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Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2016 3:17:46 GMT -8
5%-10% by weight of the pozzolan.
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Post by jimfritzmi on Sept 7, 2016 12:21:39 GMT -8
Isn't life interesting and full of surprises. I just secured a nearly limitless free supply of fly ash and the universe has thrown a wrinkle in my plans. Such is life. Is there anyone following this thread who can speak of materials native to Costa Rica which can be used for the creation of geopolymers. It seems I will be moving there soon and unfortunately, just as I started to begin my experiments with fly ash, I learned that I will soon be in a country where it is literally not available, at least without importing it from a foreign nation.
Anyway, I hope to hear from one of my fellow Costa Rican geopolymer enthusiasts, as I begin my research on what will be available to me. Also it looks as if I will be going down the road of not only trying to get a good mixture to use as a core for a batch burner, but also as a mixture to use for construction. (I hope that proves to be easier.) It doesn't seem from my initial inquiries that clay is going to be an issue. LOL
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Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2016 13:15:49 GMT -8
Costa Rica was created by volcanos,
thus there should be a huge lot of usable material.
Time will have eroded the volcanic material to sand and clay.
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Post by firewatcher on Sept 8, 2016 9:22:09 GMT -8
Today's been a slow day...I finally got the chance to reach out to 3 of the chemical suppliers (thanks again) for info on pricing for bulk quantities of sodium metasilicate. In addition, I've only been able to cast 1 new puck. It's basically the same recipe that I used before that worked really well, except in this test, I used some zeolite that I was FINALLY able to get powderized in the ball mill. I also made this test puck only 1 inch thick (about 25mm). We'll see how it goes when it's cured. If it's anything like the sample made with powderized perlite, it'll be great. In the meanwhile I'm going to do a little math and see how much geopolymer I would need to do a test run with the mix in a mold for a 6 inch j-tube (my goal is to mold a batch box, but the j-tube is much quicker and easier to build the mold for. Update: I've had no luck finding anyone to sell "bulk" sodium metasilicate to me. One supplier even told me that it was illegal to ship it to a residence. The detergant manufacturers who use it told me that they do not sell individual "ingredients". Looks like I'm at my lowest price point with the Red Devil product. |
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Post by jimfritzmi on Sept 8, 2016 12:07:42 GMT -8
Update: I've had no luck finding anyone to sell "bulk" sodium metasilicate to me. One supplier even told me that it was illegal to ship it to a residence. The detergant manufacturers who use it told me that they do not sell individual "ingredients". Looks like I'm at my lowest price point with the Red Devil product. How much are you looking for? I got a 30 pound bag of 99% pure Sodium Metasilicate Pentahydrate for $60 w/free shipping. To get it much cheaper you are going to have to buy a much larger quantity I believe. Is it maybe where you live or do you want to purchase it by the ton? Or, is it I got the wrong thing and we need Sodium Metasilicate Anhydrous... |
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Post by firewatcher on Sept 8, 2016 12:38:25 GMT -8
Update: I've had no luck finding anyone to sell "bulk" sodium metasilicate to me. One supplier even told me that it was illegal to ship it to a residence. The detergant manufacturers who use it told me that they do not sell individual "ingredients". Looks like I'm at my lowest price point with the Red Devil product. How much are you looking for? I got a 30 pound bag of 99% pure Sodium Metasilicate Pentahydrate for $60 w/free shipping. To get it much cheaper you are going to have to buy a much larger quantity I believe. Is it maybe where you live or do you want to purchase it by the ton? Or, is it I got the wrong thing and we need Sodium Metasilicate Anhydrous... Jimfritzmi, That's a better price per pound than the Red Devil product by about $1.50/pound. Where did you find it with free shipping? |
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Post by jimfritzmi on Sept 8, 2016 13:24:31 GMT -8
I was going to buy it a local supplier and then found this on eBay. So I take it the Pentahydrate variety will work? Ugh... I'm going to miss the ease of finding what I need and the shipping. However, not enough to keep me from moving to Costa Rica. In fact I'm quite excited as I have found local suppliers for everything needed to recreate Davidovits’ pyramid limestone mix. I am very excited about that. |
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Post by firewatcher on Sept 8, 2016 14:29:09 GMT -8
The Red Devil cleaner is sodium metasilicate pentahydrate. Karl suggested using that when I was looking for a cheaper option to buying the sodium hydroxide and silica gel and mixing it up a batch at a time. So not only is it cheaper than making it from base components, it's much less labor intensive as well...thanks again Karl!  |
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Post by firewatcher on Sept 8, 2016 16:41:44 GMT -8
Just cast 2 more pucks to do a side-by-side comparison of the results...the only difference is that one uses perlite as the pozzolan and the other uses zeolite as the pozzolan.  |
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Post by jimfritzmi on Sept 8, 2016 16:41:48 GMT -8
That's awesome. Are you some place that you can get it shipped to you from eBay?
30 pounds should make a good amount when in solution. LOL
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Post by firewatcher on Sept 8, 2016 16:46:48 GMT -8
That's awesome. Are you some place that you can get it shipped to you from eBay? 30 pounds should make a good amount when in solution. LOL I'm in South East Michigan, so it shouldn't be an issue getting it shipped here (you're on the West side of the state right?). Thanks for the info on the less expensive waterglass! It will help to reduce the price of my mix. |
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Post by firewatcher on Sept 8, 2016 18:11:05 GMT -8
That's awesome. Are you some place that you can get it shipped to you from eBay? 30 pounds should make a good amount when in solution. LOL If my math is right, 30 pounds should make about 10.8 gallons. In the proportions that i've been using it in test mixes, this should allow me to make around 2 cubic feet of geopolymer. Although, the waterglass that I've been using to date has been the single batch mixes of lye and silica gel with concentrations of 500g solids per liter of water, so we'll see how I fare with my latest two pucks where I used 330g sodium metasilicate per liter of water concentration. |
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Post by firewatcher on Sept 10, 2016 7:21:41 GMT -8
I hope that the link works for everyone...contents show the results of my Perlite vs. Zeolite side-by-side test pictorially. All pictures with the two pucks in them, the perlite puck was on the left and the zeolite puck was on the right. hopefully everything shows chronologically, as I've included pictures in the "just cast" condition...24 hours after casting...after 5 hours of "camp fire" curing...and cross-section view. Since there is no way to tell via the drop box pics which puck in the pics of the individual ones is which, I'm also including them here with identification. Here's a drop box link (let me know if it doesn't work please) www.dropbox.com/sh/ei8zozl5n50ovis/AABlX7HcvWahQE0MQLHJrsC8a?dl=0This is the perlite puck...  This is the zeolite puck...  A couple of notes on the process: When creating the mixtures, the zeolite one was much more liquid At 24 hours ambient cure, the perlite mix was more firm and appeared to have dried out a little more (evidenced by the white color of the puck compared to the zeolite one) Both pucks developed a large "bubble" on the surface which was the top of the mold in the first hour of heat curing in the fire (I broke it away while in the fire...you can see this in the pics). Inspection of the pucks after 5 hours of "camp fire" curing showed no signs of cracks. I left the pucks on top of the large hot coal bed overnight, but at some point, it rained...wondering if this is what may have caused the cracking. I was unable to break the perlite puck by hand when attempting to do so perpendicular to the developed crack. I was only able to break it along the existing developed crack. The zeolite puck was fairly easy to break...in the plane perpendicar to the existing developed crack. Just to have the information in this same post, the recipes used for both pucks were identical except for the use of perlite as the pozzolan vs. the use of zeolite as the pozzolan. |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 10, 2016 9:45:20 GMT -8
Looks quite good.
If the pozzolan is fine enough such a mixture can become pretty hard and strong.
Could you do a reverse side test ?
At the moment I am trying to recreate a recipe for bricks or stamp mass
similar to the recipe for LTGS bricks.
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Post by firewatcher on Sept 10, 2016 10:17:58 GMT -8
Looks quite good. If the pozzolan is fine enough such a mixture can become pretty hard and strong. Could you do a reverse side test ? At the moment I am trying to recreate a recipe for bricks or stamp mass similar to the recipe for LTGS bricks. Just completed the test...10 minutes of MAPP gas torch and I was unable to place my hand on the opposite side. These were 1 inch (25mm) thick test pucks. |
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