Approaching dry

"Older Slab"

"Newer Slab"

Sixth day of kiln drying of my 1st test of a home brew refractory using bird seed as the organic burnout filler to create gaps for insulation.
Started the kiln today. One benefit of being home sick, I guess, is that I can run these whilst I sit on the couch. Another day at 190 F.

Making some progress. You can sorta see the color differences in these two shots. These are both shot with the flash in the shade to minimize color variance from the sun. The older slab is beginning to get and stay white. Well whiter. The mold has either gone away or bleached out or something.

The newer slabs are still, by comparison much darker. Mold is still present. In fact when I turned them this morning there was mold on the shelves. Who knew mold was happy at 190 F? There's something to think about when you are looking at toasting that last piece of bread that may have been around a day too long ... ewww.

You can see where I'm losing the corners. They are either flaking off or I keep hitting them on the sides of the kiln. Not critical. If these make it through firing, I can grout that with the Sairset and some silica sand.

Not real exciting stuff right now, but this is what I get for too much water in the mix.