Dental Kilns for Enameling

Does anyone know if a dental kiln (for doing porcelains) will work
well for doing vitreous enameling. I do not have any current
on the specs of kiln yet but I thought I would put out
the general question.

Thanks in advance.

Joel

    Does anyone know if a dental kiln (for doing porcelains) will
work well for doing vitreous enameling.  

Joel; Take a look at this site

   Does anyone know if a dental kiln (for doing porcelains) will
work well for doing vitreous enameling. 

Don’t know why it wouldn’t Joel - all you need is something that
will get the piece and the enamel on it to a temperature where the
glass is red hot, flows, smooths out, and becomes shiny, without
exposing it directly to a naked flame or gas combustion products. I
imagine a dental kiln would come equipped with a pyrometer but if it
didn’t that’s no big loss - in the long run learning to judge
temperature by heat colour will serve you better than relying on
thermometry that is only approximate at best.

Al Heywood

Thanks to everyone who replied. The Paragonweb.com website was
interesting and raised more questions. So many different kinds of
kilns although only a few of the models are for enameling.

Theoretical any kiln should work if it gets hot enough. If the
temperatures are much higher that could be a problem, or at least
require more careful watching. Not relying on a pyrometer is a good
point. And the size of the kiln would just influence the size of
the piece. Currently, I have no idea of the specifics of the dental
kiln yet, so I thought I would post a general question and see if
this awesome list would have any suggestions. And the list has been
fantastic as always. Thanks again.

A friend works for a dental supply company and mentioned when they
have problems w/ a kiln they sometimes get rid of one. If the
repairing does not require extensive or expensive work it could be
great to get a hold of one.

Joel

  Does anyone know if a dental kiln (for doing porcelains) will
work well for doing vitreous enameling. 

Hi Dallas, It is not a dental kiln which you are looking for, it is a
porcelain furnace. A dental kiln is a burnout furnace, used to
eliminate wax and plastic from the mold in the casting ring prior to
casting. The porcelain furnace is what is used to fire the ceramics
in building porcelain jacket crowns, and porcelain fused to gold or
‘crud’ metal as I call it.

These porcelain furnaces definitely have pyrometers and are accurate
to about +/- 5 deg. F at 1700 deg. F. They are also made to be used
with vacuum. They fire under vacuum and can be set to raise the
temp. at a very consistent rate. The rate ( ramp speed ) is set by
the operator as is the idle temp. and the final temp. that you will
use. You can set the low end anywhere, and the high temp. can be set
anywhere also, but only up to 1800 deg. F. Hotter than this and you
will burn up the muffle ( the heating chamber ). You DEFINITELY
will burn out the muffle at this temp.

The size of the muffle is not very large in height, length, and
width. Now the bad news. Porcelain furnaces are very expensive, even
used. Another thing is that you can’t set the article to be enameled
right onto the bottom of the muffle. You need to put it on a tray
and insert it slowly into the muffle with a 12 inch long tweezers.
Conversely, when removing the article, you slide it out to the mouth
of the muffle and let it cool until the ‘red color’ disappears. You
then wait a few minutes and remove the tray to a cooling ( heat
resistant ) tray on your bench.

If you wish to discuss this further, please feel free to email me
and I will send you my phone number. My address is
@Edward_Meister1 . I was a Dental Technician for over 30 years. I
do suspect that the furnace would be just the ticket for this
application.

Warmest Regards,
Skip Meister

I have a dental kiln with pyrompeter and it works well for small
pieces of enamel.

Phyllis Richardson

Dental kilns are excellent for enameling, especially for small
pieces. The best way to get a small kiln which is nevertheless
professional quality. I have been using a small Sybron/Kerr burn-out
furnace for many years, which gives me fine control. It’s quite
small but with themostat (centigrade and farenheight), excellent
insulation, a drop-down door on which you can fine-position pieces
before putting in. It doesn’t take up a lot of space, and is very
energy efficient because it is small—great for single items or
multiple small parts.

Janet in Jerusalem