Pyewackette

This thread is bounced off this one that was discussing extruders then went off on a bit of a tangent. I brought up the subject of thrown handles as another alternative for @Pyewackette . (other options such as cast, press molded etc in the linked thread also)
Super quick demo photos below, hope this helps Pye.
Throw a donut on a batt, for mug handles that need to be straight use as big a batt as you have or throw on the wheelhead if it's wider than your batts. Center the clay then open it up right down to the batt.  While throwing the donut press down firmly on the clay as you are pulling it outwards from center. 
Clean up the edges of the donut and shape into a dome top, flat, ridged, whatever profile you need. Can use  rib made from an old credit/gift card to make identical profiles for the donuts if making a lot of one style that need to be the same.
Cut into the donut with a pintool then slowly rotate the wheel to cut the donut off.
At this point you can either let the donut set up a bit or work it now. Cut off a section and either hold it up and smooth the  cut edge or let the sections dry a little then lay them facedown and smooth the cut edge. 
For mug handles pull them straight and let them hang until they are dry enough to attach. 
   
   

The kiln you got rid of has a 27" tall interior, which is pretty tall. If you need taller than that then the 36" models are the way to go, but I would look at if you really need that much total volume, or if you can get away with a narrower model, which would be cheaper and not require such big electrical loads.
You will not be able to lift the rings on and off by yourself with a 28" model. With a 23" model would still get help just to make sure you don't bump the work in the kiln.
The Jupiter does not have floor elements unless it is special ordered.
The eQuad uses the same elements for single or 3 phase on each voltage. An element change is needed to change voltage, though. No power cord on the single phase models.  Single and 3 phase models use different terminal blocks where the power connects, see HERE. You could use the 3 phase block on a single phase kiln, but not the other way around.

Well I finally got around to measuring this today and I was WAY off.  It was 21" tall.  To be fair, that is more than 1/3rd of my height!  At any rate I smooshed it and discovered a couple of things, firstly the coiled sections were much more even than I would have thought but very thick at 1/2".  And the bottom thrown part was also very even, but only a scosh more than 1/4".  Also as I pulled it apart it came apart along the coils.  Not sure if that means anything.
The Armadillo order has yet to arrive but when it does get here I plan to score some light stoneware and try again.  I COULD use the studio clay but ... all the new clays (not counting the Raku) so far have been so much easier and more pleasant to work with.  Looking forward to doing it again only better LOL!

Using pool noodles as handle forms strikes me as a good idea - I have plenty of pool noodles, I use them for all sorts of things.
https://ceramicartsnetwork.org/daily/article/Quick-Tips-2-Handbuilt-Handle-Techniques
I'm not so sold on the paper towel roll idea LOL!
@Min I forgot and just typed @Min in my last post above.  I don't know why but the site software won't insert the proper notification code if you just type it.  You have to select it from the drop down.  So yes, I would appreciate illustration of your handle-throwing-shaping technique.  Sorry!

As for "aging" clay - I think a big part of the problems I've had with the studio clay I've been struggling with for years now is the fact that it gets mixed and pugged and is on the studio floor in bins the next day.  Now that they're switching away from it to bagged clay for many purposes, I've noticed that the stuff that has sat around for 2 or 3 weeks between class sessions actually throws a lot better - and its drier.  It is very wet, soft, and short straight out of the pugmill and until recently (like the last month) that's exclusively what we were provided with. When classes are running that's still largely what students get.
My own "reclaim" so far hasn't seemed to suffer much from my method of handling it.  Right now all I have access to is porcelain.  I'm a dry thrower - I don't lose a lot of fines when I throw.  I don't have a lot of water to "reclaim" and I often add it to the bag of my "reclaim", that includes dry trimmings and squashed rejects. Often my "reclaim" is pretty wet.  I'll knead it to mix whatever I have, arch it to dry it out, and when its "dry enough" I wedge it back up and reuse it.  I sometimes mix in some new clay.  Wire wedging really helps when mixing clays of different moisture content as long as its not so wet it sticks to your wedging surface too much.  In which case I didn't wait long enough for it to dry out in the arch.  Otherwise it gets consistent pretty quickly when wire wedged.
I keep about 2 or 3 cups of "throwing" water and then all my slop goes in, well, my slop bucket.  Everybody else just seems to throw their slop in their throwing water.  I can throw about 10 to 15 lbs of clay on that.  Keeping my slop (including failures directly off the wheel) separately from my throwing water just seems easier and more efficient to me, but then everybody else around me is used to using the studio clay that was reclaimed and mixed by studio minions.  They often just dump ALL the throwing water and there goes the fines.  Probably contributes to the studio clay always being short.  When using the studio clay, I usually scooped throwing water off the top of the reclaim bucket which is usually relatively clear/settled when I get there before classes or at the beginning of the day.  Similarly I would scoop "rinse" water out of the reclaim buckets if its not too stirred up to rinse my slop bucket and tools, and add that and my (by then pretty goopy) throwing water back into the bucket.  I don't use a lot of water out of the faucet when cleaning up.

Using pool noodles as handle forms strikes me as a good idea - I have plenty of pool noodles, I use them for all sorts of things.
https://ceramicartsnetwork.org/daily/article/Quick-Tips-2-Handbuilt-Handle-Techniques
I'm not so sold on the paper towel roll idea LOL!
@Min I forgot and just typed @Min in my last post above.  I don't know why but the site software won't insert the proper notification code if you just type it.  You have to select it from the drop down.  So yes, I would appreciate illustration of your handle-throwing-shaping technique.  Sorry!

I've got a waterproof heavy vinyl tile that is glued together. I installed it in the summer heat and in the winter it buckled on me in a few places. That's unusual because I would expect the opposite. When the summer came again, the floor flattened out. On the plus side, it is very easy to keep clean and mopping it is a breeze!

That's what it feel like to be retired,  I had my husband retired as soon as we could afford it.   The company he worked for was going to kill him.  His boss retired so he had to cover his work,  the hazmat personnel was fired another job for Stu.  Millions of questions to answer from amusement ride owners and government officials  and when he had some time he could do his actual job of technical publication,  writing the huge manuals that went out with each ride.  He has been retired for two years  finished restoring a rusty 74 Challenger last spring .    January he started working on a man cave in our unfinished basement.   He hired a few jobs out but did everything else framing, plumbing, wiring, painting, trim work and tiling.  Most of the theater and bar is finished  he still has to tile the bathroom.  It sounds like a lot of work but he loves doing it and he starts and stops whenever he feels like it,  even sleep late in the morning now and then.   You can keep doing what you really enjoy  with out any pressure of a schedule    Denice

This topic reinforces my decision to only buy NEW kilns.
 

You are into much bigger kilns than I am,  I bought a L&L e235 with the heavy elements  and genisis controller.   It is a ring shorter than my old Skutt,  the L&L has a bigger diameter than my Skutt so my husband put wheels on the L&L.  I roll it out to the middle of the kiln room and load and fire it,  roll it back in the corner after I unload it.   I can touch the bottom now but I will have to size down my work.  Happy birthday,  65 is a big event.   I just turned 71 in October not a big deal just happy you made it another year.   Denice

Well Bailey had the stock mixed up and they had in stock 20 of the  14x28 Thermo Lite shelves at $331 each so I ordered them all-Trucking to my remote part of the planet for a 275# box on a pallet was $590. Now my back is feeling better not using old shelve tecnology which is heavy ,and I had them shipped to my friends lumber yard a few miles away for cost reduction in shipping -still $590 via Fedx ground economy .
They will show up second week in November when I return from diving Indonesia .
I'll need to wash them lightly and bisque fire them with a bisque load..work almost never stops
Funny the shelves cost more than the kiln, never used to be that way.

The glaze will not adhere to Baileys or advancer shelves (kiln shelve.com) You just knock off any glaze drips and it does not affect the next pots fired
You should get a total quote from both suppliers which includes trucking /shipping before buying
in terms of washing I am an all porcelain studio and the pots  are fired to soft cone 11  and will pluck on unwashed shelves -meaning the foot will stick in small amounts sometimes. Leaving sharp bottoms .
That means for me I use a Quaility home made wash on the shelves. 50% alumina hydtrate 25% EPK and 25% calcined EPK. I thin this to cream constentancy and roll it on with a paint roller and sun dry it on sun heated shelves .
I ahve about 65 advancers and a few Bailey German shelves-they all act all the same. I have fired them a zillion times. I have broken some as well . You need to keep them dry not stacked on concrete (I use wood under them on concrete) Never blown one up . After washing them I slow bisque them with pots on them in a regular bisque fire.

You will be amazed on the shelves as thay will never warp or hold glaze. You will never have to buy another again.Just do not try to quick cool them as they do not like thermal shock as well.

Glad you told us you were downsizing and slowing down!!! 
Inspirational!

@Min, yes, its handles that are my immediate concern.  Extruding them may or may not be "cheating", but I'm tired of mucking about with trying to pull them.  At one time I was pulling them pretty well, but I've lost the knack and it doesn't come back easily.  I'm too old to mess around when I could just as well squeeze them out of a tube.  If I was going to have to have an extruder, then I figured I should come up with other uses for it as well - but really its just the handles I'm focused on atm.
Also talking to some of the "real" potters around here, I've been told that pulling handles is really hard on the neck/back/shoulders.  I've got enough damage to those areas (I've had frozen shoulder in both shoulders, twice on one side).  Perhaps extruding is the better part of valor.
I would appreciate any illustrations you can provide of your method.  I did try throwing a ring to make handles from but haven't been very successful getting it off the bat.  Not sure that letting it dry to the point it would pop off my one hydrobat would be too dry for manipulating it as a handle.  I need to do that for making test tiles as well, but since I don't have my new clays yet (hoping for delivery "next week" LOL!) I haven't prioritized getting that figured out.
Plus I'm having such fun actually being able to throw without fighting the clay!

pir, there is one other thing that you should consider.   how tall are you and how far down into the kiln you buy can you reach?   can you load shelves and pots easily today?   for 20 or thirty years in the future?  
L&L  now makes one that is wider than it is tall.   i wish i had one.   at 82 i find putting things on the bottom shelf, which is raised off the bottom of the kiln by 2 inches, is getting difficult.  if you are going to pay for a new kiln, remember how long they last with reasonable use.   notice when you see one close up that your fingernail will indent the brick if you just push your finger in.   and yes, the new discussions of kiln size talk about cubic feet.   ignore that and get the depth and width and shelf size. that is what matters.  the size of an acre is 43,560 square feet.  the shape matters, you cannot build a house on a 2 foot wide by 21,780 feet long acre.
L&L makes an easy to maintain kiln, those hard brick channels saved the day often when i unloaded a heavy shelf and smacked the wall.
to learn about kilns look at your local library section on pottery.   lots of junk about collecting old stuff, avoid that and get to the ones that are textbooks.  there is a very complete list somewhere in the archives here.

That is a great looking  job on venting the basement window.   I didn't have any windows when I had my basement studio (dungeon) but I did have a dryer vent that went outside.  My husband reconfiqured the vent to where I could run a  a  vent to it when I fired.   He installed a baffle that I could use to block the main vent off to the dryer while firing.  When your house is 100 years old and it has a double brick  twelve inch thick wall  you have to be creative.    Denice

Handle molds and handle forms (2 ideas) forms are only foam and cheap so you can make your own if you find a consistent shape you like. Press mold a bit pricey but very precise consistent handles can be made easily.
 

The blue lights are awful,  they remind me of visiting my mother in the hospital.   The walls were painted a neon lime green and the blue lights made grey  shadows on the wall.  I was only 10 but I felt like death was waiting around the corner.  My mother was fine she had a  baby.   Denice

Different methods of making handles for mugs https://tinyurl.com/yckrtf6r
Video: https://tinyurl.com/mrnwfa5b

I use an extruder, horizontally, next to a corner wall.  Use the side wall to push the handle in.  I tried it upside down, pushing handle on floor, but that was not good.  Also tried right way up, pushing handle up against greenhouse  bench, but that lifted the bench !
Similar to this. 

I thought that these were quite neat
 

I've seen some thrown tube handles that work.
...also pulling and then cutting handles "off the hump" where the initial taper is thrown, then the wheel is stopped for the pulls...
...haven't tried either, but thrown tubes for side handled teapots is "on the list."
 
Back to Michael's extruder, nice use of hydraulic, thanks again for sharing!
Please do report back on how it's working for you, any helpful tips, et cetera...

@Pyewackette, is it just for handles (for now at least) you are thinking of building an extruder? I used to throw handles from a large flat donut of clay on a batt for baking dishes. Can put any number of ridges or gullies into them and make them however thick you want. After wiring the donut off I would let the clay set up slightly then cut off sections and gently pull them to straighten the curve out. (If this doesn't make sense I can do a quick one and post an image if you like)
 

My concrete floors with the foam mats is very comfortable to stand on.   I have had crummy feet, legs and hips my whole life so I have to have softness under my feet.  If my studio gets really messy I can stack them and wash them with a hose outside and  my concrete floor can get a good cleaning.   I have areas in my studio where they get thin so I just pull several sections out and replace them.   My last studio was in a basement with no windows and a brick floor.  I used the mats, painted everything white and used lots of lights hanging from the ceiling.    My husband just replaced my florescent lights in my current studio with LED bulbs for workshops or garages.   You can adjust the color of white you want and pretty inexpensive,  I am very picky about color. Denice