Reddit reviews The Essential Guide to Mold Making & Slip Casting (A Lark Ceramics Book)
We found 4 Reddit comments about The Essential Guide to Mold Making & Slip Casting (A Lark Ceramics Book). Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
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Sounds like you need to make a multi-part mold or recast/sculpt the positive hand so that there are no overhangs. I suggest checking out this book if you have access to a good library, or buying it if you plan to do a lot of clay casting.
read up first, it will save you a lot of trial and error
https://www.amazon.com/Essential-Guide-Making-Casting-Ceramics/dp/1600590772
Yes, I'm definitely interested in that solution. Please let me know when you do the guide. Thanks!
Hit me up if you need mold making or slip casting help. Andrew Martin's book is really great.
I've already got the pyrometer from a while back. At that time it was the best option available. But it sounds like in true technological fashion it has been made obsolete. The function of that pyrometer I do really like is being able to use two probes to measure the difference between the top and bottom of the kiln. Would it be difficult to build this multi-probe functionality into your system?
Yes, the way Blaauw does it is with an oxygen sensor in the kiln. That high temp probe is pretty pricy, but is the only way to accurately measure oxidation/neutral/reduction atmosphere in the kiln. Based on what the combination of pyrometer and oxygen probe sense, the controller balances forced air flow, gas, and damper settings. The baseline is the calculation for a stoichiometric burn. But you might be surprised how simple the damper system is. Its not very different from what you have setup. The Blaauw's are also (the one's I've worked with) updrafts. But they are able to fire very evenly because of an absurb amount of pressure from very high flow blowers.
If/when you upgrade the hardware on the kiln, using a forced air burner will give you a lot more control. Sounds like you're already very much on the right track by researching Ward.
powdered plaster will not work. it will bond with whatever you pour into the mold and ruin the ceramic material.
the reason slipcasting works is because the cured plaster absorbs the water and deflocculant out of the ceramic material.
if you're really interested in learning about slipcasting and dont want to take another class on it from someone who knows a lot, I would recommend Andrew Martin's book -
https://www.amazon.com/Essential-Guide-Making-Casting-Ceramics/dp/1600590772
nobody here is going to go in depth enough to teach you how to do it