shane mickey on wed 26 jul 06
carolyn,
I think the wash on the inside of the kiln is a good idea, nice protection. put a layer of 2600 degree castable down in the trough of your firebox's to protect the floor there, although if you only spray in a water solution you may not need it. As far as zircon in walpaper paste, never heard of that one, we have used straight zircon applied very thinly and this needs to be recoated every few firings. I would suggest ITC, i believe its still the best thing out there since there is a company to back you up and handle your questions. Zircon does not save much money in the long run. As for coating the outside, skip the castable, it will crack and falloff of a veritical wall, Here is what you need to do. Get a few rolls of fiber and cover the kiln (i have used a couple of screws to hold the fiber in place on the vertical walls while i finish the next step) I then start with stucco mesh or diamond lath as some call it at the top center of the arch and drape it down over the sides.
where the pieces meet at the top of the arch i stitch them together with wire, i then cut patterns for the front and back to correspond with the curve of the arch and stitch these also. Lastly i have been going around and screwing thru the mesh thru the fiber and into the softbrick to tighten things up a bit, not crush the fiber, just snugging the mesh down on the fiber, makes the mud mix stick better. Finally I cover the whole kiln in a mix of sand, fireclay, portland cement. the ratio i use is 6 parts sand, 2 parts fireclay, 2 portland cement, make sure you get straight portland, not a mix as it is weeker, if thats all that is available, use twice as much of the portland mix and take out one of the sand parts. this mud mix if done properly will be very hard when dry. and is much easier to apply, i use a simple technique of scooping up a handful of the mix, (really wetted like reclaim that has had the water pulled off) and smear it on with a stroke from lower to higher,
after its all on i go back and smooth with a trowel. hope this helps, email me with any questions.
shane mickey
mickey.dan at excite.com
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