A very long time ago the refractories manager at Natref asked me if I could supply a quick setting castable such as he had seen from the USA.  He described demonstration which he had seen.  I made an appointment and went to see him and gave him the same demonstration that he had seen from the American.  I gave him a 50g sample and the binder to go with it and he mixed it and it set almost instantly and he said yes this is the same stuff he was looking for.  I then gave him a 200g sample and asked him to mix that.  He tried but it had already set before he was finished mixing.  I explained that if you can't mix 200g at a time there's no way you can do an installation in a furnace with it.  I suggested that he should rather use Versimould Panel which had a 7 year track record in his plant.

He explained that he had already bought 15 tons of this material, and was only checking to see if it was available locally manufactured in South Africa.  Perhaps I should have located his boss and showed his boss what a mess this guy had made.  I didn't.

Months later I got a call from Refractory Services asking if I could come and help them with an installation at Natref.   A contractor, Dickinson, had been given the job of installing this American rubbish.  Poor Dickinson was kicked off the job because they were two weeks behind and only halfway through the installation.  Refractory Services had been asked to finish the job.  They were already overstretched and asked if I could come and help.  I brought my team and in one shift we installed as much Versimould Panel as Dickinson had managed with the American rubbish in two weeks.