Refractory Cement

[sanlucas]

Hi, I want to build my first oven and after reading a lot of threads here I have decided to go the castable way. I found a company that is selling me Refractory Cement called Plicast KL 3000KK here in miami and they sent me the data sheet, can anybody tell me if this would work?

thanks.

[dmun]

I don't open mystery zip files. Maybe you could do a scan, a page grab, or a PDF?

[sanlucas]

Sorry I changed it to .pdf

[Johnny the oven man]

Seems a bit of an overkill, 3000f grade is a bit high, look around for a lower temp grade, say about 1300c. You will save a bit of money.

[azpizzanut]

Hello sanlucas,

It certainly looks like it would suffice for a cast component, maybe more than what you need, too. The companies that make castable refractory usually have four or more grades with various qualities. You don't need much extreme for a pizza oven so the abrasion and high heat resistance qualities are not so important. You're not making a refining kiln, it's a pizza oven with a maximum working temp of less than 1500 deg F. Low duty castable refractory should work fine.

Avoid confusion with terminology of products. Use a castable refractory if you want the end component to hold heat like it were a fire brick and an insulating castable refractory if you want to hold in heat or insulate such as an application where you would use an alternative such as perlite or vermiculite. An insulating castable refractory is often placed in layers over a cast refractory product. Think insulation placed over a heat holding component. Perlcrete or vermicrete placed over fire brick. You will need both castable refractory and an insulating castable refractory product for your oven. You can easily make the insulating refractory yourself from vermiculite or Perlite and Portland cement.

Best wishes,

[sanlucas]

Thanks I will call the company tomorrow to check if the have something cheaper, they are selling me that one for $37, Is that ok? how many I'll need? 12 maybe?

[Johnny the oven man]

Quantity depends on oven diam/thickness, but about 15 bags for a meter internal diameter is the norm.

[azpizzanut]

sanlucas,

Johnny makes a good point. You should know how many bags you need before starting your project. Buy a few extra and make arrangements to return the balance if they are not needed. Here is a link to someone using castable refractory in a form. Good information. YouTube - castable refractory concrete #2

Cheers,

[sanlucas]

Thanks for the help, I have some drawing of the oven I'll post later so you can give me your opinion because I planning on building a metal stand.