Barb Lund on wed 5 may 99
a good chum of mine wants to make a clay scupture involving firing syrofoam
balls encased in clay slip. Is there any danger to the kiln, other
bisqueware or me if we try this in my electric kiln. He is going to pile
syrofoam balls, pour slip around them, poke the necessary holes for
escaping gasses, and hopes that I will fire this contraption-sort of along
the line of a lost wax method only lost christmas balls instead.
TIA
barb in Bloomington
barblund@bluemarble.net
LOWELL BAKER on thu 6 may 99
i would never fire styrofoam in an electric kiln. The gasses from
the burning material are potentially toxic depending on teh specific
foam they may be fatal. use a kiln with a flue.....
W. Lowell Baker
the Unversityof Alabama
Kay Ellis on thu 6 may 99
Barb,
I've never used styrofoam in conjunction with ceramics but when I studied
metal casting (aluminum) we were warned not to use styrofoam as a burn out
material because of toxic fumes. We did use blue and pink insultating
foamboard, the type used in the construction of houses. It still has fumes
but is less toxic. It would also be a good idea for your friend to test a
piece of the material he is planning to use to determine how it burns out.
Some of that stuff doesn't burn out cleanly and leaves various smelly gooey
messes.
Kay
kellis@unicomp.net
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
a good chum of mine wants to make a clay scupture involving firing syrofoam
balls encased in clay slip. Is there any danger to the kiln, other
bisqueware or me if we try this in my electric kiln. He is going to pile
syrofoam balls, pour slip around them, poke the necessary holes for
escaping gasses, and hopes that I will fire this contraption-sort of along
the line of a lost wax method only lost christmas balls instead.
TIA
barb in Bloomington
barblund@bluemarble.net
Jan McQueary on thu 6 may 99
Very Toxic, Bad, Bad idea, even with ventilation. A friend told me that
some students at his school mixed the beads out of a bean bag chair with
clay and fired it. Noxious fumes, and also a thick black soot that
coated the kiln room half way up the walls.
Sounds like the idea will be prone to a lot of structural flaws even if
it were safe to fire (AND IT'S NOT). Maybe your friend can make molds
from smooth balls (like the ones in ball pits at McDonalds) and cast the
elements of his sculpture that way, then assemble them. Could either
slip cast in the molds or press clay in the molds by hand (that way he
could build in openings in the balls, etc if that's what he wants).
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Carole Steele on fri 7 may 99
Hi, Barb and all,
Last summer during a children's art camp session,
I was firing a load of =22fabulous=22 terra cotta sculptures
when this noxious, stench started oozing through
the kiln. It was caused by styrofoam being
left in the center of the claywork.We evacuated
the room and opened all windows and doors
and didn't resume class until the next
day. I'm sure this has to be dangerous and I won't
do it again....BUT I, too, would like to know just how
dangerous this is=21
Carole in Louisiana....Hey Lisa Skeen...I'm graduating also...
AND getting a trip....but just to move
to new location to get MFA. I'm not
ready to go back to real life yet=21
Congrats to you, girl=21=21=21=21
csteele=40centuryinter.net
Jeff Seefeldt on fri 7 may 99
As the dedicated US Department of Agriculture employee I am, I'd like to make a
suggestion and get others opinion before encouraging you to try it.
Some stryrofoam is now being replace by a product made from corn (corn starch)
and used as a packing material, I'm not sure what other ingredients are
present in these packing peanuts , they will disolve in water and not leave an
oily residue.
Has anyone experimented with these???? It might be satisifactory alternative
to styrofoam and a bit more environmentally friendly.
Jeff
cloudy and rainy in western Illinois today but looking forward to some good
weather in San Antonio next week... this is definitely the nicest location I've
ever been sent to a meeting.
Barb Lund wrote:
> ----------------------------Original message----------------------------
> a good chum of mine wants to make a clay scupture involving firing syrofoam
> balls encased in clay slip. Is there any danger to the kiln, other
> bisqueware or me if we try this in my electric kiln. He is going to pile
> syrofoam balls, pour slip around them, poke the necessary holes for
> escaping gasses, and hopes that I will fire this contraption-sort of along
> the line of a lost wax method only lost christmas balls instead.
>
> TIA
> barb in Bloomington
> barblund@bluemarble.net
Reid Harvey on sat 8 may 99
Aside from the toxic fumes, I believe that something like 20,000 cubic
cms. of the ozone layer is destroyed for every one cubic cm. of
styrofoam that we burn. Of course, incinerators are doing this for us
all the time, but I like to think of ceramists as back to the earth
types, not prone to this appalling practice.
Reid Harvey
P.S. I have been told that in Australia and New Zealand people who do
not use sun screen are considered stupid. Ozone depletion is so bad that
people get skin cancer from even a little exposure. Perhaps some of our
friends thereabouts could verify this.
Michael Banks on sat 8 may 99
A lot of styrofoam made in the past was "foamed" with freon gas (a
chlorofluorocarbon, also used as a refrigerant). When fired in a kiln the
freon dissociates into phosgene (carbonyl chloride), carbon fluorides and
possibly hydrogen fluoride.
Phosgene is a serious cardiac poison and was used in the first World War as
a chemical warfare agent. The other two gases are very nasty as well. It
is difficult to imagine a more lethal brew emanating from a kiln, unless you
are into plutonium glazes :) , but the phosgene will still kill you quicker.
Michael Banks,
Nelson,
New Zealand
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Hi, Barb and all,
Last summer during a children's art camp session,
I was firing a load of "fabulous" terra cotta sculptures
when this noxious, stench started oozing through
the kiln. It was caused by styrofoam being
left in the center of the claywork.We evacuated
the room and opened all windows and doors
and didn't resume class until the next
day. I'm sure this has to be dangerous and I won't
do it again....BUT I, too, would like to know just how
dangerous this is!
Carole in Louisiana....Hey Lisa Skeen...I'm graduating also...
AND getting a trip....but just to move
to new location to get MFA. I'm not
ready to go back to real life yet!
Congrats to you, girl!!!!
csteele@centuryinter.net
Carole Steele on sun 9 may 99
Thank you, Michael .....this is the answer I was looking for. I will need
to show this to a couple of hard-headed teachers this summer!
I almost ended up moving to Byron Bay, Australia in 1993...but, alas, I will
probably never see that part of the world...I hear it is beautiful.
Carole
csteele@centuryinter.net
-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Banks
To: CLAYART@LSV.UKY.EDU
Date: Saturday, May 08, 1999 8:17 PM
Subject: Re: styrofoam in kiln
>----------------------------Original message----------------------------
>A lot of styrofoam made in the past was "foamed" with freon gas (a
>chlorofluorocarbon, also used as a refrigerant). When fired in a kiln the
>freon dissociates into phosgene (carbonyl chloride), carbon fluorides and
>possibly hydrogen fluoride.
>
>Phosgene is a serious cardiac poison and was used in the first World War as
>a chemical warfare agent. The other two gases are very nasty as well. It
>is difficult to imagine a more lethal brew emanating from a kiln, unless
you
>are into plutonium glazes :) , but the phosgene will still kill you
quicker.
>
>Michael Banks,
>Nelson,
>New Zealand
>
>----------------------------Original message----------------------------
>Hi, Barb and all,
>
>Last summer during a children's art camp session,
>I was firing a load of "fabulous" terra cotta sculptures
>when this noxious, stench started oozing through
>the kiln. It was caused by styrofoam being
>left in the center of the claywork.We evacuated
>the room and opened all windows and doors
>and didn't resume class until the next
>day. I'm sure this has to be dangerous and I won't
>do it again....BUT I, too, would like to know just how
>dangerous this is!
>Carole in Louisiana....Hey Lisa Skeen...I'm graduating also...
> AND getting a trip....but just to move
> to new location to get MFA. I'm not
> ready to go back to real life yet!
> Congrats to you, girl!!!!
>csteele@centuryinter.net
>
Joy Holdread on mon 10 may 99
The original message mentioned that the person wanted to use old Christmas
balls. He can use the balls to slip cast or hand build clay balls, he needs
to cut the clay balls in half, remove the Styrofoam & reseal or rejoin the
balls. Most likely the form would shrink & crack if left on the ball form
anyway when it dries.
The styro balls make nice hump molds, they can be used for packing, toys,
floats...
Joy in Tucson
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