Hydrated Lime SA ?

[gianlucaf]

Hi all,
found a supplier in atlanta for Hydrated Lime, they have Graymont Lime type SA ,
here is link,
https://www.graymont.com/en/products...d-lime-type-sa
wondering if this will work for the home brew

having a hard time finding type S Or type N

[Gulf]

You didn't want type N anyway. From what I can see on the PDS, the SA is Type (S) with an additive for air entrainment (A) . It's above my paygrade, but I bet it is the industrial answer to the old bricklayer trick of adding Tide or Cheer (detergent) to each batch of mortar. My vote is that it will work just fine for you.

[gianlucaf]

Thank you gulf .. found it at a masonry and stucco supply house.
been calling masonry places and they do not seem to carry any type of lime.
sand and Portland should be no problem, fire clay should be able to get it at pottery supplies.
been trying to find hydrated lime for few weeks now.

[Gulf]

Down here, some of the farm stores sell Type S hydrated lime. It is used to control insects near barns and feed lots. A lot of the brick yards that used to sell fireclay and lime are no longer selling them. They can make more money off of Heat Stop and other expensive Calcium Aluminate refreactory cements.

I bought 2 bags of fireclay a couple of weeks ago from an Acme brick yard in Mobile, Alabama. The sales person there told me that they would also quit stocking it. The fireclay that I bought was from Superior Clay out of Ohio. You may want to check out some of the Acme Brick loacations in your area.

I agree that the sand should not be a problem to find. But, you may want to get an old window screen and sieve a little of it to see just how large some of the aggregate is. Anything that can't go through a window screen has no place being in a refractory mortar imo. The sand that can pass through the screen is usable.

[gianlucaf]

Great info,, thank you so much. I’ll try farm supply places and acme brick.
thanks for the screen sieve tip, I did not know . Obviously my first time using this home brew.
i caste my oven in 4 pieces out of refractory cement and using the home brew to join the pieces together .
any other tip you may have for this application is very welcomed,

[Gulf]

You are way past my paygrade now. david s will be a much better source. However, I can't help but wonder why you are going with homebrew at this stage? For such a small amount of mortar, you are having to source a lot of bulk material.

[david s]

If you have a fair amount of castable refractory left over, you could try sieving the course aggregate out of it and use that as your mortar.

[gianlucaf]

I do, I have plenty , but I read somewhere that you don’t want to use same refractory material because it is same hardness and will not allow for expansion like a softer material and it may crack .
your thoughts ?

[david s]

If you want to make it a little weaker than the castings, then replace the same volume, or a little more, of aggregate removed with fine sand.

[gianlucaf]

Gotcha, thank you, just saved me a bunch of time and money.
much appreciated