posted 12 years ago
The text from Wikipedia: Refractory use
Water glass is a useful binder of solids, such as vermiculite and perlite. When blended with the aforementioned lightweight aggregates, water glass can be used to make hard, high-temperature insulation boards used for refractories, passive fire protection and high temperature insulations, such as moulded pipe insulation applications. When mixed with finely divided mineral powders, such as vermiculite dust (which is common scrap from the exfoliation process), one can produce high temperature adhesives. The intumescence disappears in the presence of finely divided mineral dust, whereby the waterglass becomes a mere matrix. Waterglass is inexpensive and abundantly available, which makes its use popular in many refractory applications.
Hmmm. So this indicates that it might be possible to make a sweeping turn for the exhaust gasses as they exit the burn chamber - not necessarily a good thing but I may try it anyhow in one of my mockup stoves.. I'm planning on putting some thermocouples in various places as i do the test builds to see what is optimum design.
I agree, Alan, that this looks really promising. Thanks for your reply and patience with us noobs.
BTW D Smith i come from your neck of the woods, live in Virginia now but went to Clarkson and SUNY Potsdam!