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JohnnyK

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Posts posted by JohnnyK

  1. 23 hours ago, Sigintenough said:

    I just can’t see my self no offense but half rigging it I want a nice basin that I can fetch water from when I throw something that helps keep my studio clean and organized I need something that holds water.

    I understand where you're coming from, and my solution won't work for you, but just about all your 2 piece basins are designed to catch thrown-off slip, not "hold water". You would use a separate bucket for that. 

    Are you anywhere near a ceramic supplier or pottery studio that has Brent wheels? If so, you might check there to see if the Brent splash pan fits your wheel...

  2. 10 hours ago, Sigintenough said:

    I’ve bought a potters wheel it’s a haunyu LPJ-0066 model. It has no two piece water basin to keep my clay from making a mess. Does anyone on this potters forum know if replacement parts are sold or where they are sold? Thank you

    Hi SIg...while my old CI wheel isn't the same as yours, I made a splash pan from the bottom of a plastic trash barrel. If you look at my album, you can see different views of the piece I made and if you can't get a replacement from the manufacturer, this is something you might try to make yourself. The blue insert is used to catch trimmings when I use my Giffen Grip and is made from the top of another plastic trash barrel. Good Luck!

     

  3. For me, no... however, other things have happened for me locally. I have submitted my horsehair Raku pottery to my local PBS station's annual art auction, which is a juried event, and have been accepted all 3 times and all my entries had garnered at least 3 times my valued prices. The last time around I had won a Juror's award which got me an interview and article in a local news outlet but did not generate new business. I plan on continuing my donations to the art auction because each entry gets me a little more notoriety since the work gives me 6 minutes of TV exposure during the auction and it is good enough to be accepted for the auction. Someday it may lead to greater things!

  4. Over the past 8 years my wife and I have contributed to our local PBS TV Art Auction. My contributions have been photography and Raku pottery, while hers was a "Wine lover's Birdhouse" which was a birdhouse whose walls were covered with wine labels and the roof with corks, the perch was a corkscrew. This year we are going to collaborate. I'm going to make a Horsehair Raku lamp base and she is going to do a lampshade covered with wine labels. We've done this in the past with a very large wine bottle as the base and her label covered shade. it will be interesting to see what kind of reaction we get to the project.

     Winelampsm.jpg.60ed06f1143a45ec171c4c0ba0dd3735.jpg

  5. On 1/3/2024 at 9:20 AM, Min said:

    So I had decided to buy a sample blank and try grinding the cutting edge so I contacted the supplier I linked above and it turns out shipping is $25-. I don't think it's worth $50- USD for an experiment so I cancelled the order. 

    I did go ahead and order the one below from Aliexpress. (4 styles available) Given there are not a lot of suppliers and the styles are the same or very similar I thought it was worth a try. I'll do a follow up here once it arrives and I have a chance to try it out. (no affiliation with either company)

    ScreenShot2024-01-03at9_06_28AM.png.d38880f836c3b80e7a3ab364629c8733.png

    I noticed, @Min, that the tool you ordered is made of tungsten steel where the Bison tools are tungsten carbide. So I thought I'd do a little research and I found some interesting info here: Tungsten Steel vs Tungsten Carbide | Be-cu.com. It may or not influence your choice.

  6. 3 hours ago, Roberta12 said:

    I know there are those who sharpen their own tungsten tools, I have just been concerned about breaking it.  I really do love my Bison tool.  Not only is it a good trimmer but it fits my hand so nicely.  I have a number of woodworkers in my family, I could probably get someone to make a handle for the trimmer part from China.   I will let you know if I go this route.

    r.

    Why not try making ceramic handles? I think it might be easier than making wood handles...

  7. Glad to hear that you are finally kinda retiring. I was in the remodeling business for almost 40 years and I kinda retired from that business just before the fires that destroyed Paradise, CA, and a lot of northern CA. Because of the demand for contractors to help rebuild what seemed to be all of northern California, I could have gotten back in and made another fortune but decided to stay out of it. Retirement has been good because it gives me the opportunity to pursue my pottery and farming enterprises as well as some charity work with a local food locker.

    Enjoy the respite!

  8. I learned how much I really liked working with clay when I took a Learning Exchange class at my local ceramics supplier/studio at the behest of one of my remodeling clients who was still doing slip-casting classes for young 4-H members at the fine old age of 87. In that wheel-throwing class, which ran one night a week for 6 weeks plus all the studio time you could fit in when the store was open, we were only expected to produce 4 pieces of pottery. I made 20. I guess I liked it so much that I went on to take Ceramics I, II, and Raku at a local junior college. My professor was a young 30 or 40 something with fiery red hair that fit her personality. Her name was Ianna Frisby (toss that one around) and she was encouraging enough to prompt me to open my own little studio where I'm happy to produce all kinds of functional ware that I sell to help pay for the habit!

  9. 2 hours ago, neilestrick said:

    Some more info on non-twisted ends HERE. I'll have more info on this later today. I'm going to see if there's something about the L&L element connection system that makes non-twisted ends more viable than other element connection types (crimp, screw). There is no difference in element life between the twisted and non-twisted in L&L kilns. They are not more likely to burn out at the element connections or through-hole or anything like that.

     

    4 minutes ago, neilestrick said:

    @JohnnyK I just had a nice conversation with Steve at L&L, and he confirmed what I said above. The non-twisted end will not heat nearly as much as the coils inside the kiln do. For one, the coils feed off each other and run hotter- this is why they get hot spots when they bunch up at the corners. Plus the coils are in an insulated environment, whereas the end can dissipate heat fairly well, assuming the control box has good air flow.

    That said, there are a couple of things that may be an issue with your Cress compared to the L&L. First, the L&L element connection has a much greater surface area in the connection by using bolts, nuts, and washers. Plus all of that hardware is stainless steel, which is more durable and won't expand and contract as much as brass or copper connectors. The second potential issue is frying out the feeder wires if they're pressed up against the element connections when you close up the box. The L&L control box design directs the wires away from the connections so it's not an issue with their kilns.

    At this point I don't think there is really anything you can do besides fire the kiln and see what happens, but I think there's a good chance it will be fine.

    All good to hear, Neil. The original connections were screws, nuts and washers through a loop on the element and a crimp connector on the feed wire. Euclids provided me heavy brass couplings with stainless steel clamp screws. As for the feeders, I cut the loop off the crimp connector leaving the crimped portion on the end of the wire. The connections are solid and the feeders stick out away from the connectors. Ther is plenty of room in the well-ventilated box cover for the wires. On the next firing, I'll check the connectors to see if there are any problems.

  10. 6 hours ago, Dick White said:

     The elements only get red hot and heat up in the single thickness of the coils. Now you have a red hot connection.

    I learn something every day... Is there any way to salvage the single wire portion? It is too stiff to twist another wire to it like from the factory. What about tying another piece of wire to the singleton with some finer nichrome? The difference in resistance is about 0.2 Ohms, which calculates to about a 1 Amp increase in current...

  11. I just replaced the elements, which was an interesting task. The coils were about 3" too long, so I had to straighten and shorten the overall length. Man, I didn't realize how strong that coil wire is. It took quite an effort to do the straightening, Anyway, I got it done. I installed 4 shelves with posts and 2 cone sets, one near the bottom peephole and one near the top. It seems to me that the bottom of the kiln is running slightly cooler than the top and the top set (which is in the front) is dead on for cone 6. The firing was the pre-programmed ^6...

    The next run is going to be a bisque firing, then on to glaze firing. Comments anyone?6topbot.jpg.e20d9e080447a340e4dfcd90e65e1ed9.jpg

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