nimitzbrood: (Default)
( Dec. 30th, 2011 06:26 am)
So looking over my rather long E-Bay watch list and this is one of the things I have on it:

http://ds5.org/3667

It's a premixed fire clay good to 2500 degrees. What I was thinking about using it for was to create a proper height and sealed dome for my existing enameling "hot plate" style kiln that would allow me the height to do bangles and bracelets.

The idea is to use the existing metal dome, cover it in the fire clay, and continue down with the clay so it lifts the metal dome up about 2 - 4 more inches from the top of the heating element. I'd also embed a hook or bale or something into the top of the dome to allow me to remove it easily. Probably have to use either stainless wire or uncoated copper or something for that. (A bit concerned about heat transfer to the hook as I want to retain as much heat as possible inside.

This design would also allow me to add a pyrometer to the setup and not affect the work inside as much. Still need to get a pyrometer btw. A couple more weeks at least before I can think about spending for that.

Off to work...
nimitzbrood: (Default)
( Jul. 7th, 2011 11:13 am)
I managed to fire up the enameling kiln yesterday and it works a treat. Still really should have a pyrometer for it but for now I can do things by surface texture and color. (I'd prefer to learn the glass without the extra technology that way I'm not dependent on it.) Anyway here's what a simple test came out looking like:

IMG_0359.JPG

Not too shabby color-wise but obviously oxidized the copper. And the red enamel either didn't heat/cool properly or there was too much of it. No biggie as this was just a test. :-)

Now I need to get some copper PMC3 to see how well that works. Not this week though as we're still in the transitional period between me coming off unemployment and doing the temp jobs.

I've decided I'm not too proud to accept donations so if anybody wants to buy me some art stuff feel free to PayPal money to my greymane AT derpymail.com address. Replace AT with the @ symbol obviously. (More on the pride thing in a later post.)
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Mike Hebel

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