estanding Pot Furnace
The pot furnace is probably the most popular style of glass furnace in use today. They are fairly easy to construct, easy to maintain, and economical to build and run if insulated properly. Most private glass studios use some variation of the basic design outlined in this chapter. The invested and freestanding furnaces share a few similar building techniques. One is the construction of the ring that comprises the container in which the crucible sits and another is the “beehive” crown. If you choose to construct this furnace, please reference the section starting on page 156. In order to build this, or any pot furnace for that matter, it is important to familiarize yourself with the refractory materials that go into the building of glass equipment.
1. The crucible pedestal should be either cast from a heavy duty castable or constructed from hard brick. The floor should slope toward the clean-out drain. You may need a small portable burner to keep the glass hot and flowing when it comes through the drain tube. It’s a mess and a pain when it happens. I recommend putting sand between the pedestal and the crucible. Sand sometimes helps in getting the crucible to release when it needs to be removed. Sometimes a sledge hammer is needed to remove the pot.
2. The sloping floor is very important because it directs the glass to the drain tube. Make sure you slope the floor to a slight channel directed toward the drain tube. Obtaining a good slope can be facilitated by using a good, super-duty high, alumina plastic ramable. You may wish to ram your floor, slope it, and lay in the drain tube before you cast the ring. It makes setting up the ring a bit tricky, but it can save you an aching back. If you set the floor after the ring is cast, make sure you leave a hole in your sidewall mold for the drain tube, or cast the drain tube first and then cast the ring around the tube. Casting a drain tube should not present any problem. If you cast your own burner port and drain tube, try to fire them in a kiln before setting them in place. Plastic ramable is merely a special clay formula that, when dry, is somewhat brittle. Firing hardens it the same way as bisque firing a pot.
3. When insulating with fiber blanket, make sure the first 2” are 2600° F, 8 lb. density blanket. Beyond that you can use the 2300° F, 8 or 6 lb. density blanket. To avoid airborne fibers, I recommend encapsulating the fiber.
The Care and Feeding of Crucibles
One of the most common complaints from people using pot furnaces is that the crucible that they paid big bucks for cracked after being used about one week. | There are many reasons why crucibles crack before their time. The following information concerning the care I lof crucibles was supplied and written by John Bartel | formally of The Laclede Christy Crucible Company. M The information presented here is applicable to EC 1 crucibles as well.
The change of the glass melting crucible | composition from the clay flux type to the more M resistant, high alumina, zirconia materials, has m introduced a new factor into the successful thermal* management of the crucible. This factor is referred^ to as “down shock”—a phenomenon wherein the | differential temperatures between the inside wall of ; the crucible and its outside surface are of sufficient differences to develop a destructive stress force that will result in cracked refractory crucible walls. Normally, these cracks are not destructive to the point m they render the crucible useless, but they do establish 1 a condition whereby corrosive forces associated with* glass materials have a more favorable environment for 1 Taccelerated deterioration in the crack zones. Ultimately, j this results in a destructive hole through the structure* of the crucible. The cracking described accounts for 9 the majority of premature failures. There are other * factors which can cause this type of cracking, but the 1 Hlargest contributor is the manner in which the filled 1 material, batch-cullet is added to an active crucible.* The addition of batch, cullet, or combinations thereof 1 introduces the mechanism for lowering the interior M surface temperatures of the crucible. The amount, | frequency, and temperature of the charge are the j key contributors to the development of forces severe 1 enough to crack the crucible’s surface. The addition of I clod charge, in contact with the walls of the crucible, * can drop the temperature, in the area of contact, to | a 1000° F (537° C) in a matter of a few minutes. This J results in the interior wall, or that portion of contact, * wanting to shrink while the other, hotter surfaces a want to expand. It is this heat differential between * the inner and outer wall that creates enough stress M to sometimes crack the crucible. There are ways to , moderate these forces.
The temperatures of the charge material should * be as warm as your operation will permit. In addition, j| the material must be dry. You can help yourself if, at * the very least, you bring the material in and allow it* to sit in the warm surroundings of the furnace prior to^ its introduction into the crucible. Some people
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