neilestrick

You probably won't find any info on it, but Euclids will be able to make elements for it, and can probably help with bricks, too. They'll need all the info from the serial plate, as well as kiln dimensions and element groove size and spacing.

Holy cow that looks good! Tell me how to cook tofu like that. I've never done it, never bought tofu, but we had some a sushi place recently and it was awesome.

The pink totally makes it look like Easter. Without the pink they read more mid-century. Although at this stage they're pretty pastel, and they do all look like eggs!

1 and 2 pound vases.

I started running again! I'm trying to get out every day, but the weather isn't always cooperating. Today it's 43 degrees with 20mph winds, so I think it'll be a rest day.

I used to make French butter dishes, and they are a royal pain for the first few. A regular pain once you get used to them. I found that due to the amount of work I put into them (it's like making two pots), and having to fire them separately (again, like making two pots), I had to charge a little more than most people wanted to pay. Personally, I don't think the water is necessary, as you can leave butter sit out for a really long time before it goes bad. Plus the water drips on the table/counter when you open it up, and it's hard to remember to change the water, and the water is more likely to breed bad stuff than the butter.

@Babs that looks delicious! Who made the pots?

Illinois lockdown has been extended to April 30. Tomorrow I get to play teacher as my kids start their e-learning. So far their school has been really good about keeping us informed about everything. Luckily they had a pretty tech-savvy curriculum already. Both kids have Chromebooks and they use Google classroom for a lot of their assignment tracking.

@Donn has not been on the forum since 2010, so you might want to try sending a direct message

This is how my family does snow.

These are the only bears we get around here. Rarely do I find them rummaging around outside my house.

During the winter I always forget how good little tomatoes are. In the summer we use them all the time since they grow on the deck. Thanks for the reminder!

Thank you!

With everyone stuck in their homes, people are spending a lot of time in the kitchen. We thought it would be fun to share what we've been cooking, and the pots that are part of the process. Please share the culinary delights you've been creating during lockdown, and the recipe! I'll go first: I've been making sourdough bread for quite a while, but have only just become confident and competent with it in the last couple of years, thanks to Instagram and Youtube, and the wealth of information that has been shared. I make a loaf almost every week on Sunday or Monday (my days off), that I mostly use for sandwiches and panini, and on Sunday mornings I make French toast with the week old leftovers. The loaf pictured below I just made yesterday, and it's one of the best I've ever done. I used 550 grams of flour (30% whole wheat and 70% organic white flour), 10g sea salt, 72% hydration, and 100g of 50/50 starter. I only use whole wheat in my starter. I cook my bread in a cast iron Dutch oven, preheated for 45 minutes at 450F before putting the bread in. The first 20 minutes of the bake are with the lid on, then I drop the temp to 430F until it's done, about 25 minutes more. Most of the sourdough breads you see on Instagram are high hydration (80% or more) and have a really open crumb, which makes for great photos. But it's terrible for sandwiches because the mayo or butter or Italian dressing or whatever you like to put on your sandwich tends to go right through and get all over your hands. At lower hydration I get a tighter crumb that's still light and soft, but closed enough to make a decent sandwich. The bowl I use to mix my bread dough is a cone 10 reduction porcelain bowl I made about 12 years ago. It has a water etched swirl pattern and a true celadon glaze- reduced iron, not a green stain. It's slightly flawed, like many of my pots that I've kept for my own use, with a small hole in the wall from an impurity that burned out of the clay. It's a good sized bowl, big enough to be used as a popcorn bowl, and probably bigger than I need for making bread, but it's nice to have the extra space when mixing.

Thank Bill! I'll keep that in mind. My 6" fan will be here next week, and I'll post the results.

@Bill Kielb I just did a smoke test, and not only is there not backdraft between the two 4" line, there's actually draft from each line when the other is on. So that's all good. We'll see if that changes at all when the big fan is installed. If it is, I can just install a 45 degree takeoff higher up ad keep the 6" with the cap as a cleanout.

I see what you're saying. I hadn't though of that. I'll see how this goes and make changes later if needed. The big fan will only be running when both vent fans are on, so backdraft will only be an issue when the small kiln is running solo.

Yeah, I though about that but figured I could add backdraft dampers later if needed. It was never an issue on the old system, but we'll see what happens once the big fan is installed. I don't love the idea of using them because I'm sure they'll get corroded and stop working pretty easily. The cap on the 6" is a standard cap but it's really old and rusty! There are just toggle switches on the power cords.

Not on my workbench, but next to my workbench. Yesterday I finished up redoing my kiln venting system, and cleaned out the kiln area. What a mess it was! The old duct was in bad shape, and the motors were shot. Back when I moved into this space in 2008, I had them put in an 8" duct in the roof, which would give me plenty of options for the future. An 8" duct can go down to two 6" ducts, which can each go down to two 4" ducts. So for this setup I've got two new downdraft vent motors mounted to the wall. They can each run up to 20 cubic feet of kilns, so I've got both attached to my big kiln, and the medium kiln shares one of them. The black ducts are Blo-R-Vac hose, which you can get at McMaster Carr. It's got a metal coil in it so it can't be easily crushed, and it's pretty much impervious to corrosion. It's rated to 250F, about 100F above the temp of the air going through it. The extra 6" duct at the top will be getting an inline 400cfm fan to pull some heat out of the space. I've never had a fan in there before, but I thought it would be nice in the summer to pull some of the heat out of there. I'm still waiting for the fan to arrive from Amazon.

There are several good apps for checking out digital books from your library. I use Overdrive and Hoopla. Find the apps in the Amazon app store on your Kindle and download them. Overdrive has an app called Libby that can be used on other devices like Android and Apple, but for somer reason they don't have it for Kindle devices, so you have to use the old Overdrive app, which isn't nearly as friendly but still functional. You'll need your library card number to create an account in either app. Sometimes you'll need a PIN for your account, and with my library that's the last 4 digits of your phone number. Once you're set up you can borrow books to your Kindle. With Overdrive, there is a limited number of copies of each book available, just like real books, so you can be put a hold on it just like real books. With Hoopla the books are always available, although they don't have as big a selection as Overdrive.

The mayor of Chicago just announced that schools will stay closed until April 21. The governor had previously ordered all schools in the state closed until April 1, so I imagine he'll increase that to match Chicago any day now. It'll be interesting to see what they do about trying to make that up, if anything. They can't require e-learning because not all students have access to that. Will schools just have to ignore the days missed and catch up on the subject matter next year? Or will they shorten summer and make it up in June/July (assuming it's safe to go back to school then)? Or start early in the Fall to make it up? Lots of unknowns there. Today my 5th grade son had an online meeting with his homeroom teacher and about half of his classmates, just to touch base and chat.