Rae Reich

The clay will shrink so better make allowance when carving the grooves to attach to metal handle. Do you know the shrinkage rate of your clay body?
Can't advise on best way to fire, a lot hanging on that tail!!!!:-))

I love your monkey! The tail needs to go from thick to thin and be half as long. Long and skinny would be nice, but you’re asking far too much from the clay, if I’m understanding correctly. Especially if it’s expected to carry a load of bananas. 

The only thing that might make a difference is the slight increase in silica but my hunch is it won't be significant enough to make a difference, testing will tell.
Given there is no added standalone silica in the recipe to reduce it and get closer to an identical UMF you would need to reduce some of the silica while keeping the other oxides balanced. This is what the Target and Solve function did with it, reduced the silica by reducing the Nepheline Syenite then increased the Minspar (it has less silica than Nepheline Syenite) to rebalance the Sodium and Potassium then adjusted the Ball Clay to adjust the alumina and rebalance the silica. 
As well as how the glaze behaves in the bucket particle size and how well they melt comes into play also. 

Thank you to Madeleine and Callie Beller Diesal for your thoughtful replies, this is really helping me to understand the limits and benefits of the glaze softwares. I think I will take your advice and test both the direct 1:1 sub and the Glazy target and solve recipe! I'll do my best to report back what I find.
 
 

The target and solve function is supposed to get you a chemically identical recipe, one that will *theoretically* look the same. And that’s what’s happened here: all the ratios except for the calculated expansion in the first example are identical, and even those are only off by the faintest amount. 
However, target and solve doesn’t address bucket behaviour, which affects how a glaze applies to the pot, which in turn can affect the final look. Bucket behaviour is affected by things like changes in the total amount of clay, or in the amount of soluble materials. The total amount of clay in the target and solve recipe is a few percent higher than the original, and there’s a bit more soda ash. Not a lot in either case, but it could make this version a bit more prone to crawling than it already is, if applied thickly. 
The straight substitution recipe only has marginally more silica, and a slightly different expansion rate. But again, those changes are small, and any differences in the look of the glaze might depend on the clay body (crazing from expansion rate) and the firing cycle (gloss level from additional silica).
 
Best advice from here is to try them both and see which one you like better. Glaze software eliminates some physical testing, but  not all. 
 

Set the gas for the rate of climb you want, set the air for the degree of reduction, and set the damper so you have back pressure out both spy holes. One will have a lot of pressure, the other just a touch. Each time you adjust one of these the other two may need adjustment as well. There is such a thing as too much gas and air, and generally the damper will only need very small adjustments. Keep notes as you go.

Given this is a smooth white claybody that fires up to 1280C it could very well be the reclaimed clay just wasn't wedged properly. With pyroplastic claybodies if you don't get all the air bubbles out the clay what can happen during glaze firings is the air pockets expand and cause a bloat (sometimes called a bleb). Are you getting the problem more often with the recycled clay? 

This looks like one of those miracle clays but is really a cone 9/10 clay to get full verification. So it ought not bloat at cone 6/7. Can you post a picture or pictures of the defects you are seeing?

Hi Lindsay, welcome to the Forum!
Slowing your bisque - allowing more time to burn out impurities may help.
Choosing clay(s) that mature at your target temperature, I'll recommend that!
Are you firing your wares twice - bisque fire, then hotter glaze fire? 
...or are you single firing?
Either way, faster ramp up to target temp means less time to burn out impurities; your prior kiln allowed much more time.
Slowing your bisque fire, particularly around 1500-1800°F might help.
Adequate oxygen may also be important*.
If the clay hasn't changed, and you're firing to the same target temperature (verified by cones), the firing schedule is a likely culprit.
I'm seeing much less defects** since adding significant delays (on the ramp up and the ramp down) to my bisque schedule.
Bloating (digitalfire.com)
* Note the last sentence here: Kiln venting system (digitalfire.com)
**bloating in dark clays, particularly where the walls are smidge thicker;
"large particle defect" - random craters;
pinholes
 

After you slam it down, don't go directly into an upward coning. Instead start with a forceful pressing down into the hockey puck shape.  Then proceed with coning. This helps with adhesion.

Wet the bat just a tiny bit, like wipe a wrung out sponge over it, and slam the clay down. The force  will help it to stick.

yes

Agree with you that gum(s) are great for hardening powdery raw glazes and with some glazes that just don't want to layer up without lifting. I'ld hazard a guess there is much more gum in a commercial brushing glaze than what would be in a dipping glaze to prevent those issues though.

Well thats a good question.. probably 1 to 3%.  I mix the cmc in a gallon jug with water and let it set a few days. Then add a quart or two to about 4 gallons of glaze when mixing.  In this amount it gives even the most powdery glaze a nice hard coat when dry.

Likely need thin the glaze to spray. Dry the glaze as needed with half pull of the spray gun trigger - air only - should make spraying more doable. It’s good practice to learn the thickness with some test tape when spraying with glaze, since it’s thin to work in the sprayer it will go on very even, but thinner than dipping. Usually requires several even coats dryed in between by “air only“ from the sprayer. Don’t forget proper  mask and ventilation!

I use cmc gum in all my glaze formulas and I dip and spray. When spraying I add water so it goes thru the sprayer easier.  I didnt know there was a problem with gum and spraying and dipping for that matter.  My philosophy is this... its all just one big experiment and thats how we learn.

Gum is added specifically to make them brush nicely and to harden the surface so that added layers don't pick up the previous layer. Part of what makes that work is that you have a higher water content in the glaze, plus the gum itself makes the glaze slimy and slows down drying. That is definitely a problem when it comes to spraying, so I would first see if any of the glazes you like to use are available in dry form so that you can mix them without any gum. If not, then I think you're just going to have to spray them in thinner layers, letting each layer dry between applications. Or you can start mixing your own glazes.

I agree with Hulk, a piece of sheet vinyl would work great.

That's what I used.  a vinyl remnant that simply laid on top of the floor.  At the time (12 years ago) they referred to it as luxury vinyl.  It is flexible and we actually folded it to bring it in the house.  No glue, it just flattened out. 
 

Good question!
If temporary, a large vinyl flooring remnant could be an option?
Where the edges are well away from the activity, a damp mop makes cleaning up easy.
If the edges turn up at the wall/baseboard (wall to wall!), then doing something at the door(s) to mitigate the tripping hazard remains.
If permanent, vinyl might still be an option, but putting something flat, dense, and smooth under is likely required.

Thanks for the quick replies!
The vent chimney is higher than their roof, but theirs is a one-story building, and mine two, so it's on the same height as my window.
I guess I'll ask them.
 
 

Thanks for the input everyone! I ended up installing a shimpo table top wheel under the glaze booth. 

I agree that stacks of test tiles can get fiddly and overwhelming but tests are so useful! I’ve made simple reference pots for my stain tests using bisque, straight-sided mugs, cups or bowls of the preferred clay, one for each base glaze, and as many small deli cups as you have stains to test.
Dip the pot almost halfway into the glaze and let dry.
Mix 1/8 tsp of stain into 1T of base glaze in each carefully marked deli cup and stir up, add a little water to make it brushable, if needed.
Paint 1/2” wide vertical stripes of each color from top to bottom, over the dipped glaze and over the bare clay.
Dip the bare end of the pot almost halfway into the base glaze, covering the stripes, and let dry. There will be a space between dips to show you what the stain in a bit of base looks like on bare clay - handy for white clays.
After the firing, use a sharpie to label the stain stripes with the stain numbers. Make notes if you want to try different proportions in a future test.
I use these little deli cups to decorate from, mixing more as needed (stains are expensive!) and letting them dry up between uses, adding water by drops to rehydrate.
NOTE: be sure you make note on the pot of which end is Glaze Over and which is Glaze Under. It won’t always be obvious  
 
 

I agree that stacks of test tiles can get fiddly and overwhelming but tests are so useful! I’ve made simple reference pots for my stain tests using bisque, straight-sided mugs, cups or bowls of the preferred clay, one for each base glaze, and as many small deli cups as you have stains to test.
Dip the pot almost halfway into the glaze and let dry.
Mix 1/8 tsp of stain into 1T of base glaze in each carefully marked deli cup and stir up, add a little water to make it brushable, if needed.
Paint 1/2” wide vertical stripes of each color from top to bottom, over the dipped glaze and over the bare clay.
Dip the bare end of the pot almost halfway into the base glaze, covering the stripes, and let dry. There will be a space between dips to show you what the stain in a bit of base looks like on bare clay - handy for white clays.
After the firing, use a sharpie to label the stain stripes with the stain numbers. Make notes if you want to try different proportions in a future test.
I use these little deli cups to decorate from, mixing more as needed (stains are expensive!) and letting them dry up between uses, adding water by drops to rehydrate.
NOTE: be sure you make note on the pot of which end is Glaze Over and which is Glaze Under. It won’t always be obvious  
 
 

I don’t know if this is still holding true with newer folks, but mason stains used to be considered “cheating.” 
Absurd purist ideas aside, sometimes they can give rather flat “candy coating” results if they’re not modified somehow, or used in an off label way. Off label usually meaning in a lower concentration or with less/no zircopax than usually recommended if you want them to give a more translucent result, or combining them with some rutile to give visual depth, etc.  And of course, you’ve already encountered the varying base glaze requirements for making sure they turn out as intended. Glaze testing can get really pedantic and boring, and it’s easy to get turned away if you don’t see some kind of positive or interesting result on the first round or 2.