MudStuffing Sketchbook

I guess the romans were right after all, the arch is a beautiful thing! Here’s a pick of my homemade castable kiln after taking the molds off.

I built a new photo booth this week from old picket fences. Yep! The same ones I made those frames and benches from. I took a belt sander to them and wore them down even more. Then fixed up the umbrella light and another clip light that I bounced off of some foam core.
My main reason for going through this trouble is to get more images to be picked up Etsy’s treasuries. The black background just didn’t have that appeal.

Below are some of the initial shots. The last one is a “pull back” shot. I close the garage door and shut the lights off whenever I shoot.

Here’s the recipe I am going off of:

• 2 Parts Fireclay (I am using Hawthorn 40 mesh)
• 2 Parts Grog (mixture of powder, grit and P-Grog see below)
• 2 Parts Sawdust and wood chips (aquired free from the sawmill down the road)
• 1/2 Alumina Hydrate
• 1/2 Portland Cement

P-Grog is pea sized grog - fired clay - is hard to come by. I started trying to use old pottery but didn’t have enough. Then I bought some “brick nuggets) from lowes, but that was too big and bashing them up with a sledge hammer was taking forever. Finally I came across “PermiTil” at the local nursery. This is a slate (clay & magma) and is the perfect size. So not technically grog, I think it should do for aggregate.

The shopping list (looks like this will come out just right, but I may need a little more fireclay.

• 1000 lbs fireclay (20 bags 50lbs each)
• 500 lbs Grog 50 (10 Bags 50lbs each)
• 500 lbs Grog 12/20 (10 Bags 50lbs each)
• 8 bags of Permatil (not sure a how many pounds a bag is)
• 250 lbs of Alumina Hydrate (5 Bags 50lbs each)
• 5 bags of Portland Cement (94 lbs each)
• 8 bags of sawdust (large black lawn bags)
• 200 lbs of P-10 Porcelain clay

BTW - Highwater’s discounts includes BOTH clay and raw materials. So when buying all the 2000+ lbs of materials I went ahead and bought some porcelain clay dirt cheap.

NOTE FROM THE FUTURE!!!!

DO NOT Use permatil!!!! It melts at cone 10. Eventually mine melted out and the kiln fired fine now, but save yourself a heart attack and find a source for P-Grog!

Finding sources of supplies and materials for building a kiln can be more time consuming than actually building the thing. I would imagine trying to get seconds or used items would triple the time. I’m impatient for two reasons, #1. I’m impatient #2. I’d like to get this built before the end of the year to write it off on this years taxes. For this reason I went new for some items I probably could have gotten used with a little time and effort.
Before buying any of my materials for building the structure, I gave Ward Burner Systems a call. They are a wealth of information, not to mention they gave me accurate cubic ft of the kiln I was building. I believe in the book they mention it’s an 18 cubic ft kiln. But after doing the math from the specs it turns out it’s more like it’s bigger. They took the time to talk to me about my project, what I would need and also what I would need to ask my Propane company including an estimated size of tank I should go with.

I was going to get the 200 bricks I needed from them, because they were about a buck cheaper than getting them at Highwater Clays down the road. I thought they would be shipped from tennesee where ward is at, but they were gonna ship them from Maryland and the freight added $350 to the price. No longer cheaper than high water, so I nixed those.

I mulled over what they said for a week,a and then went ahead and placed my order. I went with 2 MR100 propane burners, a digital pyrometer for high temps and a thermocoupler with the protective tube. I opted to not have the pilot light or piggy back burner, they didn’t seem to think I especially needed it, and I didn’t feel like the extra $450 it would have added to my bill. It all arrived pretty quickly.

I did get one thing on Ebay, because it was readily available. Ceramic fiber. I went with #6 1″ x 24″ x 25′. It was slightly cheaper once shipping was figured in. But as of yet hasn’t arrived.

I cast the arch today and I’m pretty beat. I’ve got orders to glaze tomorrow, stuff to throw and the kinds are off from school. So… if I have time, more pics of this stage of the kiln and I’ll finish my post about the materials I got at High Water - how much and how many trips it took in my F-150. Is it really cheaper mixing your own castable? We will see….