GoodrichDn on sun 24 may 98
For those of you involved in press-molded clay work:
At a trade show recently I saw samples and acquired literature about
"Micro-porous Air-permeable Aluminum". This is a porous, machinable metal that
can be used to make molds for vacuum-forming plastics. It looked as though
with little design effort it could be used to make air-release clay-forming
molds similar to the plaster ones used for ram pressing. It could also, of
course, be used for hand-pressed molds if one wanted to bother with space-age
materials rather than plaster. Advantages might be durability, cleanability,
imperviousness to chemicals or moderate heat, & less risk of contaminating
clay. The downside (surprise!) is expense. The price list I have shows $179
for a slab 500mm X 500mm X 10mm up to $4622 for a block 500mm X 500mm X 360mm.
Could any volume of clay manufacturing justify using this instead of air-
entrained plaster?
How about it, you ram-pressers out there. Any opinions?
Don Goodrich
goodrichdn@aol.com
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