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Re: Ovens.
As some of you know I built an oven to pump the sculptural pieces I make. I
used standard soft firebrick and simple heating elements originally for
electric dryer replacement parts. Appliance repair suppliers have the damnest
things! May even have spa blowers....hmm. The neat part of my oven which I
consider important is the 6X6 in. borosilicate glass windows. If you bombard
through traditional methods or if you use inductive heating for any parts you
need to see the tubes "in action". I set them into some 2 ft. square fiberboard
top panels that act as doors. there is quite a bit of heat that escapes
through those glass windows so I usually cover them with some additional
insulation as the oven comes up and down in temperature. I prefer standard
bricks over fiberfax because of known hazards associated with the use of the
stuff. Also, once it is heated it isn't nearly as flexible anymore and is
prone to break up into small bits that can be inhaled. The binder isn't good
for you if you are around it when it first burns out either. Plain old brick
is pretty inert and has fairly large particle size debris by comparison. Any
refractory material should be viewed with caution in mind.
E-mail from: Tom Biebel, 29-Mar-1996