingredients in a 5 gallon pail and tumbled for 15 minutes by wedging the pail and a foam rubber cushion into the HF concrete mixer.

Now to guess at the size of a form required.  The mix is 7 pints or approximately 200 cubic inches.  Made a form a 2.5" x 10" x 13.75"  form with a moveable bar..   Full without the bar it is 344 cubic inches.

The actual mix filled 6 inches of the form.  10 x 6 x 2.5 =150 CI

Also found Depression-Refractory-Mix-For-The-Backyard-Foundry which uses sodium silicate grog and fire clay.

Rebar Epoxy Removal

To remove the epoxy from the rebar I heated it in the burnout oven.   Checked back and it was smoking and stinking so I turned it off.  And neglected to notice the temperature.  After cooling I found this.

It seems the metal expanded and cracked off the epoxy.  The bottom of the oven contains bits of broken epoxy and its still green.

I am thinking one might be able to do this in a toaster oven and keep the temperature down so the epoxy does not burn.

Need to give it a try.

Finished converting the last of the bits from water scrapping to cup cake ingots, well all but maybe 5lbs.   It was rained on two nights ago and they hissed when added to the partly full crucible so I gave that up as a bad idea.  

Water scrapping results in a mix of aluminum and charcoal.  Today with the mix spread out over an old carpet I used a leaf blower to remove most of the charcoal away.   Much easier then removing it by had or running it with water in the concrete mixer to bust it up.  Yeah I tried that.