Claire Reishman on fri 4 mar 11
>
> In my recent soda/salt firing, I had trouble with the sprayer and at the
> last minute, despite all my efforts, I could not spray soda into the kiln=
;
> I had to finish the firing without soda. We use a garden-type sprayer wi=
th
> a metal wand. Does anybody have a better sprayer situation to recommend?
> The plastic control button on our metal wand melts over time, and is
> difficult to use. I would like a sprayer which doesn't clog up and which=
is
> dependable, and I would like to avoid buying a compressor if possible.
> Claire Reishman, Sewanee TN
Vince Pitelka on fri 4 mar 11
Claire Reishman wrote:
" In my recent soda/salt firing, I had trouble with the sprayer and at the
last minute, despite all my efforts, I could not spray soda into the kiln; =
I
had to finish the firing without soda. We use a garden-type sprayer with a
metal wand. Does anybody have a better sprayer situation to recommend? The
plastic control button on our metal wand melts over time, and is difficult
to use. I would like a sprayer which doesn't clog up and which is
dependable, and I would like to avoid buying a compressor if possible.
Hi Claire -
A garden sprayer works best, but just be sure to get one with a brass wand.
They all have plastic valves, but there is no reason in the world for the
valve body to get hot enough to melt. At the Appalachian Center for Craft
we do between 50 and 75 soda firings per year, and I have never seen the
valve melt. If the valve melts, you are poking the spray wand in too far.
If you search "garden sprayers with brass wand" online, you will find lots
of them, and then it is just a matter of selecting the size reservoir you
want. We use the ones with the 2.5-gallon plastic reservoir, and we put in
two gallons of mix. Of course you always need to leave air space to
compress when you pump up the sprayer.
The first thing to fail on the brass wand is usually when the solder melts
and the tip falls off. When that happens you just mash the tip flat so tha=
t
it still sprays. If you are careful to start spraying as soon as you inser=
t
the wand and to withdraw it as you stop spraying, then the tip won't fall
off, because it will be cooled by the soda solution. I can manage that, bu=
t
it seems that my students cannot, so the tips always fall off, but we make
do just fine with the tube smashed flat on the end.
I have never heard of using any sort of compressor attachment for soda
firing. Why would anyone do that? The garden sprayer seems to be the
standard. Feel free to email me off-list if you have any questions.
- Vince
Vince Pitelka
Appalachian Center for Craft
Tennessee Tech University
vpitelka@dtccom.net; wpitelka@tntech.edu
http://iweb.tntech.edu/wpitelka
James Freeman on fri 4 mar 11
On Fri, Mar 4, 2011 at 8:35 AM, Claire Reishman wrote=
:
>
> In my recent soda/salt firing, I had trouble with the sprayer and at the
> last minute, despite all my efforts, I could not spray soda into the kiln=
;
> I had to finish the firing without soda. We use a garden-type sprayer
with
> a metal wand. Does anybody have a better sprayer situation to recommend?
> The plastic control button on our metal wand melts over time, and is
> difficult to use. I would like a sprayer which doesn't clog up and which
is
> dependable, and I would like to avoid buying a compressor if possible.
Claire...
When we soda fired the salt kiln at the local college, I brought in an old,
all metal, pump-style orchard sprayer. I cut the spray tip off of the wand=
,
and then flattened the end of the metal wand with a hammer (the spray tips
tend to clog almost instantly). It worked very well.
It is still possible to purchase higher quality orchard sprayers with metal
wands and valves. This one seems to fit the bill, and a call to the
supplier should provide reassurance that the wand and trigger are indeed
metal:
http://www.amleo.com/chapin-hand-held-sprayer-industrial-3gal/p/15309/ . I
have not used this particular sprayer, but have ordered a lot of garden
supplies from this company, as they have good prices and great service.
Hope it helps.
...James
James Freeman
"...outsider artists, caught in the bog of their own consciousness, too
preciously idiosyncratic to be taken seriously."
"All I say is by way of discourse, and nothing by way of advice. I should
not speak so boldly if it were my due to be believed."
-Michel de Montaigne
http://www.jamesfreemanstudio.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamesfreemanstudio/
http://www.jamesfreemanstudio.com/resources
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