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Quick Question: Progressing From Test Glaze Batches To Production Batches


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You metric people! How dare you make more sense than the stupid system Americans use here!

*is American*

Man, Grype...you make 400g batches?! Chenoweth is right--you ARE brave! :) I never make batches outside of 5 or 1 numbers (like 500 or 1000). The potential for my guinea brain ruining the glaze is just too high. Some ingredients are way too expensive for me to risk--My shiny clear only has three ingredients, but every speck is precious when you're broke, lmao!

I am a big nub, I just do what I read. I read somewhere that you make 400G batches for test. I dont even remember where. It seemed pretty easy. Take all the numbers multiply it by 4. Worked pretty well I guess. Making a 1500G Batch this weekend.

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  • 2 months later...

Okay. I have tested this single glaze a lot and I am ready to scale it up to a production batch. I have fired it with all types of clay in different cooling rates and everything and its wonderful.

 

My question is now, how do you production potters glaze large bowls out of a 5 gallon bucket? I am making 5-8# bowls. I would make them larger but I can't fit 10# bowls in my kiln. 

 

I have been pouring the glaze over the bowls on the outside of the bowls and making huge messes. I want to dip the entire bowl into a glaze. I just can't think of what kind of bucket or barrel to get. My son has these buckets with ropes on the side, but they don't have lids. They are usually used for like toy bins to just throw stuff in. Seems like a perfect solution, if it only had a lid.

 

Any ideas?

 

I watched some of the youtube people glazing bowls and most of them put the bowl on a banding wheel upside down, inside of a plastic square bin, then used a plastic pitcher and poured the glaze on the bowl as it spun. That idea doesn't seem to bad, but I think it would be easier just to wax the bottom and dip the entire bowl in glaze. Maybe this is not a good solution.

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Okay. I have tested this single glaze a lot and I am ready to scale it up to a production batch. I have fired it with all types of clay in different cooling rates and everything and its wonderful.

 

My question is now, how do you production potters glaze large bowls out of a 5 gallon bucket? I am making 5-8# bowls. I would make them larger but I can't fit 10# bowls in my kiln. 

 

I have been pouring the glaze over the bowls on the outside of the bowls and making huge messes. I want to dip the entire bowl into a glaze. I just can't think of what kind of bucket or barrel to get. My son has these buckets with ropes on the side, but they don't have lids. They are usually used for like toy bins to just throw stuff in. Seems like a perfect solution, if it only had a lid.

 

Any ideas?

 

I watched some of the youtube people glazing bowls and most of them put the bowl on a banding wheel upside down, inside of a plastic square bin, then used a plastic pitcher and poured the glaze on the bowl as it spun. That idea doesn't seem to bad, but I think it would be easier just to wax the bottom and dip the entire bowl in glaze. Maybe this is not a good solution.

 

This is why I have 30 gallon trash cans of glaze. If you need an even application, you've got to dip or spray. A lot of what I do now I can get away with pouring, but it wouldn't work for the more precise glazing I used to do.

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Neil, 

 

30 gallon trash cans seem awesome. Any ideas for a guy who doesn't do this for a living yet? HAHA 

 

As much as I would like to have 30 gallons of glaze, I think I might just get a tubberware that is deep and square. And fill it full of glaze. I was looking at it online. I something that holds like 5GL of liquid. That way I can use the 8000-10000 gram batch to fill it up.

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I would recommend a round container, if you have the option. I did the rectangular Rubbermaid thing, and it's a pain to get all the settled material out of the corners. Do-able, but a nuisance.

 

If anyone is *truly* balked by metric math conversions, I will happily do them for you. I am good at it. Just pm me.

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I would recommend a round container, if you have the option. I did the rectangular Rubbermaid thing, and it's a pain to get all the settled material out of the corners. Do-able, but a nuisance.

 

Dang it! Thanks for tip.

 

I can't find anything that is deep and round that has a lid that isn't way to big. 

 

Edit!

 

HAHAHA! FOUND SOMETHING!

 

http://www.rubbermaidcommercial.com/rcp/brute/products.jsp 

 

They have a 10 gallon one!

 

Also has a lid. This is perfect! Now I just gotta order like 18,000g of ingredients lol.

 

Now I just gotta find a place to buy one. Ah how awesome I love amazon.

 

This is just perfect. It has a 15inch width, which is about the size of my 5# bowls in width.

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Now to mix a 10 gallon trash can full of glaze! Oh how life changes so fast!

 

Man oh man Tin Oxide is expensive.

 

There are a lot of recipes out there that call for tin as an opacifier, when cheaper zircopax/superpax will work just fine. In some glazes the tin does affect color, but in many it does not. It's worth testing the zpx/spx if you're not sure. You'll need twice as much as the tin, but it will still come out much cheaper. About 1/3 the cost, in fact.

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I wish I had some of that to test. I am guessing it is for the color. It is in john britts book and its an additive not in the main recipe. I am not 100% on that though as it is just a white glaze, with hints of reddish brown on breaks.

 

I will have to order a small batch of it and test. Thanks for the information. You are the bomb Neil.

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I wish I had some of that to test. I am guessing it is for the color. It is in john britts book and its an additive not in the main recipe. I am not 100% on that though as it is just a white glaze, with hints of reddish brown on breaks.

 

I will have to order a small batch of it and test. Thanks for the information. You are the bomb Neil.

 

It's always an additive. Never part of the main recipe.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Welp. I am finally going to make the plunge. I have ran out of all my test glaze batches.

 

Going to order enough ingredients to make a 16,000 gram batch to fill up my 10 gallon brute trashcan.

 

Any pro tips? Measuring 35lbs of ingredients should be hilariously fun. Thank goodness the USPS has if it fit it ships boxes. cause otherwise man that shipping would be terrible.

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Home depot has brand new paint cans with lids, they hold 1 gallon of glaze and when you mix, it doesn't get eaten up like plastic plastic containers do.. I have 4 or 5 of them im using rite now, I love them...

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Okay. I have tested this single glaze a lot and I am ready to scale it up to a production batch. I have fired it with all types of clay in different cooling rates and everything and its wonderful.

 

My question is now, how do you production potters glaze large bowls out of a 5 gallon bucket? I am making 5-8# bowls. I would make them larger but I can't fit 10# bowls in my kiln. 

 

I have been pouring the glaze over the bowls on the outside of the bowls and making huge messes. I want to dip the entire bowl into a glaze. I just can't think of what kind of bucket or barrel to get. My son has these buckets with ropes on the side, but they don't have lids. They are usually used for like toy bins to just throw stuff in. Seems like a perfect solution, if it only had a lid.

 

Any ideas?

 

I watched some of the youtube people glazing bowls and most of them put the bowl on a banding wheel upside down, inside of a plastic square bin, then used a plastic pitcher and poured the glaze on the bowl as it spun. That idea doesn't seem to bad, but I think it would be easier just to wax the bottom and dip the entire bowl in glaze. Maybe this is not a good solution.

Grype, for odd-size and shape pieces, I sieve the stirred-up glaze into a container that is the right shape, i.e.: Broad and shallow for bowls, tall and narrow for vases. I'm always on the look-out for a useful shape. Then I pour the glaze back into my 5gal. The rope-handled one seems perfect for this use and is flexible enough to pour back easily. It would also work for the pouring-while-on-banding-wheel technique when your foot is hard to grasp. I don't envy you stirring up 10gal of glaze ;)

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Rae,

 

I like this idea. I am not sure if I have the space for all these container types. Right now I work out of a 2 gallon bucket. It works fine for mugs and small bowls. However I am making like 14inch bowls that are 5-6 inches deep. I dont know what type of container I would use for something like that and I figure it would be super annoying to constantly have to clean all those different containers out. I don't have running water in my half a car garage studio. = ) I have to go out to the backyard to wash off all my stuff with the water hose. Fine for summer, terrible in the winter.

 

As for stirring my plan is to just use my Jiffy drill attachment then I have this big toilet brush that I bought. The glaze I am mixing is my main base glaze for insides of pots and the underlayer for the outside of most pots. It does settle, but I find it is really easy to get back into a workable state. I usually just take the toilet brush and run it around a few times and its mixed up. If it becomes rather difficult to stir I guess I will just have my brother make me some type of long wisk out of metal.

 

If this doesn't work I guess I will end up trying what you said. I just dont know where I am going to store my containers lol. I am already running out of room for drying pots.

 

Might just get me one of these:

 

 

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Thanks everyone for your help on all this. I have just ordered my materials for my 8 gallon batch. Going to put it in my brute and pour the rest of my other batch in this too. Should be around 8.5-9 gallons when said and done. Super excited. I have like 40 pots bisqued waiting to glaze.

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