How do you protect your kiln shelves?

You should protect your kiln shelfs against running glazes and even sometimes against sticky clays containing much fluxes. Those may not resist in high temperatures and may ruin both your products and your shelves. You must have an insulating layer on the kiln plates to separate your ceramics to the shelves. The kiln wash plays the role here as a separator.

First of all, in case of new glazes, clays, or kiln regimes that you would like to use, you should make a test in a controlled conditions before real production. You can make test tiles and place them on an unglazed biscuit plate that you are sure to resist high temperatures, or you can use old kiln shelf pieces underneath your test tiles. This way, risks that may cause product, shelf, energy, and labor costs will be minimized.

As a result of these tests, you can work more safely with your clay and glaze combinations. However, you should still protect your shelves against unexpected situations. Your carefully prepared products positioned very close to heating elements, too thick glaze applications or uneven heat distribution in your kiln may cause runnings unexpectedly. In such a case, if your kiln shelf is not covered with a protective layer, both your product and your kiln shelf may be damaged. This will both throw you back in your production timing and cause a high expense if your shelf is not possible to be repaired.

To prevent this, we recommend using the Crafist Shelf Guard SG180.

Running glazes come in contact with Shelf Guard SG180 will not stick to your shelf and will be separated easily after cooling. Thus, you can use your shelves safely and extend their lifetime. In case of a small running of glaze, you can continue your work without any damage. You can sand your products with Crafist diamond sponges and simply replace your SG180 at necessary spots.

Crafist SG180 Shelf Guard (Kiln Wash)

Kiln Wash - SG180 has been carefully formulated with high qualified raw materials so that you can spread comfortably to form a smooth surface and use it as long as possible without cracking, running, or needing to repair.

HOW IS SG180 APPLIED?

• Clean your shelves completely before the application. If you have a shelf that is not used because of running glaze before, clean the surface with diamond discs or sponges. You can use Crafist Diamond disc 
• Wet the tablets with a sponge or brush for easy application.
• You can apply SG180 with a brush or roller. You can get best result with a sponge roller. 
• Let us start applying from one edge of our shelf by saturating your sponge roll with SG180.

• We recommend at least two layers on the shelf.

• For best result each layer is applied perpendicularly to eachother. This way we can get smooth and even thickness.
• Apply second layer after your first layer is completely dry, This way you can get better layering.

• When you apply SG180, the surface of your shelf will have a smooth and even surface .
• First time the kiln wash is applied, fire your shelf in biscuit firing without your glazed products in the kiln. Othervise the gases coming out of the shelf may effect your glazed surfaces.
• Place your SG180 applied shelf after making sure that they are completely dry.

HOW OFTEN AND HOW SHOULD WE MAINTAIN OUR KILN SHELVES?

Depending on your firing frequency and kiln temperature, your kiln wash may begin to crack and crumble in time. If you had running glazes, removing them from the shelf may result crater like surfaces on the guard. This would make undulating surface on your shelf in case of high amoults. Particles and powders from this undulating surface may stick to the surface of your products during firing.

So you had better renew your shelf guard when necessary .

In case of kiln wash cracks, try to remove the broken pieces from the surface with the help of a spatula. If the pieces are too hard to remove with a spatula, you can use CRAFIST DIAMOND DISCS.

You can wet your shelf before grinding to prevent powder emission.

The advantage of diamond discs is that you can easily remove the demaged parts and clean the surface without burning and further cracking and get effective results.

Now your shelf is ready for the new layer application of SG180