Hi peeps, I would like to make something out of Zirconium Dioxide and I was hoping one of y’all had experience with this material.
I think that was an ingredient for some pimple cream when I was a kid or so the ads would say. Not trying to funny.
So I did some more googling around and found this:
http://multimedia.3m.com/mws/media/438262O/lavatm-zirconia-is-not-alike.pdf
Looks like it needs to be sintered (fired) at 1360°C–1530°C do we have a kiln that can get that hot? For that matter how hot can our kilns get?
That’s over Cone 10, I highly doubt our kilns would make it.
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What about the tiny oven that gets used for castings?
Sorry Frank, my personal kiln will only get to 2000F.
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Sad day 
Looks like getting a kiln for Zirconium is actually not that expensive;
I might be able to help just a tiny bit… This is going WAY back for me, but my undergrad is actually ceramics & materials engineering, and at my first job, we actually made zirconia refractory.
Other than requiring a relatively high sintering temp, it’s actually a pretty benign material to fire… It’s pretty reactive to soda though in case you nee to drop the sintering temp and send it towards a glassy state.
If you’re getting straight mined zirconia (not as the clay you describe) it’s got a relatively high radioactivity content… Nothing harmful, but a truckload will set off DOT checkpoints.
Lots of good info on the web about sintering it.
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Not a terrible price if the 100mm X 120mm firing chamber fits your needs.