Thoughts about making ladles

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Mayhem:
You have to love how American's cheer for anything and everything :clap:

VT - I guess there is only one way to find out if yours works. If not, I'm sure you could add more hight. Or is the issue that you want to use charcoal and not coke?

Also, what were they doing at around the 9-10 minute mark? Was that a small blower they were adding?

I wonder how Rob is going...

vtsteam:
Mayhem, yes I could add more height with an extension, and yes the idea was to use charcoal made here. We'll just have to wait and see. I could also go waste oil crucible, etc. But my real hope was for a single charge charcoal melter, either cupola or crucible.

Toward the end they broach the furnace shell and refractory with a bar, leaving the blast on which they deflect with a shovel, then drive a pipe in through, and duct tape a second blower on.

Awemawson, that video was absorbing to watch on the other side of a computer screen, but not live, not my cup of tea in just about every way. Great gobs of bot, patted by hand into place, broaching walls with the blast on, a tangle of inexperienced helpers, and a bunch of spectators is not quite how I imagine wanting to work with iron. Concentration is more admirable than heedless showmanship.

vtsteam:
We were talking about making crucibles on my oil furnace thread, and it seemed like it would fit in better here, since the ladle I made could actually be used as a crucible to melt aluminum or any of the copper containing metals.

But also of interest is the possibility of making an iron melting crucible. Neotech linked to a youtube video of a crucible being home made with graphite, using a press. Although this one, in the end was only used to melt aluminum -- no mention of its suitability for iron. And Vince Gingery wrote a book about using a press to make non-ferrous melting ceramic crucibles -- without graphite.

With the right ingredients seems like you could make one on a pottery wheel with a bilge shape, unlike the prior two.

But what interests me is probably the simplest and oldest pottery making method -- coil forming. And it doesn't require a press, or a wheel or any other special equipment. So, I'm thinking about that. Just thought I'd put it out there.

vtsteam:
This is a particularly instructive video about commercial crucible making

But also check out the segment at about 3:14 "rib forming" which looks like it might be appicable to smaller scale crucible forming.

NeoTech:
the biggest problem with coil forming is that its hard to keep the wall thickness the same over the whole shape especially you do the bilge shape..

On way is to mix the clay up and make it more lika slurry and go about casting the shape needed. All needed for casting in clay is a gypsym mold that can be created on wood plug. the two parts is then let dry 1-2 days until they start to be "leathery".. then a thin water film to moist the contact surfaces and you squish em together and smooth out the seem... And then let dry a bit more before burning them in the furnace..

Stoneware is usually burned in 1350 degrees for 4-6 hours depending on surface coat or no coat.. But its a ramped up temperature.. Buut can be done with propane burners and a stopwatch. =)

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