Rae Reich

Thanks for asking. - The thread has been moved to:  Go here and open Electric Reduction Firing... I'm composing an answer and will be posting it shortly...

Hello!
My name is Philip White. I was the manufacturer of the Stoker Electric Reduction Kiln. The company, a.k.a. The Reduction Production Refractory Factory was building Stoker Kilns in Amesbury,Massachusetts, USA. It had to close in the early 1980's when the US Small Business Administration reconsidered RPRF from being a 'small' business to a 'miniscule' one and not important enough to continue subsidizing. Consequently, the whole thing went down the tubes. Needless to say, I was so disillusioned with this state of affairs that I didn't want to have anything to do with kilns or pottery for years.
 
Flash forward to 2018 and I'm now retired. Thought I'd see if the Internet knew anything about the Stoker. I was amazed to see it mentioned on this website. Subsequently, I decided to come 'out of the shadows' and share a little of what I learned about electric reduction firing and the engineering constraints that made it highly doable and practical. Some of this may be surprising, and (I hope) edifying. Some of what I discovered, you may find surprising. As with other discoveries, it was under our nose all this time, but no one had connected the dots.
It is really not my intention to write a 'book' on this topic without knowing if there is still any interest.
If there is anyone that may find the subject interesting, or want to actually learn more and build one, please reply and perhaps we can open a thread on the subject.
Phil White

Well, lost track of time and blew up half of the lidded jars while candling.  No biggie!  I ended up making some larger bowls and have them drying out by the kiln right now!
 

Uhh, no not flashing as I have been putting base glaze on with dip, then sprayed accents using different spray angles of cream rust and variegated blue with an overspray of rutile green.
Rae, I had just made the handle for an article, and decided not to waste, and as I needed cone packs. .. . it seemed natural. Second firing was perfect. I got lucky on the first.
 
best,
Pres

Unloaded a glaze firing last Friday  and finished a coiled bowl today.   My sister left this morning she and her husband has been visiting for a week so I haven't spent much time in my studio.  They are on another long RV trip planning to be back in Sacramento by Thanksgiving.  Peace and quiet until my son and his wife get home from Europe at the end of the month.    Denice

Learning all about raku work these days. Decided that I'm just going to make things that I really enjoy making. Hopefully I can at least earn my keep at the local studio I am at!
Lots to learn about glazes, firing, fuming, not singing my hair or eyebrows, etc.  Plus I think I'd like to build more kilns - so much fun - my kind of experimenting.

Beautiful, is that blue flashing or something you did on purpose?
 
This week my workbench is going to be lidded jars.  Got all my mugs handled and slipped and loaded into the kiln, have enough room for maybe 8 lidded jars.  Threw 4 last night, will try to get another 10 or more tonight and hopefully get enough done this week to do two bisque loads this weekend.  Picked up 40 pounds of propane so I'm set on fuel.

Just for giggles , and the benefit of sometimes being lucky.
 


Cone pack from last firing where I misjudged the rate after installing a new element.
best,
Pres

Happy happy--my helper is tackling this backlog (code, sort & store),  which will soon free up my workbench so I can get back to making things! 

Pres 
I always put my pot kids in the bisque inverted onto the pot.....
 Don' know why...space saver, I sometimes stack them....

My gravy boat needed a redesign, because the other one was too fussy. So I made a thing. 

Every time I make a little mosaic tile shape I like, I make a bisque press-mold of it. I have dozens of these now and don't have to worry about losing forms that may have arose spontaneously. They give me a strange sense of satisfaction. 

ya know you might suggest that they could revise the policy to allow a 'buddy' system of 2, 3 or even a small group working together during one eight hour shift and frame it as  being to broaden participation. I assume the whole point of having the wood kiln and the firing is to promote and enrich the pottery experience. There are many, many health situations that are not immediately visible that would make it impossible to 'work' an entire 8 hour strenuous shift. COPD, back issues etc etc.
The other question that comes to mind is if the Guild is truly about mission when it come to this kiln or if some members see this wood kiln as some sort of personal domain or perc and thus inclusiveness is not really part of the agenda to begin with. 

Yappy I have started carrying a letter with my from my neurologist that I am disabled.   I haven't applied for a handicapped tag yet,   I am not ready for the abuse people give you when they don't think you are disabled but are using a handicapped parking spot.   MS is one of those invisible diseases also unless you have progressed to a wheelchair.    I was buying clay the other day and the lady I usually deal with was having trouble putting the clay in my car.  He hands were curled up so tight from arthritis that she couldn't grasp the box.   I helped her pick them up and told her that two old ladies could do it if we worked together.  She laughed.  Now that my husband is retiring I will have help.   Denice

You know for all my complaining about my thumb, and arthritis. I am in amazingly good shape, and hope that I will remains so for a long time. My Dad is looking forward to hunting season soon as we hunt together in Northern PA. He is 91!
best,
Pres

Just thought I would add a plug for considering a centering tool to help if needed. I had a screw  put in my shoulder when I was 18 to fix a constantly recurring shoulder dislocations stemming from an injury. A big shot sports doctor did it and I remember him telling me it was a success and I didn't need to worry about it for 30-35 years. Seemed like forever. Now 38 years later not so much. I for the most part don't worry about it and have few issues over the years but excessive centering was causing that shoulder to suddenly have soreness/pain and that gave me pause. I tried to change how I center so I didn't flex my shoulder but it just didn't seem to help.  Added a  https://www.strongarmpotterytools.com/ for big batches of throwing and it went away so love this sucker. I still always center and open several of any batch to make sure I maintain the ability to center. I don't have arthritis but it might also be helpful for that.  

"If I lived nearby, I would do the eight hour shifts for you."
Me too.
As for what I think/feel/do regarding limitations, I'm very lucky to be able to adjust for weak and sore thumbs (and a few other minor problems).
In public settings, I can hold my breath and/or walk away when artificial fragrances loom. Unfortunately, it's not a "real thing" for many - my "doctor" (looking for a new one), my employer (former, retired early), ceramics instructor (so farr, staying upwind of the two stinkers is working; when the weather turns cold and the doors close, weelll, I'll just open the doors, or go home), etc.
I'm lucky!
 

On a yappy and love your new images in the gallery.
One thing about working with clay, your mind gets totally centred in the process.
Take care.

Update: So I've been pretty upset the past two weeks waiting to hear back about a test for a mutation in my blood cells that renders the known forms of drug treatment useless. They did the wrong test twice...anyway apparently third time is the charm and the test came back negative, I'm just responding slower than most, which is very very good news. Thanks for all the nice comments and getting to hear folk's sharing. I wish everyone else a bit of good news in their struggles also. 

I always have a bag on the table where I working to place scraps which I try to add as I go so they are not dried out.  I mist inside the bag.  So the clay says moist.  When I have enough, I plop the contents of the bag out and smoosh  (Technical term) the pieces together into a rectangular shape.  Then I set the roller on high setting then roll, then set it lower and position the clay the opposite way and roll again....and do this again until I reach the thickness I want.  What I found about changing the direction each time was that I reduced the amount of air pockets.  I also waste very little clay and don't generate so much dust.

Lee, I  like the notion of knowing that we are not alone.   We can still be creative and support each other's journey.  Finding ways to move forward despite the odds is acting creatively.    Gabby's idea is a good one.  Does someone teach pottery making in your area?  A interested student may want to help just to add to their education. 
Acceptance of the physical limitations that our bodies are putting on us is very difficult for me.  I worked on the wheel for a short time several years ago but stopped because of the pain in my hands....ended up have surgery on my right hand...nothing as extensive as Mark C and Johnny K have had done...but serious enough for me to examine how I work with my hands.   I still experience weeks of downtime if I overdo it.    Was thinking for a while that I would not be able to make pottery.  That was a depressing time.  After feeling sorry for myself for a while...decided to figure out how to rearrange my life so that I can follow my dream of making pottery.   Here's what I got so far:  We have stopped taking large and heavy work in the restoration business ....yeah, we can do it, but the downtime needed to recover is not productive.  When was doing my work at a local community art center, I started testing out using their big Bailey slab roller to help with wedging....works great....so I saved up and bought one of those.  Also, I have chosen to go with a small kiln to start, it has 15" shelves (I don't always make large things...It will also challenge me to come up with creative ways to design and make something large.  I have the name of a guy who can help with the big gardening things I do...like move the giant plant pots or big plants.  I am even researching easier plants or shrubs to grow in the yard so that I can maintain the use of my hands.
Thanks to all for sharing. 

I asked the question because I get such support and inspiration from other people's journeys, learning about how they navigate difficulty, and how they keep their spirits up, or get through the hard times when spirit-lifting  just isn't happening.  I was frustrated with the strength needed (and some pain involved) to go through the whole physical process of cleaning kiln shelves, doing new kiln wash, loading them to fire it on, unloading to prep for a pending fire, needing to reload this weekend, etc. I am now saving every penny I can to buy lighter weight shelves, even tho I am a hobbyist with low volume and probably not needing to look too far down the road, either.  I also hit a wall of mental paralysis and stayed out of the studio too long, which came back to bite me, of course. And I completly neglected my website and lost what little traffic I was beginning to get. Worse, in terms of "acceptance" and developing "work-arounds" is the minor (relatively speaking) TBI that trips me up cognitively. It's getting worse (relatively speaking) by the minute. It's affecting my speech now, leaving me searching for words that I know, but half the time can't cough up. I end up substituting "thingee" for nouns when I come up empty and people look at me funny as the dead air goes on and on,  which is, at the very least, a tad annoying for all ocncerned!! Oh-and I am not dyslexic, but now find this letter reversal happening when I write--at least I can catch and correct that. Whine whine, moan, moan.  

Mostly grateful, tho not always, 'bout sums it up for me. I fought against making my first  "Gratitude List" so hard, it took weeks before I was even willing to acknowledge the positive presence of having all my fingers and toes. I am glad those days are gone, and I have some grasp of the imperative necessity of gratitude, which for me generates hope,  whether here and now or in reserve for somewhere in the great beyond, after the "tunnel of light".  I am amazed at the array of difficulties others have shared. Amazed at people being so forthcoming (and glad there was a place to put it on the Forum--thx Pres). There is so much distress that periodically accompanies my own physical and/or mental challenges, that I must take strength from the resiliency of others, and try to take caution from the actions of some who lost their battle, such as Anthony Bourdain--that one hit me hard. I don't know if it is factual that--as some suggest--creative people have more than their share of deep suffering and bedevilments, but it does seem to me that artistic beings bring an especially tenacious spirit to the game, and seem to express a heightened tenacity to overcome, and to do so with grace.  In terms of altering how I work in clay, just doing it tends to be feast or famine, so the striving for balance is the primary requisite if I want to keep on truckin'.  Among the tools in my tool box is this community, which is so generous & so supportive, way past simply sharing knowledge and expertise.    

As I mentioned before somewhere I have leukemia. When I was diagnosed I promised myself a few things. One, I would do what I wanted the way I wanted as much as possible from then on with the time I have left. Working with clay to some extent gives me a focus and relieves my depression to a large extent, helps me to handle my fear, and though I don't really believe in 'legacies' it's sort of nice to know that a few things I made will be around a long time after I'm gone. Right now I actually feel physically pretty good and thought I was doing well in remission. A visit about a week ago with my oncologist cleared my hopes up when he said it's time for me to get in line for a bone marrow transplant. Hm, yes, well.
Anyway, on the bright side I got to quit my job (after not being able to finish a shift at work due to having pain from a swollen spleen, a health care provider with no health care, thanks to the heartless health care system in the US) three years ago when I finally walked into an ER and got diagnosed. I'd been managing and working through horrible symptoms undiagnosed for at least two years not knowing what I had. The ER doc suddenly got excited saying my white cell counts were off the scale and I was rushed over to another hospital in the middle of the night, put into all sorts of contraptions, IV's inserted, etc. The oncologist assured me I didn't have long if it was one type, about 25 yrs if another. My only thought was "Christ I can finally quit my job!" -that's how much I hated it. After recovering and getting social security and medicaid worked out, I sold my wee house in Idaho, (also hated Idaho, I'm from CA originally, seriously a fish out of water) and used the money to move to a place I love on the Oregon coast. Anyway I'm cramming as much of what I want, that I can afford on next to nothing, into what's left. Not everyone gets the news they better get their affairs in order and have such and such time left to do it. Most of the time, I'm grateful, not always. 

Moat of you know my story-in fact its the reason I came to this site in the 1st place-to ask the question can you  still throw pots after having a PRC wrist surgery. Which for me was unknown at that time.
That was my 1st post on this board back in 2012 if I recall
I had some trama to my right wrist sometime in past 30 years  and hurt that wrist and the wrist became to painful to do much with.The scaphoid bone drifted into the lunate  after that injury (unknown to me) and arthritis ate it all up.
Had this procedure done 
http://www.sonjacerovac.com/procedures/hand-wrist/proximak-row-carpectomy/
They cut out the 3 of the 9 bones we all have in our wrist.I have 6 bones now-you all have 9.
I found the best surgeon specialist on the west coast and got several opinions first as I really wanted to stay in clay.
I ended up 6 hours south in San Fransisco at UCSF . It was a 6 month recovery-(5 clay free)
Now I have a limited range of motion and only have 105#s of grip (once was 130) in that hand.
Its slowing degrading from use and my next option will be full wrist fusion when I cannot stand the pain my Docs says. If I baby it It may last my lifetime but I have found that clay work is not babying it enough and its slowly getting more painful. Thank goodness I have a high pain threshold.
The timing is such that hopefully I can slow down in time ( less pottery making)not to have full wrist fusion. (no wrist movement at all) 
I could throw even with full fusion but I'm not keen on that idea.
Now at 65 my hands get cramps and get sore but I generally work thru it.My wrist is a bigger issue than finger arthritis for me.
On the economic notes I can hang it up anytime but I really like my job at times and would prefer to just slowly do less.
I built this business over 45 years ago and Its not something I look forward on closing the door on.I know at some point in the next years I'll stop with shows -thats a given with age but I like the idea of still suppling some choice local markets I have delved over the past 45 years.
Its a gamble either way.
I did get a power pugged right after wrist surgery and should have gotten one a decade sooner-all the labor saving devices really help in the long run.
advancer shelves -power wheels electric slab rollers-Peter Puggers-all very worth it if you do this for a living.
Another issue for me is all my other hobbies are heavy stuff-like diving with tanks and lead and heavy underwater cameras or shipwreck salvage. My fun is all heavy stuff.