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Mark C.

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Posts posted by Mark C.

  1. DIY ceramic tiles for bathroom floor?

    in Studio Operations and Making Work

    Posted

    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

     

  2. Handle cracking question

    in Studio Operations and Making Work

    Posted · Edited by Mark C.

    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

  8. Do you grease a new wheel head if so wear and with what?

    in Equipment Use and Repair

    Posted

    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.

  9. Firing blind

    in Equipment Use and Repair

    Posted

    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.

  10. Firing blind

    in Equipment Use and Repair

    Posted

    2 hours ago, LinR said:

    Wow!  Your experience shows.  Please explain the hanging thingy in pix #3.  Lin

    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

  12. Firing blind

    in Equipment Use and Repair

    Posted

    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.

  16. QotW: How well do you represent yourself and  how much do you tolerate when dealing with your suppliers?

    in Int'l Ceramic Artists Network (ICAN) Operations and Benefits

    Posted · Edited by Mark C.

    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

  18. QotW: What is your latest background "noise" in the studio?

    in Int'l Ceramic Artists Network (ICAN) Operations and Benefits

    Posted

    On 8/29/2022 at 3:16 PM, Pres said:

    @Mark C.good choice in Rock, but I do like some country, mostly ballads. . . Ghost Riders, Battle for New Orleans, some of that heel kicking stuff. However, rock is my biggest call, loved the golden oldies stuff, and the rock instrumental guitar as in the Ventures, all the way out to Hendrix and back.

     

    best,

    Pres

    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.

  19. Why Cone 6?

    in Clay and Glaze Chemistry

    Posted · Edited by Mark C.

    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

  21. buying clay in bulk, dry vs wet

    in Studio Operations and Making Work

    Posted

    4 hours ago, NancyE said:

    I appreciate everyone's experience and advice and I am proud to say I am still capable of learning.  Copious tenacity cannot completely compensate the fact that I am 65, short, "overweight" and arthritic.  I will order 1500 lbs pugged, deaired and deliciously ready for work.  Did I mention I am also mining local "wild" clay?  So I will still have the opportunity to learn to hate the mixer if I get it running.  At least with the wild clay I have permission to use the backhoe and stop with the 5 gal bucket at a time gathering. 

    Nancy E

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

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