Sooo, I've been a tad quiet on the forum for a while. I blame the 3d printer I got for a Christmas gift. I wanted to let you know that I'm alive and kicking, but distracted with the printer. Its an Anet A8, which means it comes barely able to print and needs a ton of modding and upgrading to get it to a reasonable level of printing. Still working out the bugs, looking forwards to printing in that wax filament. I might try make some rings or jewelry. In other news, I'm helping a preceptor of mine build a metal casting furnace during the weekends and teaching him and his son how to make things out of wax/make molds/etc. Pretty fun stuff! I'll probably throw up a new build thread showing the progress we are making starting this weekend. We will be making the burnout kiln as well. I may need a little advice since I was thinking for the burn out furnace it would be easier to use ceramic blanket + satanite. How long does the satanite last as a hotface?
To my understanding, the Satanite, ITC100 and the like are IR coatings. Meaning they only reflect heat from escaping the interior of the furnace. The CFB will keep the heat in within itself. Considering the extra cost I'd just spray the CFB down with rigidizer (colloidal silicate) to keep the loose fibers from going air borne. No pics of the printer? We love pics ya know.
Zap, My Satanite furnace is almost 4 years old and it looks almost the same as when new, just discoloration. My yearly average is around 30 to 40 days of use and 50 to 60 pots of Aluminum using propane. What you need to be careful with, don't apply the coating more than one or two layers thick on the lid. Gravity pulls it loose. The walls will take about 4 or 5 layers to build it to the recommended 1/4". Some of my walls are thicker than that.
http://www.hightemptools.com/refractorycoatings.html I bought 10 pounds for my propane cylinder sized furnace.
Just the Satanite. It gets rock hard, I don't know why everyone is down on this stuff. It makes a furnace build a one day affair. I am awaiting an A10 and when it gets here, a new furnace will be built around it with wool and Satanite. Here is the Faq for it. http://www.hightemptools.com/faq.html#Satanite I only let it cool down when I couldn't put my hand in to paint more on. Had the coating on in an hour or so. I mixed the first batch watery instead of spritzing the wool. I also didn't let it air dry, paint a thin layer on and fire up the burner. It changes color as it dries.
for aluminum temps i spray on a ceramic slip/h20 coating over the kaiwool it doesn't hold up well to impact abuse but in my crucible furnace that i use for drossing and degas it will last for about 40 to 50 hrs without re-coating. I buy 5 gallons of slip for 20.00. that will last for probably 30 or 40 coatings. the installation is the same as described by Fishbonzwv. Art B
