Cat Litter Recommendation

[richardandtracyParticipant @richardandtracy]

I wonder if someone could recommend a cat litter brand for me.

Sounds an odd request, I know, but next week I plan to do some aluminium casting and I need to temper the sand I have to do so. The brick clay that was under our garden in the 19th century was worked out making the bricks for our house, so I have to buy the clay. I need a small amount, 2.5kg/5lb, so it's not worth buying a material designed for casting, and as I have 4 cats that won't use a wet garden for their toilet facilities, it could be dual use material. It also appears that some cat litters are 100% clay.

We do have some ASDA 'Smart Price' clay cat litter, but it seems to be about 50% gravel and separating the clay when dry is a almost impossible, and washing it will leave me with clay sludge that'll be too wet to use next week.

So, back to the nub of the question, can anyone recommend a cat litter that is suitable for use in greensand casting?

Regards

Richard.

[richardandtracyParticipant @richardandtracy]

[Speedy Builder5Participant @speedybuilder5]

Can't help, but I used cat litter when my 2CV car dumped 22 litres of fuel on the gravel beside our house. Its built of stone, no DPC and the fuel seeped into the house. I "dried" it out by excavating by the side of the house and use cat litter to soak up the fuel over a period of about a month. The wife wasn't too pleased about the car being allowed back on the driveway afterwards !!!
BobH

[Brian Sweeting 2Participant @briansweeting2]

Never thought what the litter was made of when our cat used it but I see that Wilkos do a fullers earth so might be worth a try.

[richardandtracyParticipant @richardandtracy]

Brian, thanks. That one would probably be suitable. I'll give it a try.

BobH, not fun. What happened? Did the tank split? Our Charleston's in the garage, and we'll get it roadworthy again one day(I hope), and any failure modes are always of interest.

Regards

Richard.

[colin wilkinsonParticipant @colinwilkinson75381]

Quite some discussion on aquarists forums on using laterite as a substrate, but this was was one recommendation

https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/265235247.

Colin

[norman valentineParticipant @normanvalentine78682]

Lidl sell a Fullers earth cat litter, it comes in a blue bag. It is very cheap but you will need to grind it up in a coffee grinder to make it usable.

[Gordon WParticipant @gordonw]

I tried grinding fullers earth type cat litter in a coffee grinder but had little success. May be my coffee grinder is a bit peely wally , its the cheapo blade type and not a grinder as such.

[Simon Williams 3Participant @simonwilliams3]

Good morning All, can't let this go unchallenged.

There is very good evidence to suggest that clay based cat litters are the cause of DEATH in cats, particularly young kittens. The clumping clay based litters can cause internal blockages in the intestines of the animal, as they clean residue or particles off their paws etc. Would you want to eat the stuff? Let alone breathe particles of it…..

Google will elaborate with the gruesome details.

Don't know owt about casting materials, but cat litter seems to be based on bentonite. Is this the right mineral to give the casting sand the properties it needs?

[Andrew TinsleyParticipant @andrewtinsley63637]

Catsan is about the best cat litter I have used. Don't quote me but I believe it to be Fullers earth. You will have to grind it up if you want to use it for casting purposes.

I don't have a clue if it suitable for casting, but my cats love it!

Andrew.

[Rick Kirkland 1Participant @rickkirkland1]

ALL clay based cat litters are Bentonite, which is a colloidal Kaolin. The stuff from casting material or craft pottery suppliers is the powdered version. The cat litter is nothing more than granulated Bentonite which needs milling to reduce the granular size. I use the cheapo Tesco stuff in the green bags. I soak it in water and mix it up to a slurry and then put it through a 60 mesh sieve. I then blend the slurry into the dry sand, but my sand is always prepared well in advance. If you want instant results buy the powdered stuff. Try Castree Kilns in Wales, but not John Winter as Winters prices are somewhat ridiculous in my opinion. Myford Boy also reccomends a foundry supply place in his videos but I don't recall the name.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

The cheap stuff from Morrisons appears to be 100% Fuller's Earth.

[richardandtracyParticipant @richardandtracy]

Simon Williams: We have no kittens, and usually use wood pellets, just last weekend ASDA had clay stuff only. My chief disappointment was the amount of gravel in it.

I am happy to smash/grind the clay with a sledge hammer. My sand is very dry, having been indoors for years, but I don't think it's dry enough to cope with a slurry and be usable this week.

Rick's answer is useful. Thanks. My budget is negligible, so buying ready powdered clay is out. But Tesco's cat litter sounds feasible. Thank you all. I shall get the stuff this afternoon.

Regards

Richard.

[john feeneyParticipant @johnfeeney58965]

Hi,

Bentonite is used to make moulding sand. Some cat litter is bentonite but of poor quality. Other clay minerals are also used for cat liter, eg sepiolite but this not suitable for use in moulding sand. That said it is not easy to blend sand and bentonite " at home"

I`d suggest buy the moulding sand,it`ll be much trouble.

John Feeney

[john feeneyParticipant @johnfeeney58965]

Hi

Correction Much less trouble !

[David ColwillParticipant @davidcolwill19261]

Hi,

Here is a link to Artisan Foundry which is the supplier used by Myford Boy

**LINK**

I have never used them and have no connection.

i did try using cat litter to temper sand but wasn't successful, so I would be interested to know how this works out.

I had come to the conclusion that it might be prudent to buy the necessary materials to see how the whole process works before trying to make shortcuts as there were to many variables for me to work out what was going wrong.

Regards.

David.

[pgk pgkParticipant @pgkpgk17461]

Posted by Simon Williams 3 on 21/01/2018 10:15:33:

Good morning All, can't let this go unchallenged.

There is very good evidence to suggest that clay based cat litters are the cause of DEATH in cats, particularly young kittens. The clumping clay based litters can cause internal blockages in the intestines of the animal, as they clean residue or particles off their paws etc. Would you want to eat the stuff? Let alone breathe particles of it…..

Google will elaborate with the gruesome details.

Don't know owt about casting materials, but cat litter seems to be based on bentonite. Is this the right mineral to give the casting sand the properties it needs?

I just have to comment here. In my 40 year career I never saw a cat obstructed with cat litter…cotton thread +/- needles, elastic, meat string, christmas decorations and even the tape from a cassette tape I have dealt with.. I'm not sayng it can't happen – just that I'd have expected to see regular cases if common. Dark grey fullers earth cat litter was our stand-by. I hated the white dusty alternative and the newer wood based stuff that was designed to clump etc was messier than needed and expensive. Nearly all cats that we observed eating litter (or soil or licking concrete) were anaemic: Often simply overburdened with fleas but H felis or FeLV or worm burdens would be the common first differentials.

pgk

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

We use Sainsburys Clumping Cat Litter, which is, I believe, Mexican Clay (which may be Bentonite).

Comes in 25Kg bags. Take care that you don't get alternative products which are packaged in very similar bags

Over the years we have lost a cat to a road accident, another to FIV, another to old age, and the other seven to cancers, but never had a problem with obstruction from Cat Litter, as far as we, or our vets, knew.

Also, makes a good looking load to ballast HO gauge US outline hopper wagons.

Howard

[VicParticipant @vic]

I used Tesco Bentonite cat litter mixed with cement and perlite to make a forge bed. It worked quite well.

[richardandtracyParticipant @richardandtracy]

Thank you gentles all. I have got some Tesco cat litter.

I am not, as I have said several times, going to get any commercial materials. I have neither the time nor the money if I am going to do any casting this coming week. The links will be useful in the future, but not at the moment.

I have, in the past, used vegetable oil to bond the sand. It was not good, but I got useable castings. If there is more than 50% clay in this cat litter it will be good enough. I do not wish for the pursuit of the best to be the enemy of the 'good enough for the job at hand'.

Regards

Richard.

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

To break the cat litter into a fine powder consider using a rotary drum with some metal in it and it will soon reduce the pellets for what you want. Same sort of thing they use for polishing stones etc.

Clive

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

My advice is to make sure you use fresh cat litter…

Neil

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Posted by Neil Wyatt on 21/01/2018 19:53:07:

My advice is to make sure you use fresh cat litter…

Neil

Not at all. Dung is good stuff in moulding sand – it helps bind it together. And it was the material of choice for mending marine boilers.

"Aye, my lad, I know. You'll be thinking I'm decrepit . My mind's wandering through sweating round here, when I'm past it, to find that in-take to the vacuum. But I'm telling ye. It was horse dung and good stuff too, to stop weeps in the boilers, those days."

Only real men smear dung these days because you wimpy lot like keeping your pretty hands clean. If you're serious about quality you have to use the real thing. No excuses – get stuck in, dung and sand has to be well-kneaded. No gloves, the texture tells you when it's ready to use.

Man up. Don't listen to experts, they know nothing. Health and Safety gone mad I tell you. A dose of E.coli never hurt anybody…

Dave

[Martin 100Participant @martin100]

Posted by SillyOldDuffer on 21/01/2018 20:36:32:

A dose of E.coli never hurt anybody…

The problem is not only E.coli but Toxocariasis.

[pgk pgkParticipant @pgkpgk17461]

Lots of exciting pathogens possible from 'diseased faeces' but never forget the power of faecal transplant

[Author]

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