proprietary castable refractory

[jersey bob souvlaki]

Hi. I tried finding proprietary castable refractory here in Greece before going the home brew route. The place I bought my firebricks directed me to a place that manufactures brick wood fired ovens. I asked them about cement that I could use to mold my oven without bricks. They showed me a bag of cement that they said was for high temperatures. Pic below. When I searched for what was written on the bag, I got here: https://www.cimsa.com.tr/en/products...e-cement/i-280
None of the products on that page seemed to match the bag I saw. Anybody have an idea if what I saw would be suitable to cast an oven from? thanks, bob.

[jonv]

I think so. Looks like a calcium aluminate cement - with suitable aggregates should be good for around 1250C! If you haven't worked with aluminate cements before, it's worth reading up on them as their properties are quite different from portland cement.

Some of the differences: They achieve their peak strength in a day or two but then weaken over time until their long term strength is achieved. They can be heated a couple of days after laying. In theory one has to be careful not to add too much water as this will weaken the bond. It sets up really quick so you have little time to work with it; can't easily be done in a mixer as it takes too long to mix properly. Best mixed up in small batches. Lime, used in the homebrew, should not be added to aluminate cement - it makes it set even faster - hence its use in rapid set cements.

I don't know much about casting but I used aluminate cement for my build instead of the homebrew mortar. It was quite tricky until I got used to it! I found I needed rather more water than should have been used, according to the specs; no idea yet what the effects of this will be - looks ok so far...

I expect one of the experts on here will be able to help you with specific details of using this for casting.

[jersey bob souvlaki]

This was probably a stupid question. No way for anyone to know without seeing the data sheet for the product I saw. Besides that business was making brick ovens and would probably only have refractory mortar for the bricks not anything suitable for casting. This mortar https://www.isomat.gr/wp-content/upl...at-ak-fire.pdf is easy to find here. And looks like it has close to the density david s recommends. I just can't find out if the thermal conductivity would work for casting.

[jonv]

Not stupid at all... The product you showed in your first post is just cement, not mortar; but unless I am mistaken it is suitable, with appropriate aggregates and other additions, for formulating a refractory mortar or castable.

As for the suitability of the mortar you mentioned in your second post for casting, its probably better to wait for input from one of the experienced casters I think.

[jersey bob souvlaki]

Finally found castable refractory cement in Greece. http://mathios.com/ has locations in Athens and Thessaloniki. Mat 42 is what they recommended and sold to me.

[david s]

Finally found castable refractory cement in Greece. http://mathios.com/ has locations in Athens and Thessaloniki. Mat 42 is what they recommended and sold to me.

I couldn't find mat 42 on their website, but make sure it is dense castable (green bag)

[UtahBeehiver]

David,

In my snooping around I found some info on this product but you are the most familiar with dense castable refractory so I will let you comment of suitability.

[david s]

Yes, that product is suitable. Good digging Russell.