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hitchmss

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About hitchmss

  • Birthday 01/20/1987

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  • Website URL
    www.SamHceramics.com

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  • Location
    Cincinnati, OH
  • Interests
    Making pots, hunting, fishing, making different foods from my harvests. Like to cook and bake. Enjoy music a lot; its a studio must have. Classic cars, working with my hands. I like to build things. Even though I am not nearly anything close to an engineer, I like to play at it; creating new projects for myself that arent clay related keep me from losing my mind. Metalworking, blacksmithing. Nature constantly inspires and amazes me.

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  1. A neighbor who works in commercial construction brought these to me from a demo of one of his jobs. They are out of a pharmacy; originally they were just cabinets, so I made a frame, and added the casters (amazon). The cabinets are made by a company called Logicell. They dont publish prices online, so my guess is that these cabinets are $$$$....maybe $5-800 a piece. Thank gosh for good neighbors!
  2. Thanks for answering that Peter! I had always heard to cast using a defloc slip as the particles would evenly disperse (as well as lower water content), but wondered if being cast solid would provide different results. It seems based on a lot of good advice that slip casting these handles wont work, so Im going to pursue press molding these instead. Thankfully, Ive got enough experience with making/using press molds that this should be a relatively painless journey.
  3. Ive been in some studios that have been in operation for decades and have always been dirt floors. Lots of downfalls to this IMO, but obviously, those potters made it work; not for me though. Id rake, rent a plate compacter, then lay planking/sheet vinyl/etc to give you some kind of surface other than dirt. You could also spread #8 limestone chips as flat as possible, compact again, and then screed limestone dust over it; wet lightly with hose, and compact once again. Will give you a pseudo like concrete effect, with a lot less cost.
  4. i assume this was using a defloc slip? I wonder if a non defloc slip, being higher in water content, would take longer to gel/set, and thus might give fill solid? When you let your castings dry after filling the molds, were they vertical, or on a slight angle? I wonder if an angle might increase the chances of casting solid? Maybe setting the molds onto a vibrating table as they set? Not sure if any of these have merit, just brainstorming. Would love to find a way to make this work, but again, time/money invested only to fail....
  5. I worked in a tile studio and we press molded a lot of tiles. I hadnt thought about press molds to be honest.... This might be a better alternative to slip casting. I enjoy pulling a few handles, but I make about 500 mugs a year which I pull handles for, and it takes me about 5-6 mins per handle to pull which equates to about 42-50 hours a year just in pulling handles.
  6. I extrude a boatload of handles for other pots. They look "ok", and are quick, but for some things I just want that pulled handle look. I was wondering about the particles/strength of the cast handles. Not having any experience, I wasnt sure. Similarly, wasnt sure if a defloc vs non defloc slip would be stronger/weaker in this regard.
  7. Hey Gang, long time no talk....too busy making pots to get on here and throw my $.2 around even though Id like to! I searched in the back pages to see if this was covered somewhere else, but couldnt find the answer to my question, but if it already has, please advise and/or delete. I make about 1,000-1500 pots a year for which I also make (aside from extruding) handles for these said pots. I pull handles for mugs, and throw knobs/handles for some bakers. While Im efficient at the process, it still adds up to a bunch of time just in making the handles, and Id like to find a more consistent/expedient process for doing this, so I thought Id research into slip casting them. Making the molds is not my issue; plenty of experience making molds and using numerous different materials (silicones/urethanes/gypsums/etc). My question mainly lies in the casting slip. Having very little (all intensive purposes, consider it zero) experience with slip casting, my knowledge of said materials makes me think that a deflocculated slip cast handle is going to shrink a lot less than my throwing clay body (Bmix ^10), and this will obviously be an issue. Can I cast with a non deflocculated slip? Ideally Id love to just add some suspension agents to my slip and pour away. Will I have issues doing this with my castings? Obviously, the higher water content will lead to saturated molds much faster, which Id just offset with more gang molds-no biggie. Im also hoping that this will benefit me some; my pulled handles are thicker at the top, thinner at the bottom. If I pour these molds with the thick/top up, and thin/down, I would think there would be a higher concentration of water in the bottom portion of the mold (gravity), and thus, hopefully my handle bottoms wont be much drier than the tops upon removal from the mold. Id need the handles to come out of the molds soft enough to still bend into shape to attach (Not sure that I want to make molds of handles in a "pre-bent" shape), so Im thinking I will have some challenges with timing the extraction of these castings, but with experience....If they do need to come out too firm to bend, I could always rehydrate, which is time, but not a huge amount of effort. Anyone have experience with this? Anything Im missing? Dont want to spend a lot of time/money on this to find out that its a complete waste. Thanks in advance!
  8. It is quite the studio; two years in it now and there have been a few alterations, and one major realization that the studio is not big enough. Already looking at another 1500 ft to support an online shopping venture. I had one contractor quote me $450k to do this originally; including a generous profit for himself, that number is not ridiculously far off, especially now that materials are 3x expensive.
  9. It sure would. I know what I was doing was wrong, but rushing to get stuff done, working on little sleep and mainly caffeine....not a good combo. I knew a guy who had no arms but still made pots....I bet I could figure it out!
  10. Perfectly. I havent had to do any maintenance on the drains (aside from cleaning out the troughs & sock filters) and the filter bed where they drain to is working perfectly as well. The bucket filters for the sinks have yet required a cleaning, but when they do, it'll be easy peesy.
  11. Nope, no canvas (aisde from slab roller) in the shop. The thing covered with red clay is a plaster slab.
  12. An older Bailey on the left, Pacifica from 800, and a newew Bailey on the right. Lights were a generic name....fluoro fixtures which j converted into an led fixture. Can't remember the name of the bulbs....nothing special.
  13. Extremely happy with the space! Covid kind of overshadowed what should have been a blissful first year but nothing j can do about that.
  14. hitchmss

    New studio build

    These are photos from numerous stages of the new studio I built in 2019 in no particular chronological order (couldn't figure out how to "set" this) . The photos correlate with the detailed info found in the forum thread "New studio design".
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