Free Bentonite

[crueby]

Awake - if the lumps in the used stuff are same size you need for your cores, nope, no problem. 

Might be some odd odours from the foundry.....             

Oh, now that's a thought. Wonder if I can train the cats to pee in the proper patterns?

[cnr6400]

 

[gerritv]

@cnr6400 A friend in Hamilton gets his bentonite from Smelko, he is checking his pricing but it wasn't that pricey. He makes his own sodium silicate. That might be an option?
 Western Sand 100lb was maybe CA$20. He doesn't buy Pertobond due to price.

Gerrit

[cnr6400]

Hi Gerrit, thanks for that info. Will your friend share his recipe for sodium silicate? I had no idea it could be made in the home shop / lab. Love to hear about how that works. It is difficult for individuals to buy small qty's of chemicals from chem supply firms nowadays here in Ontario. Got lots of salt, sugar, vinegar, washing soda, baking soda, lye (WC cleaner) and other grocery store bought chemicals though, and willingness to experiment!

  

[gerritv]

I will get the recipe, I recall at one of our last in-person HMEC meetings he was showing how well it worked.

BTW, I have a photo of my brother standing in front of 6127 in 1953 outside Quebec City (I think they were re-watering) This was our intro to Canada, Halifax to Toronto on wooden seats.

Gerrit

[cnr6400]

Thanks Gerrit!

Great to hear you saw 6127 up close when you arrived here. The 6100's were great engines. If you ever go to downtown Hogtown (Toronto) you can see 6128 at the John St roundhouse rail museum, and lots of other interesting rail - related artifacts. Before pandemic they had several live steam locomotives hauling guests too. May reopen that next year.

[awake]

Making Sodium Silicate - here is what the source of all knowledge (the internet) says:

    Wear proper safety gear, which includes gloves.
    Heat 4 to 8 grams of sodium hydroxide in 10 milliliters of water.
    Once the sodium hydroxide is dissolved, slowly add 6 grams of crushed silica gel beads. Heat the solution between additions. ...
    You now have sodium silicate or water glass.

Sodium hydroxide is lye, I thought - but maybe it can be bought in solid form and dissolved into water. I have to say, the above is a little too vague for my own comfort ...

[fidlstyks]

I have been baking cores with Linseed oil and shell core sand so long, I have forgotten what the recipe is to mix the water glass with the sand.

I have it in my mind 2%. But not sure and is that by volume or weight? I still have Co2 and dad had some of the waterglass-sodium silicate, and I need to be making cores soon. They have raised the price on the shell core till it costs so much. I think a 5 gallon bucket was like 20 dollars.

Question is what mixture do I use, and by volume or weight?

[A7er]

I hope this bit of info might help with bentonite and sodium silicate. When I first got into casting I bought mine from a local pottery materials supplier. I live in Illogan, a small village in Cornwall UK. It was more expensive than a foundry supplier, if you can find one willing to sell small amounts. When I needed some aluminium I contacted a foundry supplier who wanted to sell me 1000kg, I only wanted 20kg. We didn't do a deal!
Lee.

[dalem9]

I still have free Beninite. The border is now open.

[ddmckee54]

Might be some odd odours from the foundry.....

Having done projects at the John Deere foundry in Waterloo....
There's enough "ODD ODORS" in the air in a foundry that the smell of barbequed cat by-products probably wouldn't even be noticed.

Don