oldlady

barrie, it sounds as though you keep your reclaim wet. you might find it much easier to let thin pieces dry out completely. thin is less than a 1/4 inch thickness. just let a bucket fill up with each session's bits until you have a reasonable amount to pug, could take weeks or days depending on your activity. these are dry pieces, not partly dry. every session put any actual slurry in a separate bucket that has a piece of aluminum grid on top so the liquid falls to the bottom and allows the stuff over the grid to stay there and begin to dry . do that at every session leaving a little more wet in the bucket. look where outdoor grills are sold and the grid as a "grill topper". just looking at these items will give you enough info to get the right thing. use a plastic spatula to lightly press down the stuff on top of the grid so some of it will go through and fall into the liquid. not all of it. just some every session. as the top dries, move it to the dry bucket, keeping it thin. the day before you plan to pug all your clay, add enough water to cover the dry clay bits and leave them to soak overnight. alternate your pugging with some out of each bucket. pug twice and you should have well blended clay ready to use. no wedging. remember that peter puggers store a great deal of clay in the hopper and that is what will come out first. so pug twice to equalize the consistency of all the clay.

you will find that with several years of work into being a potter, they know many things about many different subjects. the average electrician does not run into kilns in his/her daily business. there is a lot more to working on a kiln than connecting wires. if you hire one, get that name from several potters or businesses using kilns. you will also learn to keep your eyes open to everything. what someone does not want anymore is possibly exactly what you need in your studio. saving money on permanent items allows you more $ to buy clay and glaze materials.

lucy, welcome to the forum! it is a real step up to your own kiln, congratulations! since you will be replacing the elements in the entire kiln, you have an opportunity to replace that broken top brick, too. FYI when judging the element's remaining life, the bending over of that top element is an early sign to order the elements now. once you replace them you will be able to fire often without worry. check out the other bricks and replace any that are in an easy location or allowing the elements to sag out of the groove. cannot see clearly but just across the top there appears to be a pair of bricks whose corners are gone. judgement call, a decision to leave them alone or replace now. check the grooves for drips of glaze or other interference with the smooth path of the new elements. you won't be taking it apart often but when you do, do it all at once.

babs, i know this sounds silly but thin latex gloves hold your hand's heat in pretty well. keep them on until you leave the studio and you may find a difference, of course you are using warm or hot water for throwing. sorry to hear this.

thanks, bill. i wondered where the beautiful blue zircon earrings came from. made for my ears.

thanks, pres, that is exactly what i was going to suggest. some kind of thick acrylic or white glue that was applied the way angelica shows on that DVD. white glue leaves holes where air is in the stream if it is very thickly applied. maybe thick acrylic paint with the same application.

ICE!!!!!

how many thermocouples are in your kiln? you should use the controller to see what each section is doing. sometimes each temp is very different near the end.

BUY A RUBBER SPATULA AND ALWAYS CLEAN EVERY BUCKET! the 60 mesh sieve has worked for me since 1972. wore out one or two.

oooh, bad news. have you been throwing a lot lately? could it be the beginning of a blister from rubbing it on the wheelhead? sorry you hurt.

books on cd.

that sounds very thick. are you going to score the backs or texture the tiles?

glr, do you just put the slab on the table or do you "wake it up" in some way? i have never seen that kind of thing and have been using a bailey manual slab roller. i got one of the last of the 24 inch wide machines back in 1991 or 2. it has a 4 foot long drive board. been rolling slabs since then. my first step is to cut the long side of a new block of clay out of the box into about a 1 1/2 thick rectangle. i have a printers blanket on the floor. i smash the length of clay on the blanket and flip it over, it has lengthened and thinned somewhat. a second smash thins it a little more and it is nearing 18 or more inches in length. one more smash after turning it over one more time and it is just right. to narrow the edge just takes a tiny pizza roller. i stopped using canvas years ago, it is too dusty and hard to clean and dry. printers blankets are used by offset printing companies. usually found in larger cities, their used blankets are just disposed of and they would rather give them to someone who can use them. they use the rubber side and get ink on it that can be cleaned off, potters use the fine cloth side for making slabs. they are also useful for anyone who has a work table and needs an area where screws, bolts, jewelry findings, whatever, won't roll away as they are working on stuff. all you need to do is call and ask for them.

it is all one piece of wood. looks like someone burned the handle, do not know why. only the maker knows. mine is even simpler, i cut it myself from a 4x4 and the handle remains a square.

you might try making something you commonly make using what you think is the right amount of clay. cut a piece of a fresh pug and touch a sharpie to the place the pug lands when you run the machine. my bailey has a stainless "table" that slides as the weight of the pug pushes it away. i have lines on it. i find that about 4 inches is just right for a soup bowl, the thing i throw often. the diameter of mine is different from yours so maybe only 3 inches is what you want. weigh that piece. make the item and judge whether it is too little or too much. the point is to avoid weighing every time by learning what length contains the amount you are aiming for and mark the lines so you can cut the same size piece each time. if you are confused, just think that lines equal weight and equal lengths give equal weights. to save my hands, i use a "whammer dammer", a piece of wood that acts like a square baseball bat. put the clay on the wheel and wham it down onto the wheelhead or batt. use slow speed and wham it all the way around shaping it as you go. i use Mea's hockey puck shape, never a mound with a slope. why make a shape you have to change to throw anything?

if i read it right, you plan to use the present hole that is part of the kiln sitter for a thermocouple in the center section and use the current peep holes for thermocouples in the top and bottom rings? sounds sensible to me.

i used a recipe for a cone 6 red clay that my friend and college instructor developed for her students. they were so afraid of having to buy the clay from the bookstore at high prices. so robin teas made the clay with her students as part of their classwork. i used some and liked its smooth texture and fired strength. they worked it the way denice describes above. the time i made it, i was buying 1 fifty pound bag of Redart and one fifty pound bag of XX saggar clay. that hundred pounds made 200 pounds or close to it. i used a stainless concrete mixer that was owned by a local potter. it took a couple of hours to drive back and forth and mix everything to the correct consistency. i used the red clay until i just could not stand having my hands and fingers stained all the time. it really is a wonderful clay body to throw and handbuild. now i buy a cone 6 white stoneware made by highwater clays.

welcome to the forum> canada has a lot of open space, where are you planning to have a store, if that is what you plan to do? the kind of business you describe could be called a pottery supplier if you sold equipment and clay. it sounds a little like a "paint your own pottery" place. where do you plan to draw customers from, an urban area or do you plan to ship things?

nancy, all the above and one other thought. look into the savings in buying clay above the price change. my clay changes price at 500 and 1000 pounds. if i could store and use a ton, 2000 pounds i would save more. check your clay prices.

ask for photos of the interior showing the elements and the damaged bricks. ask for measurements, depth and width. ask for photo of the side panel that shows the electrical info. adk that the photos be taken with a LIGHT on. some photos show only blackness, totally useless. ask for photos of the controller, is it attached to the kiln or wall mounted? also look at the marketplace listings here. Mt Airy, maryland is not a long way from connecticut. and someone is selling a kiln there but not enough info and no photos.

you can use a fine line sharpie on the raw clay at the bottom.

hi, cbo, welcome to the forum. i have a friend who makes animals and uses long horseshoe nails with the heads the hoof end of the legs. they do not melt at cone 6 and always look good. you might try them with the pointed end up and may not need the long ones.

my long bailey slab roller has become my work table of choice. when i had it set up, it went onto a very thick all solid wood door. several inches overhang in the back to the wall holds quart, pint and half pint plastic tubs on the left of the roller. they come from a chinese restaurant which sells them to me for fifty cents each. i would buy from a restaurant supply house but they are all at least 30 miles away. the right half space next to the wall holds very thick foam rubber cushion innards. most of my things are flat and i use wood for the forms, cover them with pantyhose and press into clay and the rubber "pillows". the foam comes up around the wood and forms the item. the bottom is flat and when i transfer it to the shelf made of 5/8 inch drywall, the pantyhose knot is the handle allowing me to support it. since the front side of the slab roller has about 3 inches of the table top, i have a space at each end, 8 feet apart, to put a box right next to the slab roller's flat surface. and tiny bits go straight into the plastic box and is held there until i eventually vacuum the box clean. since the box is screwed down, i do not have to worry about knocking it over in error. a slightly damp sponge slides the bits right over the edge and into the box. the boxes are only 4 inches long so there is room left for long sticks to measure thicknesses. they stack onto a single finish nail and run across the support side of the slab roller. tools hang on nails all along the side of the slab roller table giving me about 6-7 feet of hanging tools used at the slab roller. there are wallpaper scrapers to smooth freshly made slabs and cut long pieces of clay, putty knives of various sizes, a pizza roller on each half and a ruler, cheese cutters and old kitchen towel at each end. each tool is hanging under the edge of the tabletop and not sticking out to catch my jeans as i move along the table. i can "see" the tools easily because i have big black sharpie marks directly above each item. so it is just reach under and pull out what i need and put it back so the tabletop is always clear of tools. if i keep the top clean, there is nothing more to do at the end of a session than put the last drywall shelf into the rack, pull out the damp sponge and wipe the tabletop. BTW, a thrift shop find of a metal butter dish top makes a wonderful damp sponge holder without smearing wet clay anywhere.

YES! YES! THAT IS IT! mine was a bright blue 3 speed ladies bike without that horizontal bar. too bad the photo does not have a totally light background. the 1956 or 7 original was $49.00 and it was a fortune for me. i rode it all over the city and over the bridge and all the way to the riding stables at the far end of belle isle park. spent my whole allowance, $2, on one hour of riding a pinto who would leave the trail and jump a big log. heaven............ thank you, hulk.

was anything left ? it sounds like a bittersweet goodbye though you have more than earned it.