Wadding Recipes Need Help

[Krayart]

I am trying to make wadding for building up my kiln shelves.  I have an electric kiln and normally I would use 50 parts EPK and 50 parts Ball Clay and mix with water till it is a dough and put it between my furniture and my Kiln shelf to act like a glue as I am building up my shelves to make them sturdy.

 

I do not have anymore EPK but I do have a big bag of Kaolinitic Clay (not sure exactly what that is but I do know that Kaolin is in EPK) in powder form and I also have OM4 Ball Clay and some Alumina.  Can I mix 50 parts Kaolinitic Clay and 50 parts OM4 Ball Clay and maybe throw in a little alumina to make a wadding for my shelving process?

 

I dont want to use much alumina since it is so expensive.

 

Any advice would be much appreciated

[Guest JBaymore]

Answered in the other thread.

 

best,

 

.............john

[Mark C.]

EPK and alumina 50% 50% if I recall

Whatever John has posted is what you need to do-just search his posts

[Guest JBaymore]

http://community.ceramicartsdaily.org/topic/14064-simple-wadding-for-supporting-pots-in-electric-kiln-glaze-firing/?p=118469

[Mark C.]

Not sure why in a small electric you would ever need to do this?Are your posts uneven or have non flat ends?

[neilestrick]

You should only every use 3 posts per shelf, so even with messed up post ends the shelf shouldn't rock.

[High Bridge Pottery]

Never seen the wadding with shelves before, does anybody have a picture?

[Guest JBaymore]

Never seen the wadding with shelves before, does anybody have a picture?

 

 

Example in an anagama here: 

 

best,

 

.................john

[What?]

$2.50- $3.00 a pound for alumina hydrate. A few pounds goes a long way when mixed 50/50 with EPK. If the post are that bad get new ones if your firing tons of work then it should be a drop in the bucket.

[High Bridge Pottery]

Thank you John. Pretty much how I expected it to look but always good to have a photo. 

[Krayart]

Thank you all for your responses! I am an apprentice and this is how my boss is teaching me to do it in her kiln. I didnt think that you needed to put wadding in between either but thats just how she wants me to do it.

[Mark C.]

Hey I just ordered 50# bag of the stuff-its cheaper that way.

[Guest JBaymore]

Hey I just ordered 50# bag of the stuff-its cheaper that way.

 

There are very few things that I don't buy in 50 pound bags.  (Yes... cobalt carbonate and tin oxide are two of them.  )

 

FYI....... for the college's anagama, which is a heavy ash deposit environment, we go thru about 125 pounds of wet wadding mixture.  That's for a pretty large kiln, and every pot and every post is waddded.  Overall ... it is minor expense relative to the value of the work in the kiln.

 

best,

 

.......................john

[neilestrick]

Way back when I wood fired, we used wadding made of equal parts fireclay, 20 mesh silica sand, and flour. After the firing it just crumbled away, or if it got ash in it it was pretty easy to grind. And the kiln smelled like toast in the first few hundred degrees.