Metal Casting Zone

I was just posting about thinking about making greensand when I thought of it. Ok so let me know if im on to something here. Like I said in my other post I can get graphite and zirconia powders, if I mixed them together then molded them into a crucible or really any shape could they be sintered together. Acording to Wikipedia zirconia is stable up to 4915 degrees.

Well I have an update on this one. It looks good so far I mixed it up last night, about a 50/50 mix useing a small about of oil to bond it together. Then baked it at 750 degrees for 4 hours. Just to test it I heated it up with a oxy acetylene torch. I think ill try to mix up some more and make a small crucible and then fire it in a kiln.


Here is a few peices I made up it was a lil dry so if did crack.



This pic is of the ones that I used the oxy acetylene torch on. I held the torch on them for about 5 mins and this is what they look like after.

I gave up on makeing a crucible with this mix, but it seems to work great as an insulation. So im going to keep working on making it work.

a little hard to see in the pics but did you compress your mix? im reading the gingery method of making crucibles .(one of my next projects)

I packed it into a cookie sheet to test. I may make a crucible mold at some point but it takes time to gather up enough graphite because its just over spray from coating.

keep collecting the graphite its a vital ingredient and as time goes by may get very hard to get.