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Bone Head Mistakes


TJR

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Okay, I have a good one.

Loading the (outdoor) soda kiln one winter morning in college, I thought I'd be all stoic and not light the pilot to keep my sorry ass warm. It was sunny and 5 degrees above freezing. (Relatively balmy for February in Calgary, you understand.). The shelves and posts are all still frigid however, and the wadding froze as I was placing it. Come 10 PM the stack has fallen sideways because the ice in the wadding has melted, and the firebox is now blocked,and the firing ruined. I was not popular.

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slab was poured and a catanary arch cast on top and the ends where filled in and it was laoded and firing well untill the slab blew up-arch went up and then down into many poieces taking out whole load-front and rea wall fell over.Kiln was toast.

Happened to my friend.

Mark

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Had a dog water bowl I made with the dog name on it.  Doggie has been dead for a long time so I decided to glaze over the name.  Forgot that the bowl had been sitting outside absorbing water.  Should have made sure it was dry....blew into a million pieces in the glaze fire.  Duh.

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As I usually only have a few glazes in different colored buckets, I had not labeled them. This early Spring I was disappointed in the glaze surfaces, even though they were OK. So I replaced a white with a new white as at my cone 6 the old white was chalky even though properly applied. I also added a few other glazes to the mix. Next load found that I had forgotten the glazes in the original buckets, and the new mix was again not as pleasing as I had hoped. Test tiles in the load pointed out the problem very well! So next load will show for certain how things go. All of the containers are now numbered lid and bottom to match a numbered test tile. Many of the glazes are meant to go over others, and were being used on bare clay with base glazes over top. Not successful, but not bad.  Lesson learned, really need to not be in such a hurry.

 

 

best,

Pres

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I had a bread rack loaded down with trays of bone dry pots. As i was backing down the slight ramp to the bisque room, i realized the hard way that the bread rack was facing in the wrong direction. Every tray full of pots slid out of the rack and hit the floor!! Aaaargh! My business partner found me in a pile of clay and racks smacking my forehead, muttering,"stupid..stupid..stupid..."

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One day at the college, the kiln was firing  and I was the only one there.  So, I'm walking around the rooms,

fat, dumb, and happy when I went into the kiln room.  There sat the kiln, blowers wide open and every crack and

cranny was glowing orange from the 40 cu foot Baileys kiln.  I went to the side of the kiln which has the temperature controls

and noticed the lower plug and spy port... the one where you check the large cones.(pack of 4, cones 8, 9, 10, and 11.)

I'm looking around and then I saw right above the lower spy port, an upper spy port with another plug.  I convinced myself

that no kiln company would put in an upper spy port unless you could look inside.  So, I grabbed the insulated plug

and yanked it out.  First there was a FRSSST sound, the kind that lets you know you don't have anymore eye brows.

Then more intense heat and another FRSSST sound letting you know that when you turned your head the hair

not under your cap is gone.  I backed up 4 feet trying not to burn my left hand putting my face and head out, plus

reminding myself, "Must not use right hand" since I'm still holding that insulated plug, which by the way was glowing orange

on the other end.  I'm watching the flame shooting out the side spy port about 8 to 12 inches before it slowly

started to arch in an upward pattern.  All that extra room we had between the kiln and the shelves suddenly

wasn't enough.  I was in a dither, since I needed help but then, no one could find out!!!  My first attempt was direct

trying to put it back in just like it came out, but the heat and flames went around the plug heating my hand... My second

attempt was to come up from the bottom, place the plug at a 45 degree angle on the bottom lip of the "spy port"

and shove it in.....It worked.  No one found out and my curiosity was cured for a very long time.

 

See ya,

Oh, by the way, not sure who first quoted it, but it goes like this,"You're not going to live long enough to learn from

all your mistakes, so you must learn from others."

 

Alabama

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Welcome to the forum Mockingbird!  you are very brave to post on the first day you joined the forum.  It took me ages to say anything.We would all love it if you would take the time to put a bit on your profile.  And pictures of your work...we love pictures!

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  • 1 year later...

(I realize this is an ancient forum but I'm hoping it gets checked every so often) Pretty sure I'm going to find that I've made my first "Bone Head" mistake today. The wife n I have been dabbling in ceramics for a few years (pouring our molds, firing them locally, painting and selling a few.) we just brought a load of glazed work to be fired to our "go-to" ceramic shop. Here's the bone head part: I used an 06 slip, fired at cone 05 and painted with cone 6 glaze. the shop fired it at  cone 6 and now I'm thinking I'll soon be replacing a 2 thousand dollar kiln and sleeping on the couch. Has anyone here ever done this without coming away unscathed?

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(I'm a newbie so please forgive if this post is misdirected)

 

My plan is to use stoneware clay, cover it in slip while leather hard, let it dry, and then fire it to cone 6.  Will such a piece be usable as dinnerware or do I need to add a clear glaze to make it waterproof etc? (vitreous?)

 

My objective is to produce usable dinnerware that does not have the glossy look of a glazed piece and instead has the soft patina of colored clay.

 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

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(I realize this is an ancient forum but I'm hoping it gets checked every so often) Pretty sure I'm going to find that I've made my first "Bone Head" mistake today. The wife n I have been dabbling in ceramics for a few years (pouring our molds, firing them locally, painting and selling a few.) we just brought a load of glazed work to be fired to our "go-to" ceramic shop. Here's the bone head part: I used an 06 slip, fired at cone 05 and painted with cone 6 glaze. the shop fired it at  cone 6 and now I'm thinking I'll soon be replacing a 2 thousand dollar kiln and sleeping on the couch. Has anyone here ever done this without coming away unscathed?

I'm sure its been done before-let us know how this turns out?

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I will not call this one bone head; but will classify it as really really stupid. My laptop crashed, and along with it seven years of research and notes. I thought I had backed it all up just a few months back, but when I plugged in the thumb drive-nothing was there. At this point, even a very long string of four letter words do not sum up my feelings.

Nerd

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I will not call this one bone head; but will classify it as really really stupid. My laptop crashed, and along with it seven years of research and notes. I thought I had backed it all up just a few months back, but when I plugged in the thumb drive-nothing was there. At this point, even a very long string of four letter words do not sum up my feelings.

Nerd

 

You can easily get the data off the laptop. Take out the harddrive from the laptop. If you have another computer you can just buy an adapter that plugs into the minihard drive and makes it a usb connector to another computer. Easy and simple. (looks like this: https://www.amazon.com/Micro-SATA-1-8-Adapter-Cable/dp/B0037JACXG) Just make sure you get the right kind.

 

And even if you think the data isn't there. It probably is. A good recovery program will find most of it unless the drive is just trashed. Which rarely happens.

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Yowch. As Joseph and Mark said - if nothing visible initially some computer geek tools (sector editor) might get something usable off it. Absolutely AVOID writing to the hard disk or thumb drive until they've been examined..

Fingers crossed.

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