Monday, December 5, 2011

Dang Bang

A well laid plan waylaid by a misplaced Bang!


We had quick cone pack making demo Friday night at the conclusion of loading the small gas kiln up at UOP along with a gem of an example of a wet cone pack steam exploding at 500 degrees!
The big lesson was unloading and reloading the entire kiln to get all the debris out, bits went everywhere!

Cut corners... pay a heavy price...

4 comments:

Linda Starr said...

When I was in school I always seemed to get the debris in the middle of my casseroles, platters and bowls - bummer.

Hollis Engley said...

It's absolutely astonishing how far an exploding cone pack can penetrate the stack. The trick is being there when it blows up, so that you can shut down and clean up. Otherwise ...

FetishGhost said...

I loooove these learning moments with students. They do happen, but they just need a bit of prodding to do what they know needs to be done. Unload the entire thing and make sure everything is good to go again.
For beginners, part of the lesson is that, even if it's a chore, we are the kiln sitters.

smartcat said...

We used to fire wet cone packs (or boats as one of our members named them) made with clay mixed with a lot of vermiculite and poked full of holes. We never had any blow, but that may have been the luck of the draw.

Now I use the self supporting kind.

Sometimes the magic works, sometimes is doesn't.