Fate of a cracked ceramic kamado

Chris, good to meet you last night. Good luck with the repair. If the cooker gets to see another life that would be great. Or it might serve as a nice planter.

I'm glad to have shown off the Golden's. Somehow I still think I might be the only member here who owns one, but that's ok. One thing about it, it'll never suffer the same fate as the BC. In 500 years somebody will still be grilling on it.

-Dom
 
m-fine said:
Maybe grind down both sides for better contact and to make room for the cement?
Click to expand...
What I was going to post. Any cement needs some thickness to form a proper bond, and to allow for a good alignment. Taking your time, a course grinding stone or two in an electric drill should do the job, a Dremel tool would be be more precise.
 
After speaking with Rutland and the Kiln folks and not getting a warm and fuzzy, I am going to try the following:

1. Piece back together with JB Weld original since it is safe to 550 degrees.
2. Sand the inside down to bare ceramic and then coat with drywall fiberglass tape wetted down with refractory cement.

Chris
 
I can't believe this thread has gone this long and nobody has suggested JB Weld. That's the go to for repairing clay and ceramic cookers. I have a 1960ish Japanese kamado. It's clay,and had many cracks and a few brakes. I repaired it all with JB Weld. That was 10 years ago.
 
ChrisL said:
After speaking with Rutland and the Kiln folks and not getting a warm and fuzzy, I am going to try the following:

1. Piece back together with JB Weld original since it is safe to 550 degrees.
2. Sand the inside down to bare ceramic and then coat with drywall fiberglass tape wetted down with refractory cement.

Chris
Click to expand...
I'd clean the surfaces well with brake cleaner or acetone, and, since JB Weld has some thickness to it, rough up the mating surfaces first.
 
Larry S said:
I can't believe this thread has gone this long and nobody has suggested JB Weld. That's the go to for repairing clay and ceramic cookers. I have a 1960ish Japanese kamado. It's clay,and had many cracks and a few brakes. I repaired it all with JB Weld. That was 10 years ago.
Click to expand...

I was trying to remember what I used to put parts of the BGE together after the roofers dropped a ladder on it. JB Weld it was, for the lid and the cap. 2006 and still running.
 
Ed:

Did you rough up the pieces at all or just fit them together? Since the rim of the dome is broken under the hinge band, I am a little worried about it cracking when I install the band.

To that point, I am thinking about jb welding the dome and tightening the band while it is still "wet"

Chris
 
What about "water glass"? I read about it when i needed to research the combustion chamber kit for my boiler and they use this to bond the chamber parts to the cast iron boiler surface. If it can withstand a boiler it may survive on a smoker. Lynn makes the kits.
 
Zak said:
What about "water glass"? I read about it when i needed to research the combustion chamber kit for my boiler and they use this to bond the chamber parts to the cast iron boiler surface. If it can withstand a boiler it may survive on a smoker. Lynn makes the kits.
Click to expand...


Looks interesting, but apparently, it is water soluble.

Thanks,
Chris
 
ChrisL said:
Ed:

Did you rough up the pieces at all or just fit them together? Since the rim of the dome is broken under the hinge band, I am a little worried about it cracking when I install the band.

To that point, I am thinking about jb welding the dome and tightening the band while it is still "wet"

Chris
Click to expand...
Parts repaired with JB Weld will creep if they are clamped too tight. Maybe just tighten enough to line things up and watch it for a little while, just in case.
 
ChrisL said:
Ed:

Did you rough up the pieces at all or just fit them together? Since the rim of the dome is broken under the hinge band, I am a little worried about it cracking when I install the band.

To that point, I am thinking about jb welding the dome and tightening the band while it is still "wet"

Chris
Click to expand...

I just fit them together. I don't think roughing them up would do anything but help the bond, though.
 
See if the dome of tour egg would swap out? It’s possible it might fit. Bands could be an issue at that point tho. And the egg dome could be cost prohibitive.
 
Fire clay, made aluminum melting furnaces out of those. You can mold it and it cures hard.
 
Wish me luck fellas! It went together really nicely and uneventfully.

I think my next phase is to grind the inside of the dome with a 36 grit sanding disc and cover it with 3/16" of an inch of refractory cement and wallboard fiberglass tape. I also noticed that the base has a crack in it as well, so that will get the same refractory cement treatment.

Chris
 

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Just a question, based on looking at the pictures. What prevents you from rotating the lid so the hinge is at a location that was never broken? Who cares if the thermometer is off center, if it would take the strain off? Should cook the same.
 
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