Major Score, but what to use it for.

JTknives

JTknives

Joined
Jun 11, 2006
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well i went up to my surplus store to pick up my stanless steel motor and new fan but i guess i have to pay 24hrs in advance so i have to drive back up tmarow. so any way i started looking around as i cant go there with out buying somthing so i checked out the chemical section and stuffed under the shelf was a small plastic drum and i was like i want that for a quench tank its perfect size. but it had somthing in it so i looked at it and it was Silica Gel 60, which is like the drying stuff you find in little packets in boxes of electronic stuff i guess. so thy wanted $9.99 for it and i was like heck i can find a use for it. well i just got home and looked it up on line and for 5KG of this stuff it sells for $570.00 and i have 25KG:eek:. so now what do i do with it. i checked and it has a melting temp of 3110f and i was thinking about using it to stick my hot blades in to let cool. but it looks to be very expensive stuff. would it even work for anealing and sterss releaving. here is som pictures.

here is a page about its property's
http://www.sciencestuff.com/msds/C2465.html

and this is where its sold
http://store.galladechem.com/shared...ucts.asp&utm_medium=cse&utm_source=googlebase

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Don't eat it!!!

Maybe you could throw some of it with your tools to keep them from rusting, or you can use it as cat litter!
 
I keep a few bags of that stuff in my gun safes to keep the moisture down. Should work for knife storage as well.

Seems like I remember someone on the forum here talking about putting wood slabs in a jar of that stuff to draw moisture out before using the scales on knives.

I wish I had a surplus place like yours near here!! Heckuva find there.

SDS
 
from what i have been searching on the net it look like its a very good insullator. its like around 1BTU/sq ft / hr/ F /in where i think forge refractory is like 3- 5 BTU/sq ft / hr/ F /in .
 
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I am really really wanting to try and use it as a cast refractory. it is very light. the Kast-O-lite 30 has a Density = 90 lb/ft^3 and this stuff is 28.09 lb/ft^3 and the Kast-O-lite 30 has a thermal conductivity of 4.54 btu-in/hr-F-ft^2 where this stuff is at 1 btu-in/hr-F-ft^2. now if i could find a binder that would handle 3000f temps i could mix up a batch and try it out. the problem is that this stuff is used in labs for tests and how many labs are going to buy there chemicals off ebay. i would guess thy have to know its pure on not been messed with.
 
I buy my salt petre off ebay. (: you could also try to take it back to the original seller. ie the company that sells it.
 
I think a big bucket of this would make the ultimate sleeping bag :D
3000 posts! I was going to make a post but I have nothing to give away haha
 
Keith_H said:
I think a big bucket of this would make the ultimate sleeping bag :D
3000 posts! I was going to make a post but I have nothing to give away haha
Click to expand...

ya intel it sucks up all the water from the ground and makes you cold :D
 
There are probably others selling that desiccant on eBay. You could always check it out and see what kind of action there is and prices are being gotten.

On the other hand, you have a significant amount of some excellent desiccant. Dehydrating handle materials is the first thing that comes to mind. It would probably be an excellent way to keep the material dehydrated anyway. Put all your natural handle material (woods, antler, stag, etc) in a closet along with a bucket of that stuff and everything should stay nice and dry!
 
When I built my forge I mixed in perlite with the refractory cement, maybe you could do a mix with the cement.

How about Satanite, ITC-100, fireclay...
 
You may not want to have refractory with a strong tendency to absorb water from the air. Each time you fire up the forge, you would need to drive off all of the absorbed water first. this may effect the dimensional and mechanical stability of your refractory. Just a thought. -Doug
 
Who knows what it gives off too even though it can resist those temperatures who's to say it doesn't give off poison gas/vapors, try and find the MSDS for it. Another instance of "nice score but what the heck are you going to do with it?"
 
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