One More Discovery
In the previous posting I reported that I had been able to sinter small amounts of copper and Bronze XT in combination with Low Shrinkage Steel XT. Pushing the limits just a little bit further, I tried to fire bigger amounts without pre-firing.
Remember the project “Overlay with Bronze XT“? I re-made it with Low-Shrinkage Steel XT. Copper backing is 4 cards thick, each overlay is 4 cards thick.
It worked.
Two hours firing, no pre-firing, full sintering. Just like the old silver clay.
And it worked again.
And again.
And again.
At one point I started to add a copper circle and a Bronze XT circle to the batches. While the copper circle sintered some of the time, the Bronze XT circle did not sinter at all. They sintered only when they were combined with Low-Shrinkage Steel XT in a single piece.
The instruction manual is about to be updated. Except for the new discoveries discussed in the last three postings, other issues will be revisited, such as pre-firing on a stove top vs. pre-firing in the kiln, arranging pieces in the firing vessel, and ramping speed.
