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Traditional 50:50 kaolin:silica kiln wash can be a real bummer to use. It flakes, both on drying and after every firing. Pieces of it stick to the feet of ware (plucking). It is not refractory enough either. Shelves need cleaning and rewashing often. Three outside-the-box ideas make this a better recipe.
#1 No raw clay! Strangely, calcined kaolin is better than raw kaolin, it imparts multiple advantages.
#2 No silica. We use zircon or alumina instead, they are more refractory. And we use 80%, not 50%.
#3 We add CMC gum. It is the hardener, it enables a high specific gravity, imparts awesome brushing properties and slows down drying on cordierite and alumina shelves.
The low water requirement and slow drying make this behave more like paint. It can be applied by roller or brush. Coverage is much more even and it does not shrink and crack on drying. Normally the raw kaolin in 50:50 kiln wash suspends the slurry, makes it brushable and hardens it on drying. But CMC gum is way better for the latter two. It is so nice to be able to apply a thin layer of wash even on highly porous shelves (like these alumina ones we make ourselves). Unfortunately, we can't have everything - a down side of this recipe is settling (more information on the recipe page linked below). Fortunately, if used every few days it won't be a problem.
This is not available as a product, we just like it so much we made a label for it!
It is 5 mm thick (compared to the 17mm of the cordierite one). It weighs 650 grams (vs. 1700 grams). It will perform at any temperature that my test kiln can do, and far in excess of that. It is made from a body I slurry up (80% Zircopax Plus, 16.5% 60-80 Molochite grog, 3.5% Veegum T). The body is plastic and easy to roll and had 4.2% drying shrinkage at 15.3% water. The shelf warped slightly during drying (I should have dried it between sheets of plasterboard). Firing at cone 4 yielded a shrinkage of 1%. Notice that cone on the shelf: It has not stuck even though no kiln wash was used! Zircopax is super refractory! This is sinter bonded, so the higher the temperature you can fire the stronger it will be. Although it would be very hard to make full 18 or 22-inch shelves for larger kilns, smaller ones designed to "network" would enable a tighter load of ware with a much lower shelf-to-ware weight ratio (especially using my own lightweight posts). Like alumina, this does not have the thermal shock resistance of cordierite, uneven heating can crack these.
URLs |
https://insight-live.com/insight/share.php?z=K5hHzDs2Kr
Plainsman Super Kiln Wash recipe Instead of 50:50 kaolin:silica this recipe uses 80:20 Zircopax:Calcined kaolin. And adds CMC gum to slow down drying, make it brushable, harden it and reduce water requirements. |
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