styrofoam in kiln
Barb Lund
a good chum of mine wants to make a clay scupture involving firing syrofoam
balls encased in clay slip. Is there any danger to the kiln, other
bisqueware or me if we try this in my electric kiln. He is going to pile
syrofoam balls, pour slip around them, poke the necessary holes for
escaping gasses, and hopes that I will fire this contraption-sort of along
the line of a lost wax method only lost christmas balls instead.
TIA
barb in Bloomington
barb...@bluemarble.net
LOWELL BAKER
i would never fire styrofoam in an electric kiln. The gasses from
the burning material are potentially toxic depending on teh specific
foam they may be fatal. use a kiln with a flue.....
W. Lowell Baker
the Unversityof Alabama
Kay Ellis
Barb,
I've never used styrofoam in conjunction with ceramics but when I studied
metal casting (aluminum) we were warned not to use styrofoam as a burn out
material because of toxic fumes. We did use blue and pink insultating
foamboard, the type used in the construction of houses. It still has fumes
but is less toxic. It would also be a good idea for your friend to test a
piece of the material he is planning to use to determine how it burns out.
Some of that stuff doesn't burn out cleanly and leaves various smelly gooey
messes.
Jan McQueary
Very Toxic, Bad, Bad idea, even with ventilation. A friend told me that
some students at his school mixed the beads out of a bean bag chair with
clay and fired it. Noxious fumes, and also a thick black soot that
coated the kiln room half way up the walls.
Sounds like the idea will be prone to a lot of structural flaws even if
it were safe to fire (AND IT'S NOT). Maybe your friend can make molds
from smooth balls (like the ones in ball pits at McDonalds) and cast the
elements of his sculpture that way, then assemble them. Could either
slip cast in the molds or press clay in the molds by hand (that way he
could build in openings in the balls, etc if that's what he wants).
___________________________________________________________________
You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail.
Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com/getjuno.html
or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]
Carole Steele
Hi, Barb and all,
Last summer during a children's art camp session,
I was firing a load of "fabulous" terra cotta sculptures
when this noxious, stench started oozing through
the kiln. It was caused by styrofoam being
left in the center of the claywork.We evacuated
the room and opened all windows and doors
and didn't resume class until the next
day. I'm sure this has to be dangerous and I won't
do it again....BUT I, too, would like to know just how
dangerous this is!
Carole in Louisiana....Hey Lisa Skeen...I'm graduating also...
AND getting a trip....but just to move
to new location to get MFA. I'm not
ready to go back to real life yet!
Congrats to you, girl!!!!
cst...@centuryinter.net
Jeff Seefeldt
As the dedicated US Department of Agriculture employee I am, I'd like to make a
suggestion and get others opinion before encouraging you to try it.
Some stryrofoam is now being replace by a product made from corn (corn starch)
and used as a packing material, I'm not sure what other ingredients are
present in these packing peanuts , they will disolve in water and not leave an
oily residue.
Has anyone experimented with these???? It might be satisifactory alternative
to styrofoam and a bit more environmentally friendly.
Jeff
cloudy and rainy in western Illinois today but looking forward to some good
weather in San Antonio next week... this is definitely the nicest location I've
ever been sent to a meeting.