A Specialized Tool and Studio Furnishing
This is a design for a water heated table for working with industrial styling clay. I have left the top open to view the coiling placement of the Aqua-PEX tubing that will be poured about 1 1/2" thick with self-levelling underlayment, or some other more flexible concrete slurry.
this is a really great idea.
ReplyDelete"The plan is to just hook it up to ..."
^^^i'm curious about this part, too. it's mostly what i was vague on. i don't even know what an expansion tank is.
i also wondered immediately if there would be a way to adapt the design so that one area of the table surface could give off concentrated heat that could be temp controlled. (for use as an encaustic palette, it would have to reach at least 160 degrees) i sorta figured that wouldn't work very well but i wanted to see what you thought.
Thanks!
ReplyDeleteOne second after I clicked the "publish" button I thought it could be two feet deep, like a regular countertop, and maybe have a special trough fitted for a cafeteria pan for my clay.
It will hook up to a hot water heater. What kind for me will depend on whether I want to continue using propane or electric. If I had a solar array I might just hook up to that, but then I wouldn't be able to work at night with it. (That's it! I AM moving to Iceland where they have regular geothermal heat.)
You know, you don't have to embed water tubing the way I plan. There are radiant floor heating systems that install under hardwood floors with just screws. You would have to plan for how much amperage it would take and probably make its own circuit if it is higher than a regular house circuit. I'm also pretty sure you can boost the heat up where you want it with the right design.
What are you using now? You have me pretty curious. I'm picturing an old electric stove that is completely flat, no controls in the back, and with maybe a big slab of steel about an inch thick covering the whole thing.
Expansion tank:
Plumbers are putting these on hot water heaters as a regular feature now. It's just a safety feature. They are about a gallon in size and set on a parallel line right near the top of the heater that stops there.
I like the water heat feature because it has thermal inertia, or consistency.
heh, right now i'm using a small electric griddle as a hot palette. i make the initial mixture of wax and damar in a double boiler on my kitchen stove. then i break off chunks of the wax, melt and mix it with pigment in old catfood cans on the griddle. i use a heatgun to fuse the layers on the painting. i'm thinking of putting together a little encaustic tutorial with photos (or a vid if i'm feeling really ambitious) in the near future.
ReplyDeleteOddly enough I get the impression I could make more money selling the information on how to make stuff like this than a sculpture. I mean, I DID read "Understanding Media" for a Modern Art course way back when. I should know better...or some.
ReplyDeleteIf you're like me you saw "Strokes of Genius" as much entertainment as information, where Lichtenstein's assistant is mixing up pigments in quart-size paper cups on an old McDonald's shake mixer.
I don't think I've even seen work as mysterious as yours, and I think a lot of that you've deftly mastered over time within this medium.