Kristie's weekly-ish pics

Second try on the shipable core....little different mixture....an some adjustments to the forms....

Then drying it in our "kiln" with a propane heater.,...

We have had interest in how the natural light is in the wofati with the windows...now you can see..its great!

Is the propane heater on the last picture of your previous post to dry the core faster in the shop?

Yes Adrien....its to dry it faster....the shop is pretty cold place....so that cinder block insulated boxed in area is his drying room....

That's a good lookin' core. It'd be interesting to know how much it ends up weighing when dry.

Jesse- Tim says it should weigh about 150 dry...three bags of cement went into it

Adrien- the drying process it has to self cure at 70 degrees for 24 hours...an dry at 300 degrees for 8 hours

That's a really nice looking mold you have there. Your drying process sounds great.

If anything cracks I'd consider drying it more slowly, but 300 degrees sounds pretty good. I got nervous when I saw what looked like a flame thrower aimed at your wet core!

If one side dries faster than the other side, you get more cracking. The more evenly the water leaves, the less likely cracks will form. You see, clay shrinks as it dries. Having non-shrinking things in the mix, like perlite or grog, will help, but there's still going to be a little bit of shrinkage with any ceramic material.

I'm thinking that is made with clay and not cement?? Maybe bags of porcelain or stoneware mix?

Nope its a refractory cement....an Tim read the instructions