[Gasification] Rockwool and Kaowool

[drew]

I use both for different jobs   Kaowool I get most cheaply from a 
roofing supplier (steels industrial products in Victoria B.C.), not as a 
blanket but as "loose" fill.    This is used to seal around holes in 
roof decks where pipes ect stick out before the tar is applied.    It 
costs 1/4 as much when you buy it as loose fill than as a blanket (I 
think it is realy "scrap" from thier manufacturing line).    Rockwool I 
buy from greenhouse supply stores where compressed blocks of it are used 
as a growing medium both for starting seeds, and for hydroponic 
growing.    Both products are best used with a liberal dose of sodium 
silicate to solidify them and contain the dust.   Another product called 
ITC 400 is very worthwhile as a coating as it is a highly refractive 
surface.    I have had the best luck with furnaces by sculpting them out 
of wet kaowool (gets a lot like very fiberous papermache) then putting a 
surface of  Greenpatch (by AP Green, another highly reflective very 
tough coating).     One of the products I have used from AP Green is a 
patching compound for furnaces that contains probly 30% (by volume) 
ceramic chips, about 1/4 to 3/8 inch.    These are stuck to surfaces by 
the patching compound and make a huge differance in the radiant surface 
area of the furnace, and radicaly increasing the radiant heat 
transfer.   They also seem to be indestructable, very tough little chips.  

For my own use I have found the best insulation to be mixture of perlite 
(3parts) sand (1part) and fireclay (lincon county 1part)   This makes a 
mixture that is quite tough (I have used it to make many bricks) very 
resistant to thermal shock (my primary forge heats to orange (color of 
steel placed inside) from cold in 15 minutes and commercial bricks crack 
1st firing and continue cracking on subsiquent firings untill they are 
just about dust.    The outside temperature of my bricks and the 
comercial refractory bricks seem very close so I belive my bricks are 
equivelent in insulation.    I realy should coat some of my bricks with 
ITC but ran out a few years ago and haven't gotten around to getting 
more.   Most blacksmiths find coating thier forges with ITC gives at 
least a 20% faster warm up time, and close to a 50% savings in propane.

I am not following this listserv to much right now as my other work is 
taking all my time, best to send any questions to me directly, as well 
as the list.

All the Best
Drew

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