The main purpose of shaping the regular hexagonal prism is to make the clay easier to roll. Now, just use a knife to round off the edges of the hexagonal prism, and you can start rolling it into a cylindrical shape.
However, this isn't done by directly kneading and shaping by hand. Hands will inevitably produce some movement, and kneading on hard ceramic will inevitably result in a larger margin of error.
Therefore, we need to use an ancient kneading tool, a soft felt, which was used to make pills.
This tool is very easy to make; I had some python skin left. I stretched and rubbed it back and forth on the stake until it got warm and softened it.
Then just put a lot of fluffy mugwort floss inside and wrap it up.
In ancient times, cotton was usually wrapped in fine cloth, but I don't have either of those, so I can only use mugwort floss and thin snakeskin.
It is important to use the thinnest possible material to wrap the moxa wool; otherwise, thicker skin, such as pigskin, will reduce the softness of the felt and affect the quality of the final product.
I placed the three prepared long strips of clay together on the table, and then used the soft, flat bottom of a felt pad to push the three clay strips back and forth.
With a gentle push, the clay strip gradually took shape and became more and more rounded.
Using the stick marked with a one-centimeter mark, I measured various points and found that the cylinder was now perfectly standard.
The clay is still too soft to be placed on uneven surfaces, so I carefully placed the three finished cylinders in the center of the table.
Place the tabletop along with the clay model on it on the ground. This time the object is not big, so I just used my hands to make a clay model. As before, I completely dried the clay model inside.
After drying, I took out the three cylinders inside and found that there were no cracks on them. They were still round and smooth, only now they were dry and white.
The kaolin was mixed again into a fine, fluid consistency, and then the three cylinders were rolled on it and left to air dry naturally.
During this time, I also made some cups of different sizes and a wine pot, and after drying them, I also glazed them.
Once it's dry, we'll put it into the high-temperature kiln along with the three cylinders to fire. Although the wood resources here are free, it's still more worthwhile to fire more.
I didn't make many items this time, and the pieces weren't very big either. I only fired them for about half an hour before I had to stop the fire.
By the afternoon, the temperature of the kiln had dropped.
I felt the temperature of the kiln with my hand; at this moment, only a faint residual heat remained outside. Let's wait a little longer; the temperature inside should still be quite high.
Another hour passed, and the heat outside the kiln had dissipated, unlike the previous porcelain pieces. This time, the kiln could be opened directly.
I used twigs to carefully remove everything from the kiln. This time, I found no cracked items, and all the utensils were successfully fired.
It's obviously impossible to get the remaining parts out now. However, there's still plenty of time, so we can make the T-shaped pipe from the clay blank.
The so-called "three-way connection" refers to three pipes connected together to share a single gas storage device. When gas is rapidly released, it directly propels the short arrow inside through these three pipes to achieve the firing purpose.
Making this crucial tee joint is not easy; if even one part goes wrong, the entire component is ruined.
First, there are the three horizontally arranged pipes. They are not made individually, but rather like a double or triple-barreled shotgun, with the three pipes forming a single unit.
This requires precisely positioning the cylinders at the correct distances beforehand, and then wrapping all three cylinders with the prepared kaolin clay.
To wrap the clay, we need to make a layer of clay of the same thickness as when making a cylinder, just like when we made it. This time, the thickness is changed to five millimeters.
Five millimeters is the thickness of the barrel. Because it's made of ceramic, I made it thicker to make it more robust.
At this point, three holes, about the thickness of a little finger, need to be drilled at the bottom of the three gun barrels, one centimeter from the end. These holes are used to connect to the gas chamber later.
After completing the one-piece barrel, the next step is the core component of the three-way connector. Here, there's a shared gas chamber, which is crucial for connecting the three barrel sections.
The air chamber is made by hollowing out the inside of a single 10 cm by 10 cm square clay block.
Next, connect it 5 millimeters from the end of the barrel, then wet the clay with water and seal it completely, leaving only a small section of the three barrels sticking out.
Next is the power cylinder section. Here, I'm not using the compression accumulator method, but rather the fast-displacement piston method.
The cylinder consists of three parts. The main cylinder, which is located directly in front of the air chamber, is the fast exhaust cylinder that provides power.
There are also two smaller cylinders on the side, which are vacuum accumulator cylinders. Their main function is to connect the three cylinders into one unit through the connecting rod.
Due to the strong pulling force under vacuum, atmospheric pressure will push it back to its original position. The principle is the same as the syringe we played with as children; after plugging the head and pulling back the plunger, the vacuum will suck the plunger back to its original position.
The two small cylinders here actually function like power springs, providing an inward pushing force to the piston in the main cylinder.
The resulting high-pressure airflow then flows through the shared air chamber into the three barrels with small holes at the tail, completing a pneumatic firing.
All three of my cylinders were made into rectangular hollow cylinders with a length of 15 centimeters, and the material used was still 5 millimeters of clay.
A rectangular cylinder can have a larger surface area and store more air than a circular one. Crucially, the manufacturing process for a rectangular cylinder is also much easier.
Except for the main cylinder, which is connected to the air chamber with a large hole at the front, the remaining vacuum cylinders are all open at one end and sealed at the other end, not connected to the air chamber, but simply attached to the sides of the air chamber.
The most important and also the most troublesome component is finally finished. I feel a sense of relief, like someone who's been constipated for a month finally feeling a little better.
The component is placed in a pile of clay to evaporate the moisture, and then glazed inside and out. This can be considered the initial decoration.
After all this was done, it was already getting dark.
I put down what I was doing; it was time to go back and cook. I wondered how Top and Pat got along today.
Back at my lodgings, I was met with an astonishing sight. I was almost speechless, hardly believing what I was seeing.
Top had fallen asleep while playing, and Pat, who was next to him, was squatting on the ground like a mother hen, fast asleep next to Top.
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