Barb & Ray Sapergia on thu 20 feb 97
Hi!
I'm asking this question on behalf of a friend of mine who is wanting to
build a salt kiln out of castable material. He is hoping somebody might
have a castable formula that has worked well for them, or know of a
commercial castable material that is inexpensive but really dependable.
He has seen a few formulas, but wants to hear from somebody with
experience...and of course any tips would be welcome.
Thanks in advance,
Barb,
in beautiful Chemainus, British Columbia, Canada,
The Little Town That Did
sam wainford on fri 21 feb 97
Barb & Ray Sapergia wrote:
>
> ----------------------------Original message----------------------------
> Hi!
>
> I'm asking this question on behalf of a friend of mine who is wanting to
> build a salt kiln out of castable material. He is hoping somebody might
> have a castable formula that has worked well for them, or know of a
> commercial castable material that is inexpensive but really dependable.
> He has seen a few formulas, but wants to hear from somebody with
> experience...and of course any tips would be welcome.
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Barb,
> in beautiful Chemainus, British Columbia, Canada,
> The Little Town That Did
Hi Barb,
The best castable material I know of for salt is Pacocast 30. It is a
high alumina, pyrophyllite-andalusite material with a service
temperature of 3000 degrees,F. It's manufactured by Northstate
Pyrophyllite Co, div of RESCO(they also own Cedar Heights Clay Co.) They
are in Greensboro NC.
I don't know the current pricing, but I seem to remember it being far
less than APGreen's and others. I used Paco back in 1981 for a 70 cubic
foot salt kiln. I built it from insulation brick and then built a
plywood frame in stages inside to pour the Paco about 1 inch to 1-1/2
inches thick. It was an amazingly strong material. When the kiln was
dismantled, the bricks were removed, and the paco shell(only 1 inch
thick and 5 feet tall including the arch)stood by itself! Also, Norm
Schulman in Penland has a salt kiln built completely of Paco. I have no
connection with the company, I just like the stuff. I even built some
kiln shelves with it. I think they were 24 inch and 1-1/2 inches thick.
They did however tend to warp under weight when fired.
As far as castable recipies, The kiln I'm working on now is my homemade
castable. I cant say how it will work since I haven't fired yet. But
this is what I used:
Kiln castable by volume:
fireclay 2 buckets
coarse grog 2
vermicultie 1
sawdust 1
portlant cement 1/2
misc 1/2 (this was old left over bags of various high alumina castables
which had been sitting around for years-decades-which I used as
aggregate and for their alumina content. I probably would've added some
alumina hydrate to the mix if I didn't have the leftovers.)
In retrospect, although the castable set up and hardened, it is not
concrete like. It would've benefited by a higher proportion of cement.
I recommend using a high temperature cement instead of portland, and
maybe doubling the quantity to somewhere around 1/6 of your total mix.
I was afraid that much portland would add too muck flux.
Good luck with the kiln building project. I can't promise that the
above will work for you, but it did for me. Sam
Dave Drake on mon 4 may 09
I'd very much like to pursue a castable kiln. Does anyone have reference=
=3D
s
to some good resources on this subject?
Thanks--DD
ivor & olive lewis on wed 6 may 09
Dear Dave Drake,
I think you will find that Jack Troy "Salt Glaze Ceramics" ISBN
0-273-01053-0 covers the topic extremely well. I used some of his ideas to
make a gas fired experimental kiln using a 250 litre steel drum as a body.
Regards,
Ivor Lewis,
Redhill,
South Australia,
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