Mark C.

Green is ground so leave it alone Shimpo is still in business so CALL THEM and ask them if this is possible before frying the controller I would switch the motor wires over the controller wires but they will know if you can do either or nun of the above. only if its a DC motor as noted below You can find this out with a simple tester-ac or DC

When our handles crack in the curve (ours are thicker than yours as and extruded whuch compresses the clay better than other handle ways) its always to dry of clay. I suggest wetter clay and not over working them-consider extruding as that shape looks made for it.

My grade 5 floor tiles (I reacal this number system)are the same color all the way thru and are porcelain . If they ever chip they look the same color.They looked good in a Mercedes showroom in the photo. They have been bullet proof for 30 years now

cast them thicker walled and then hot water test them

Many tiles are talc tiles and will absorb and are really soft-not a good choice for floor tiles. Floor take a beating and need a tough hard tile. If you can produce that then yes but thats a lot of work and testing. Commercial tile are cheap and made for the job . They are alos rated to toughness -go to a large tile supply house and ask questions-then see what you can make that will equal that toughness. I bought my foor tiles and they are rated to drive a car onto. Like a car dealer showroom. They are in our entry room, laundry room and spare bath.They are also 12x 12

B mix is notorious for uneven drying-hence cracking (B mix is white stoneware) I produce tons of handled mugs in C 10 porcelain (Daves-from Laguna ) with very little cracking-about 100 a week currently I make my slip from my throwing slop off my hands and splash pan add a very small amount of vinegar now and then I score the join with a serraeted tool and add the slip -join-then cover the 5o mugs with plastic for the night. Uncover them next day and dry. if I have any small cracks I just rub it out when dry with a sharp wood tool. now cone 5 clays are very diffent I suspect and I have never used them. More fluxs are used and I'm unclear about that in the drying stages I used to throw large B mix pitchers and always used daves porcelain for the handles with zero issues . The porcelain dries more evenly B mix drys unevenly-the rim is dry and the bottom of pot is damp. I like porcelain as its all quick drying not uneven I would call the Laguna clay tec and see whats going on-they may help and may not-no harm with more info

it could be tension with the glaze interior exterior -Are they the same or different? also the straight wall where it hits the flat bottom may be a stres point -I have seen this before.A more rounded thicker wall may help You need to hot water test your forms before selling them from this point forward

go slow like a bisque and you will be fine

Hepa vacuum is what you need for an enclosed space-many different sizes and brands-check on the cost of filters and let that guide to a brand that is Hepa approved

The mold needs to be very dry. The slip needs to be the right mosture content .Solid casting takes extra dry time as slip casting is usually hollow. The plaster mold can only absorb so much water for it to release the clay. Extra sodium silicate is not needed.

Color ar cone 11 is brutal.

Just pull the large pulley off with a puller-grap the inner part of pully so as to not distort it.-get a new set screw and there will be key in the keyway so do not loose that. Clean it all with super fine emory cloth as Bill said lubricate and it will slip on with a gental tap with a rubber mallet or a tap with a piece of wood and hammer (do not strike the pully with a hammer) The wheel head from Amaco /Brent comes with a new bearing and is just a bolt on unit with splash pan flange built in.-Three bolts to disconect and reconnect . No need to grease it as it prelubrictaed for about 30 years or so.

All my kilns get restacked every fire. I never leave shelves in. Serval reasons-1st it less efficient and the car kiln is very efficient . Second I load all diffent sizes in every fire and -thats true in the bisque (I bisque in this car kiln as well) . Third I live in earthquake country and have lost loads so no shelves stacked means no broken shelves. I load this kilnabout every two weeks this year one bisque followed two days later with a glaze-same with the 12 cubic updraft (20 fires so far only counting glaze fires) and the car kiln is up to 17 glaze fires and 17 bisque fires I think this year.

Thats a urchin spine wind chime (tropical urchins which are thinker and heavy duty) I have had it up there maybe 45 years now? It brushes the top of my car kiln door when I push it in or out so its handy for reference as well as nice sounds in heavy wind in kiln area 30x30 open to one side (south) I also have a metal shark one nearby as well as a glass one I traded for a few decades ago. This coming May marks my 50th year on this property. Its known for pottery around these parts

Well my gut was right and the load was beautiful. Here are the results Now if only the predicted rain this weekend on our local show will go away

Well it happened I was at near cone 10 when I looked in for the first look at my cones (cone 10/11) about 2290 on my digital pyro. This is my 35 cubic foot car kiln-I had just turned off my smaller 12 cubic foot glaze fire in updraft (i'm doing both kilns same day gklaze fires all this year ) The cone pad had fallen over-nosed dived down sometine during fire.Never had this happen-I made the pads so its all in my court Now in the past I have blown up cones and discoverd it at red heat and been able to slip with a small anglke iron a new set of cones in the 4 inch diameter spy plug extremly slowing without blowing them up. But this at near end point is way different as the time temp has already gone by. so no way to put another cone set in that will be accurate So I look to my log book and see that the end point I shoot for is a soft cone 11 which has about a 40 degree spread in past 6 glaze fires. I pick a middle zone and fire to that and by my gut feeling . So tonight I'm eating fresh albacore I caught on Monday and beans and squash from our garden wondering about how this kiln load will look in am. I usually am not to concerned about it but this seat of the pants fire is way out of the box. Time will tell. I resisted looking in with a flashlight-I'll take my lumps in am all at one time-underfired or overfired we shall see. If this was easy everyone would be doing it.

I use a wood as a trim tool from driftwood at beach I must say I wish I had a printer blanket-none around here.

The dryer the better as it will shrink less

80 mesh screen always fixes any chunk issue

I'm a bit different as a wholesale distributor and most of my dealings are with Laguna clay in larger amounts. They are 13 hours to my south one way. trucking is getting costly and harder.They have gone thru many supply chain issues and of late (past year) have been out of lots of clays and my last custom order took 6 weeks and missed my truck pick upo date. Our local supply shop has a new owner coming in and is young and its up in the air how this will shake out in the long run. My assistant works there as well so I know more than I'm saying. Since I'm a professional and I deal with professional suppliers it been fine. Supply chain issues have been an issue in all regards

Pres My ceramic collage teacher (mentor) was posted at Hickham field on Dec 7th 1941-He gave me a 50mm cartriage holder for a rapid fire gun from those times. He had great stories from that day.

Pres My family made surfboards in the 50s before foam boards (balsa and redwood stringers) so of course I have the ventures etc in that mix-also saw Hendrix back in the day, light his guitar on fire so yes have some of him as well, The diversity is huge in my mixes of cds-as I have more than the 2 x400 cd players can hold. I also have a huge mix goin g with pandora thru the iPod as well pumped into our stereo system in house with 7 sets of speakers around like a pair in kitchen,living room ,office ,salt kiln area, studio ,Kiln loading area,BBQ backyard area. I like music when working so I wired it in in the 80s everywhere. My friends family owned Cerwin Vega speaker Company so all my speakers are Cerwin Vega's Music is a big part of life around here.

Its never made any sense to me except that cone 06 is not durable at all. In my area cone 6 never made a hold at all until the last 10 years and only one school went to it (including a cone 10 high school thats still cone 10) The school that switched just did this year due to loosing thier tec loosing funding so the teacher could load and fire and walk away (simplfiy) ands thats our Junior collage. There are a few private folks doing cone 6 now as well. The community art center and our Cal State Poly collage are all cone 10 still. I now have 50 years in at cone 10 reduction -I would not ever consider oxidation as my customers and I like the reduction look

I'm a very deversified listener but rock is the main theme-I'm not a country fan usually Guy Clark to Jackson Brown

Price breaks are usually at 500, then 1,000 then a bigger break always at 2,000 (1 ton)