[TheForge] buttons (was kaowool)

[info at reciprodyne.com]

> Date: Wed, 4 Aug 2004 07:58:06 -0400
> From: "Ralph Sproul" <brhlbsmt at mcttelecom.com>
> Subject: Re: [TheForge] Re: kaowool
> Hi Tom,  thanks for this suggestion.  Is this product available from any
> kiln
> suppliers you'd recommend dealing with?
> 
> Ralph

Dear Ralph,

I don't know, I have built many pottery kilns, and either myself or the
potter in question just grabbed a big gob of porcelain clay and started
making the buttons. It's kind of fun for the first hundred or so. The stems
really aren't very long, just kind of a loop/tab for the wire to go through.

Normally, the fiber layers are from 4 - 6 inches thick, and the buttons
squish in an inch or two, and are kind of protected by the fiber around
them.

If your fiber blanket is too thin, (less than 2-4 inches) the buttons may
make "hot spots" where they pull the fiber down (or up, as the case may be),
so you can make fiber "washers" around each button to increase the local
thickness at each button. Does this description make sense?.

You just fire them (the new buttons) to cone 10 in a batch of pots, and when
cool you put them in the new kiln.  They are re-usable for years, and can
migrate to newer kilns.  One can easily line an entire kiln in just a couple
of hours, and the lining is infinitely repairable, with no curing time, etc.

I have seen similar fiber "button" mounting in lower temperature heat
treatment ovens just using stainless "fender washers" and bolts, but this
would not last in a forging furnace that goes to welding temp.

Tom


-- 
Tom Troszak
Reciprodyne
47 Panola St.
Asheville, NC 28801 U.S.A.

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