first attempt at making water glass

I bought some silica gel and 100% lye and made some water glass according to clkindred's video: 'Homemade sodium silicate (water glass)'.

200g of sodium hydroxide
300g of silica gel
500ml of water

When I had all the ingredients added and started stirring and heating it over a hot plate, I started thinking I was using the wrong type of silica gel because the silica gel consisted of little tiny balls of what appeared to be the kind of material that pills are coated with. I could not get them to dissolved. I kept crushing them with a fork. It started to form a film over the top and when I started to get the results described in the video, I put the contents in a 16 oz glass jar without the clumps of little round balls. I'm going to try this with some perlite, fire clay and furnace cement:

15 parts Perlite
2 parts fireclay
2 parts furnace cement (1/2 Gal)
1 part Water Glass (home made)
about 40oz of water was used throughout the process

and see how it turns out. I've attached some pictures of the water glass after I had it all dissolved.

I cast my own using a mix similar to yours, only I used mostly expanded silica. When I had to repair I painted with waterglass and smeared normal cement on top. I coated some sections of the burn chamber with it as well, to make it smooth. It's still holding up, but I have not burned it for very long..