Thank you for this video! I tried to make a ball mill with junk pieces & bearings and nails, lying around, tried hammering, I just tried crushing with stone in my workshop (I did not want to trash my kitchen mortar & pestel), it worked best so far, but not energy efficientwise. Thought hey, internet is there!! And found your vid. Tomorow, Walmart and aquisition of a cheap blender. Cheers!
I had completely forgotten about using a blender for grinding bentonite. 😮😮😮 however, I will be investigating this when I can get my foundry set up. Thanks for reminding me of this. 😊😊😊
This is sooo much easier than what I did! After realizing crushing it w/ a hammer was insane, I weighed out the amount I needed (3lbs for 30lbs green sand), put the clumping litter in a small trash can and added h2o while stirring to make a pancake-like slurry. ( It gets viciously thick very quickly, so you're better off starting with 1/3 litter and more water, then adding litter and water as you go.) Then I spread out a bunch of 6mil plastic sheeting on the driveway in the sun and smeared the slurry on it. It took two days to dry but it was nice flaky stuff that I can crush up by hand. Like I said your idea was way better! Thanks for posting this.
Glad to see you are back. I watch your videos just for the entertainment value. I am 79, retried US Army and lastly police. I know the feeling when you say, it seems like it's one thing or another . Two years ago it was prostrate cancer and last year it was open heart surgery and a couple of months ago it was gall bladder removal. I just have to stay out of the hospital because this old body is finding it more difficult to recover. Now when I hear the doorbell, I look out the window to see who is there. Lately it's been that guy dressed in a dark cloak carrying a scythe over his shoulder and beckons to me with that bony finger. I yelled at him through the window, and told him I gave at the office. He muttered something, OK funny guy, I'll be back. I sure have spent a lot of time in hospital since and including Vietnam 2 purple hearts. Lucky for me I have a very loving supportive wife and family. SO ! hope you are well and all your medical problems are in the past. I enjoy your videos and look forward to more......Take care, Ken ...Marina CA.
thanks for the advice buddy I'm going to utilize this process in healing a wound in a pecan tree by adding whitewash copper sulfate and in that clay powder
im into recycling in a big way ,this is great!! i gonna do this once the cats are done with the litter thin ill grind the lot up and make some of this to try!!
This morning your channel came to mind, and I realized I hadn't seen anything for a while. I got on UA-cam to make sure that I had notifications for your channel turned on, but I had indeed already turned that on. So I looked through your list of videos and saw that the reason I hadn't seen anything new was that there hadn't been anything new for a while. But then I saw this video, and was quick to watch it. Sorry to hear of the various trials and tribulation, but it's very good to see you (and Dana) back. It's interesting to see that the backyard foundry really is gaining popularity. I had already decided to give it a try, and I'm partway through building my first foundry using a refractory mix that is essentially the same as this Bentonite-based greensand. I am fortunate in that there is a sizable population of people working in ceramics and pottery near where I live, and so there is a store selling supplies for this art. I bought a 50 pound bag of extremely fine and uniform fireclay from this store, but it was a little pricey. Your method certainly seems to produce a very similar quality product and probably at a fraction of the cost for what I paid. Anyway, I hope you can get fully back into the swing of things, and especially making videos of your projects.
Thank you for helping keep this kind of tinkering and smithing going. I have a couple little tips, its easier to grind up things like cat litter with a garbage disposal mounted over a trashcan, and I've forgotten the rest...maybe a rotary pestle to grind
GREAT to see you back, Jeff. Don't remember if I told you, but my wife really loved the rose you and Dana made for our 50th Wedding Anniversary. Sorry to hear about your health problems. I am still recovering from my open heart surgery I had in January so haven't been making any videos myself either. No stamina. I hope your recovery keeps on progressing and looking for more videos from you both. Thanks for sharing.
Great to see you back and good to know your on the mend, I had 18 months off work from a fall in 2014 and only last year got back on my feet so know you can do it and keep making the great vids we all enjoy and learn from.
Good to see you back. Tried crushing cat litter with various methods, to no avail. Will look out for a cheep blender, as this seems to work well. Thank you for the tip, try to get things back on track, as soon as you can.
You can buy powdered bentonite clay for pretty cheap at most farm/gardening stores. It’s about 3x the cost of kitty litter, but it saves days of grinding + cost of a grinder.
Oh and btw if you have nothing and --don't care about efficiency--, you could also get some fine powder through water extraction. Cat litter has very fine particles already - that dissolve very easily, and coarse large particles. You just mix (thoroughly) cat litter with a large amount of water, let it sit, then pour the liquid from the top, being careful to not disturb the coarser particles at the bottom. Then repeat the same procedure again with the bentonite/water mixture you poured, because some coarse particles inevitably find their way in. After that, just heat it until it starts evaporating and drying and you should get sufficiently fine powder. Well it WILL clump up but it's fine and you can just use a right amount of water to make clay out of it.
Let me just say thank you sir. I bought 109 lbs of Kitty litter to do some foam casting for my business and was wondering how I was going to turn it into a much manageable form without making a mess.
We are doing well, thanks for asking... Much of the shop is in storage as we are looking to move. Covid took a huge chunk of progress away from that. Once we get a new location we're going to create a new channel and build it from the ground up. Kind of a "phase II" of sorts.
fyi I got same kitty litter n the ingredient is fuller's earth not bentonite clay. I use it for face mask and is a good clay mask. both bentonite n fuller's earth clay r very smiliar.
For those saying this cat litter is "fuller earth" and not bentonite clay... will a blender also create a powder like this from cat litter that is bentonite clay??
I do pretty much the same thing except that I use a coffee grinder. works great. Unfortunately, the kitty litter choice you picked as far as I am aware of is not made of Bentonite but Fullers Earth.
yes u r right I use same bag n coffe grinder to make in power for my face mask. I just told him too. but for mask bentonite n fuller's earth r quit smiliar but am not sure for other use.
Scott Somebody well I just ordered a 50 lb bag of fine bentonite from a online clays store for 3.50 plus shipping around 12 bucks and no processing straight up powder!
I've tried that brand before. It is not bentonite clay. It takes a lot more to make green sand that binds together than real bentonite clay. It's fullers earth. The test is getting a clear cup and put the raw unground litter inside and pour water on top. This litter the water just runs through and real bentonite would barely go through then it would make a tight plug of clay on top while the rest underneath would be dry.
Depends on how often you use it. I cast several times a month and as long as the moisture level is correct, I replaced it once since I made this video and that was because the lid was not on tight and a colony of ants moved in.
I laughed so hard this is the cat litter that we use in my shelter everyday. For those that aren't squeamish you can also recycle used cat litter for this process just don't use the blender for food after that
A cheap sifter or collander from the dollar store will help strain out the unpowdered bits. Cheap face masks might be a good idea to keep dust out of the lungs. Used cat litter can be had for free but I don't recommend it.
Thank you for this video! I tried to make a ball mill with junk pieces & bearings and nails, lying around, tried hammering, I just tried crushing with stone in my workshop (I did not want to trash my kitchen mortar & pestel), it worked best so far, but not energy efficientwise. Thought hey, internet is there!! And found your vid. Tomorow, Walmart and aquisition of a cheap blender. Cheers!
I had completely forgotten about using a blender for grinding bentonite. 😮😮😮 however, I will be investigating this when I can get my foundry set up. Thanks for reminding me of this. 😊😊😊
This is sooo much easier than what I did! After realizing crushing it w/ a hammer was insane, I weighed out the amount I needed (3lbs for 30lbs green sand), put the clumping litter in a small trash can and added h2o while stirring to make a pancake-like slurry. ( It gets viciously thick very quickly, so you're better off starting with 1/3 litter and more water, then adding litter and water as you go.)
Then I spread out a bunch of 6mil plastic sheeting on the driveway in the sun and smeared the slurry on it. It took two days to dry but it was nice flaky stuff that I can crush up by hand. Like I said your idea was way better! Thanks for posting this.
Glad to see you are back. I watch your videos just for the entertainment value. I am 79, retried US Army and lastly police. I know the feeling when you say, it seems like it's one thing or another . Two years ago it was prostrate cancer and last year it was open heart surgery and a couple of months ago it was gall bladder removal. I just have to stay out of the hospital because this old body is finding it more difficult to recover. Now when I hear the doorbell, I look out the window to see who is there. Lately it's been that guy dressed in a dark cloak carrying a scythe over his shoulder and beckons to me with that bony finger. I yelled at him through the window, and told him I gave at the office. He muttered something, OK funny guy, I'll be back. I sure have spent a lot of time in hospital since and including Vietnam 2 purple hearts. Lucky for me I have a very loving supportive wife and family. SO ! hope you are well and all your medical problems are in the past. I enjoy your videos and look forward to more......Take care, Ken ...Marina CA.
Love your spirit... keep rocking!
thanks for the advice buddy I'm going to utilize this process in healing a wound in a pecan tree by adding whitewash copper sulfate and in that clay powder
I did the very same thing but I used the cat litter clay and mixed it with my cement mortar when I built my brick pizza oven
im into recycling in a big way ,this is great!! i gonna do this once the cats are done with the litter thin ill grind the lot up and make some of this to try!!
This morning your channel came to mind, and I realized I hadn't seen anything for a while. I got on UA-cam to make sure that I had notifications for your channel turned on, but I had indeed already turned that on. So I looked through your list of videos and saw that the reason I hadn't seen anything new was that there hadn't been anything new for a while. But then I saw this video, and was quick to watch it. Sorry to hear of the various trials and tribulation, but it's very good to see you (and Dana) back. It's interesting to see that the backyard foundry really is gaining popularity. I had already decided to give it a try, and I'm partway through building my first foundry using a refractory mix that is essentially the same as this Bentonite-based greensand. I am fortunate in that there is a sizable population of people working in ceramics and pottery near where I live, and so there is a store selling supplies for this art. I bought a 50 pound bag of extremely fine and uniform fireclay from this store, but it was a little pricey. Your method certainly seems to produce a very similar quality product and probably at a fraction of the cost for what I paid. Anyway, I hope you can get fully back into the swing of things, and especially making videos of your projects.
I’m getting a blender tomorrow, have been thinking of any amount of complicated contraptions, glad I haven’t started any.
..Ingenious Idea Jeff!!! Take your time and Heal up...!
Thank you for helping keep this kind of tinkering and smithing going. I have a couple little tips, its easier to grind up things like cat litter with a garbage disposal mounted over a trashcan, and I've forgotten the rest...maybe a rotary pestle to grind
Glad to see you are back on!
GREAT to see you back, Jeff. Don't remember if I told you, but my wife really loved the rose you and Dana made for our 50th Wedding Anniversary. Sorry to hear about your health problems. I am still recovering from my open heart surgery I had in January so haven't been making any videos myself either. No stamina. I hope your recovery keeps on progressing and looking for more videos from you both. Thanks for sharing.
The best yet. i ll do that for sure!! Thant you.
Great to see you back and good to know your on the mend, I had 18 months off work from a fall in 2014 and only last year got back on my feet so know you can do it and keep making the great vids we all enjoy and learn from.
Good to see you back. Tried crushing cat litter with various methods, to no avail. Will look out for a cheep blender, as this seems to work well. Thank you for the tip, try to get things back on track, as soon as you can.
Happy to have you back mate,missed you. Hope that everything is on the up for you now.
Brilliant. I'm about to make my first clay forge so needed a method to extract clear from the litter.
Cheers 👍
You can buy powdered bentonite clay for pretty cheap at most farm/gardening stores. It’s about 3x the cost of kitty litter, but it saves days of grinding + cost of a grinder.
Thank you. I hope you are doing better.
Oh and btw if you have nothing and --don't care about efficiency--, you could also get some fine powder through water extraction.
Cat litter has very fine particles already - that dissolve very easily, and coarse large particles.
You just mix (thoroughly) cat litter with a large amount of water, let it sit, then pour the liquid from the top, being careful to not disturb the coarser particles at the bottom.
Then repeat the same procedure again with the bentonite/water mixture you poured, because some coarse particles inevitably find their way in.
After that, just heat it until it starts evaporating and drying and you should get sufficiently fine powder. Well it WILL clump up but it's fine and you can just use a right amount of water to make clay out of it.
Let me just say thank you sir. I bought 109 lbs of Kitty litter to do some foam casting for my business and was wondering how I was going to turn it into a much manageable form without making a mess.
Yep, this is how I grind up some resins to create incense💛💛💛
Genius
Will it blend?
how many time can we use the same bentonite casting mold
thanks
Great video Jeff, is what I needed, how are you guys doing?
We are doing well, thanks for asking... Much of the shop is in storage as we are looking to move. Covid took a huge chunk of progress away from that. Once we get a new location we're going to create a new channel and build it from the ground up. Kind of a "phase II" of sorts.
She's giving you terminator eyes.. At least that is what my husband calls it. :)
Great stuff Very helpful Phill UK
is that by weight or volume?
fyi I got same kitty litter n the ingredient is fuller's earth not bentonite clay. I use it for face mask and is a good clay mask. both bentonite n fuller's earth clay r very smiliar.
Doesn’t the contacting of the metal blades render the beneficial properties of the bentonite clay null?
Are you planning some casting?
Wish I was closer. Glad you are back! Take it easy.
For those saying this cat litter is "fuller earth" and not bentonite clay... will a blender also create a powder like this from cat litter that is bentonite clay??
Don't the blades get dull - really fast?
Not really, a hammer mill does not have blades. Think of it more as pulverizing it into powder rather than cutting the material.
Thank you so much
I do pretty much the same thing except that I use a coffee grinder. works great.
Unfortunately, the kitty litter choice you picked as far as I am aware of is not made of Bentonite but Fullers Earth.
yes u r right I use same bag n coffe grinder to make in power for my face mask. I just told him too. but for mask bentonite n fuller's earth r quit smiliar but am not sure for other use.
Scott Somebody so what brands have it?
The kind i get is the cheapo "special kitty" brand. Straight bentonite clay. Got it at walmart. Just a few bucks.
Scott Somebody well I just ordered a 50 lb bag of fine bentonite from a online clays store for 3.50 plus shipping around 12 bucks and no processing straight up powder!
@@zachofalltrades1111 well thats just cheatin... Youre spozed to get satisfaction cramps from all that grinding...lol
Good job...:)
Could i mix this in with wax to make a buffing compound for knife stropping
I've tried that brand before. It is not bentonite clay. It takes a lot more to make green sand that binds together than real bentonite clay. It's fullers earth. The test is getting a clear cup and put the raw unground litter inside and pour water on top. This litter the water just runs through and real bentonite would barely go through then it would make a tight plug of clay on top while the rest underneath would be dry.
I.dont see and litters listing ing
Which would you recommend
Glad to see you are on the mend Jeff did Dana knock your front tooth out by any chance ? grin
Good to see you again, what a great idea, is the cat litter a 1 to 1 mix with the sand, cheers mate
Why you need to make it fine?
Any idea on how long the mixer will last?
Depends on how often you use it. I cast several times a month and as long as the moisture level is correct, I replaced it once since I made this video and that was because the lid was not on tight and a colony of ants moved in.
Geared for about 8 hours total run time. That’s the btm $ one. That may have changed from a few years ago when I got a new one.
I laughed so hard this is the cat litter that we use in my shelter everyday. For those that aren't squeamish you can also recycle used cat litter for this process just don't use the blender for food after that
Be Well
A cheap sifter or collander from the dollar store will help strain out the unpowdered bits. Cheap face masks might be a good idea to keep dust out of the lungs. Used cat litter can be had for free but I don't recommend it.
ExcrSlow.
Be very very careful not to breathe this stuff. It can kill you.
Great information, thank you!
You can now sell that to koi keepers for treble the price
Liquify??? You mean pulverize.