Frank Colson on wed 6 dec 06
Arch repair- Easy Rider! Just cut wedge shape slivers of IFB (insluating
fire brick), dip in slip (Kiln wash -50/50 flint/kaloin), and tap, with a
small board, into the gaps in the arch,, and fire away! Or, calk gaps with
scraps of ceramic fiber; push up hard with a blunt blade. Paint over with
slip, and fire away!
Frank Colson
www.R2D2u.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Lively Kenneth Christopher"
To:
Sent: Wednesday, December 06, 2006 10:01 AM
Subject: alpine arch repair
I am a graduate student attending a university in southwest Virginia. We
have two alpine gas kilns, a 20 year old 30 cu ft and a brand new hf 24.
The 30 cu ft has been our workhorse at the end of the semester, but it is
taking a beating. The arch is beginning to sag and the bricks are loose. Is
it possible to repair this or rebuild it?
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Vince Pitelka on wed 6 dec 06
You wrote:
"I am a graduate student attending a university in southwest Virginia. We
have two alpine gas kilns, a 20 year old 30 cu ft and a brand new hf 24.
The 30 cu ft has been our workhorse at the end of the semester, but it is
taking a beating. The arch is beginning to sag and the bricks are loose. Is
it possible to repair this or rebuild it? "
Just a suggestion - when you are asking for help from a group like this,
please sign a name at the bottom of your message.
Here's a sure-fire way to repair a loose arch. Purchase a couple of 15-lb.
pails of AP Green Greenpatch 421. It is a super-high-duty pre-mixed
refractory patching mortar, and is still being manufactured and sold by the
consortium of AP Green, North American Refractories, and Harbison Walker,
now going by the name Harbison Walker. Any good refractory supplier should
have access to it.
You will need to purchase empty caulking tubes and a cheap caulking gun.
Just google "empty caulking tubes" and you will find suppliers. Any Home
Depot has cheap caulking gun frames that accept any kind of tubes of
caulking, adhesive, etc.
The Greenpatch settles and stiffens slightly when stored for any period of
time, so it would be best to re-blend it in its container with a small
impeller mixer in an electric drill.
Fill an empty caulking tube with Greenpatch and put it in the caulking gun
frame. With a cordless drill and a 1/4" masonry bit, drill holes directly
into the cracks where the bricks are loose. Use long sticks or other
suitable props to push up on the bricks and hold them there. Using a
standard pump-up garden sprayer, squirt liberal amounts of clean water into
all the holes you have drilled, so that the IFB is well saturated.
Take the caulking gun, and snip off just the very tip, so that it will fit
into the holes you have drilled. Inject plenty of Greenpatch into each hole
so that it squeezes out into the crack, and keep going until it starts
coming back out of the adjacent areas of the crack. Repeat this with all
the loose bricks in the arch. You can completely restore a loose arch by
this method, even if some of the bricks are starting to slip out of place.
Greenpatch is wonderful stuff.
The water is essential - products like Greenpatch are air-set mortars, and
they must remain damp while they set up. If they are applied to dry brick,
it will suck the moisture out of them immediately, and the product will
never set up properly. As long as you moisten the IFB liberally before
injecting the Greenpatch, you will get a proper cure.
Good luck -
- Vince
Vince Pitelka
Appalachian Center for Craft, Tennessee Technological University
Smithville TN 37166, 615/597-6801 x111
vpitelka@dtccom.net, wpitelka@tntech.edu
http://iweb.tntech.edu/wpitelka/
http://www.tntech.edu/craftcenter/
Lively Kenneth Christopher on wed 6 dec 06
I am a graduate student attending a university in southwest Virginia. We =
have two alpine gas kilns, a 20 year old 30 cu ft and a brand new hf =
24. The 30 cu ft has been our workhorse at the end of the semester, but =
it is taking a beating. The arch is beginning to sag and the bricks are =
loose. Is it possible to repair this or rebuild it?=20
Erik Harmon on thu 7 dec 06
That was excellent advice thank you from some one who doesnt have a broke down arch. Erik
Vince Pitelka wrote: You wrote:
"I am a graduate student attending a university in southwest Virginia. We
have two alpine gas kilns, a 20 year old 30 cu ft and a brand new hf 24.
The 30 cu ft has been our workhorse at the end of the semester, but it is
taking a beating. The arch is beginning to sag and the bricks are loose. Is
it possible to repair this or rebuild it? "
Just a suggestion - when you are asking for help from a group like this,
please sign a name at the bottom of your message.
Here's a sure-fire way to repair a loose arch. Purchase a couple of 15-lb.
pails of AP Green Greenpatch 421. It is a super-high-duty pre-mixed
refractory patching mortar, and is still being manufactured and sold by the
consortium of AP Green, North American Refractories, and Harbison Walker,
now going by the name Harbison Walker. Any good refractory supplier should
have access to it.
You will need to purchase empty caulking tubes and a cheap caulking gun.
Just google "empty caulking tubes" and you will find suppliers. Any Home
Depot has cheap caulking gun frames that accept any kind of tubes of
caulking, adhesive, etc.
The Greenpatch settles and stiffens slightly when stored for any period of
time, so it would be best to re-blend it in its container with a small
impeller mixer in an electric drill.
Fill an empty caulking tube with Greenpatch and put it in the caulking gun
frame. With a cordless drill and a 1/4" masonry bit, drill holes directly
into the cracks where the bricks are loose. Use long sticks or other
suitable props to push up on the bricks and hold them there. Using a
standard pump-up garden sprayer, squirt liberal amounts of clean water into
all the holes you have drilled, so that the IFB is well saturated.
Take the caulking gun, and snip off just the very tip, so that it will fit
into the holes you have drilled. Inject plenty of Greenpatch into each hole
so that it squeezes out into the crack, and keep going until it starts
coming back out of the adjacent areas of the crack. Repeat this with all
the loose bricks in the arch. You can completely restore a loose arch by
this method, even if some of the bricks are starting to slip out of place.
Greenpatch is wonderful stuff.
The water is essential - products like Greenpatch are air-set mortars, and
they must remain damp while they set up. If they are applied to dry brick,
it will suck the moisture out of them immediately, and the product will
never set up properly. As long as you moisten the IFB liberally before
injecting the Greenpatch, you will get a proper cure.
Good luck -
- Vince
Vince Pitelka
Appalachian Center for Craft, Tennessee Technological University
Smithville TN 37166, 615/597-6801 x111
vpitelka@dtccom.net, wpitelka@tntech.edu
http://iweb.tntech.edu/wpitelka/
http://www.tntech.edu/craftcenter/
______________________________________________________________________________
Send postings to clayart@lsv.ceramics.org
You may look at the archives for the list or change your subscription
settings from http://www.ceramics.org/clayart/
Moderator of the list is Mel Jacobson who may be reached at melpots@pclink.com.
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Linda Arbuckle on fri 8 dec 06
At University of FL, we have 2 similar, ancient kilns Alpine-type
kilns. Arches dropped. Our excellent tech, Matt Long (now teaching at
U of MS), made a wooden arch form like you'd use in kiln-building and
used a car jack to raise the arch back into shape. This created gaps
in the brick on the top side, which he filled with refractory brick
wedges. Worked well.
Linda Arbuckle
Univeristy of FL, Gainesville
If you're looking for Matt for more info, his web site is
http://fullvictory.com/
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