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| Sawed off cupola |
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| vtsteam:
I had a 1/4 bag of fireclay that was in a storage area that was recently flooded with an inch of water. The clay was probably a perfect consistency for making pottery, but poor for mixing with sand to make refractory! I spent about an hour kneading in sand by hand, then switched to the riddle and put it through that twice using a firebrick as a muller. That was a lot of work! Finally it seemed to be mixed and stick together reasonably well. I covered it and put it aside, even though I really wanted to ram up the lid. But with rains imminent, I knew that firing it wouldn't protect it, since I couldn't cover a hot lid with plastic sheet, and I could imagine trying to save the whole thing at night in the rain. Bad idea. So, uncharacteristic patience for me -- I put the furnace aside until Sunday. |
| vtsteam:
It's Sunday finally, our one day of sun predicted before we return to rains until Wednesday. Couldn't get much done because of a retirement party for a friend and neighbor this afternoon, but did work on the lid. Here is the bare metal ring and some scrap reinforcing: |
| vtsteam:
Cutting up soft firebrick with an old pruning saw (never worked well on wood). Cuts quite easily. The bottom of the lid was rammed up first with about 2 inches of refractory before adding the brick: |
| vtsteam:
Checking the brick for fit. The spray can is there to provide a form for the exhaust hole. |
| vtsteam:
The fire brick was mortared in place with premixed "refractory cement" mixed with Perlite. I had both left over for a few years from other projects. Neither is a super high temp product, but I hope that the 2" of fireclay and sand refractory below will keep the upper portion of the lid within a reasonable temperature range. I hoped that the refractory cement would provide a better bond to the brick and steel. It contains sodium silicate and fireclay and some kind of non-asbestos fiber. Sticky stuff. I hoped the perlite would help lighten the lid (as would the insulating firebrick). Guess we'll find out. [/URL] |
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