Mark C.

You can change out the outlet but also need to most likely change the breaker to 30 amps to protect the wires on the kiln (you need 25% over amps for safety) since its 21 amps it needs a 30 amp breaker (leave the kiln plug alone) change the breaker and outlet to match the 30 amps. Or hire an electrician to do the work

I rarely use steel trimming tools at all . My go to is carbide made special bison tool. -very close to a kemper R2 6 inch ribbon tool. Its a double ender oval on one side square on the other. Its in my. hand or in a plastic tube on the wall when not in hand as the break easy. Only broke one in last 25 years. . I have 3 so about every 5-8 years I send it in for new ends. Its made by bison tools-not for everybody for sure but a must for prodution work like mine. I use to buy 6 inch ribben tools by the gross. sure I made ones from metal banding etc. one carbide outlasts 2oo steel tools with porcealin trimming .I'm a believer in not wasting as well. Home made tools are great I will add-I like a beach found stick to cut a foot with.

Well my local markets are keeping me busy (to busy really) and out of state shows or any show out of my county makes no sense anymore. Also I'm getting up in years and am getting tired of the driving as well. In two weeks will be my last Anacortes art show. I have been doing this one since early 90s so its been a long haul. Its my best show by far but money is not everything.I love doing the show as its easy for me setup wise and take down-double booth at main intersection in the middle of street and show. No hassles . Great customers really my favorites and to top it off I get to dive puget sound taking under water photos after the show for days.. I do need help to do this show as it averages for 3 days about 750 customers. My diver friend is also ready to give it up. I'll miss the show but I will get back my early summer for more non ceramic working-like fishing and diving . I have been in high production for some time now so as to do the show very well. Looking forward to it but at the same time its the last time. Going to stop and visit a studio from another potter on this board in Portland on my 11 hour hour first drive day to Olympia Wa. Day two is only a 1/2 day drive and ferry ride. I have done art shows for well over 4 deacades now and they are coming to an end.

Mine where always loose -that was years ago-you can use frog putty to hold them. I made ikebana pots.decades ago. I may still have a box of frogs.

long form details -the more the better especially for a fix

Coyotes are a wary bunch. You never know what they are up to. They Hunt in packs to be careful.

This white I have used for about 45-50 years now. -its a great liner that loves heat does not run-it can go outside as well-you could add colorants -test first I put it inside about 30% of my drinking wares Honey white -cone 10 or hotter Extremely dependable -no flaws Kentucky Ball clay-450 Grestly Borate -722 Dolomite-920 Talc882 silica 325 mesh -1198 Custar feldspar-2570

Clay is cheap and making your own is big work. Yes it can be done but its not worth it in most cases.

fuze check as well

We all start out as eggs

I do not like the flat tops (the top of kiln is flat) the arch is the way to go for sure. The car design is a solid one on that -I should have spelled that out clearer. Use thick angle iron for the uprights and a for arch support . The car design has worked well for 45 years for me. The side burners and back walls as well.. You just need to tweek the design a bit to improve it. And it does need some improvements as Neil pointed out

I have built two of them. My current one (35 cubic stacking) 3 12x24 shelves on car-about 5 feet high I have seen a bunch as well. The best and most are made from a basic plan called the Minnisota flat top-which the plans are in an old studio potter and a few kiln books.If I recall Nils Lou designed them I have a sprung arch not flat top. People alter this plan a bunch but all seem to keep the floor and car design which is tapered plug shop car. I like 4 burners two on a side with bag walls so I have made two that way. I do not like power burners so I use natural draft burners as well. I have a friend with a 27 cubic Geil and thats about as small as you would want to make one as they are made for easy of loading and smaller is better to have front loader

I also agree with soft clay. I also have a hot dip waxer for my hands if needed.

The cortisone may do it but if not its a simple staright froward surgery and I have seen many great outcomes .In terms of arthritis use warm water and keep using your hands to keep them strong. I think your doctor is taking the stay in bed thoght way to far. If you stay in bed life will not hurt you they say until the heart attack . If you want a real opion go see a hand doctor not a GP I have had two major hand surgies and have arthrites and large knuckles -no one has said stop throwing-maybe a bit less but move it or loose it is the theme in life. At least mine

It is not repairable .sell them another-mugs get beat up and customers crack them. Life-you can sell tham another at discount if you feel its your crack?

I get a gallery order twice a year for a huge amount $ worth of wholesale wares. Its a dependabke thing -I think now I;m his largest supplier of wares.This order is always outstanding I just dropped his fall order off as I have no time this fall to make them so I did it early. I'm on a 24 day dive. trip in Indonesia in Oct-Nov so made the pots and dropped them off so I can get wet. Started with him about 12- years ago with a twice a year order of 110 sponge holders and has expanded to this huge order twice a year. I fill my wife subaru with about 20-23 boxes (mostly banana. boxes). I drop it off somewhere in between this this gallery is about 11 hours away. lately its been at theowners broths house about 4.5 hrs away. I just made that drop last Friday That order is from mugs to smalls to larger bowls and in-between -I only offer limited forms to him. I usally every year offer a new form-this year its a small fish tray I had have never been to the gallery and I just met him last fall at a remote drop after my last NV show on way home-20 boxs from my van to his subaru.He is also my favorite business person always pays right up front.I was referred to him by another potter who did not want to make sponge holders-I still sell him 220 sponge holders a year. I have the same sort of thing every xmas and spring with a few local outlets a well-it is always the same.Now that I think about it its with 4 local outlets. I also supply mugs every two weeks to to Bagel /bakeries-year around. I mix this up with some art shows as well. I am doing my LAST out of state (biggest/best show) in a few weeks Then its two local shows from now on. Slowly my wholesale business has taken off as I got older. Just a bit easier for me

Dog hair burns out so to not sweat that. Waste. of time I think to try to remove it. Same with grass from the lawn or any small orgainic materials. They go by by when bisqued. The only reason to remove them is if they get in the way of making whatever you are making (forming).

I have had arthritis in my hands beyond memory at this point. Using your hands is whay I consider a key element to life and hands. My guess is you are not a professional with clay so you will not be using.8- 10 tons a year which. puts a hurt on the hands . I would not worry about clay and your hands. Mild Artritis is in all us old timers who use our hands in life. I am 100% a believer that clay can help strengthen and exercise the muscles . As you age no matter what your artritis will continue Clay has kept my hands strong . They do not like cold but thats also an aging issue.Heck I do not like cold-never have liked heat either-I like it just right.

Its also the weight of the load along with temp The ones that failed where in a 5 foot high stack in gas kiln near the floor-so they had the whole weight of all the load on them.

My guess is they are all made by same manufacture. I have near experience with theses as they are not in my firing range. I have seen them fail at cone 10 only because the stilts where not over a solid core section and the shelve looked crushed (looked squashed). I suggest at cone if that is tour temp? make sure the stilts (all three) of them are supported with a core inside section My old ceramic instructor always said pay your money and take your chances-let us know how they are

As long as its been dry and not handled much forever The stuff from the Roman Empire might still be good. The larger question is why make ceramics on a geological time frame?

Most plastic cans are black in color but not all.

Paint cans can be plastic bottoms and metal lids and now even all plastic lid and bottom those fumes must have been bad

I was born in 53 It looks to be missing some parts at 179$ in 1953 that was spendy back then Good barn find

Speaking of Books there is one being made now that is all about the place I learned the most in Ceramics. I wrote a piece for that books which is in the editing stages now. It was called the Laundry In the 50's-60s it was a commercial Laundry. In the late 60s it was bought by the Humboldt State University and turned into a pot shop. It has floor drains (wood covered cement troughs that drain out). They added a kiln room off the back. The builing is one huge barrel arch roof. A really great pottery setup for teaching. Back then my mentor Reese Bullen (who started the Art Dept there) hired a new instructor to help him teach ceramics from Alfreds as a recent gradute Lou Marak -it was 1969. I came a few years later to that program. They hired another Alfred grad the year I came as well (1972). It was the heyday of ceramics for this school. It was after the war and it was ahuge open learningtyransition time in ceramics-from Volkus to Arneson clay was expanding. Thes e recenty Alfreds guys where on fire from leaning from the greats who taught and wrote at Alfreds. Rhodes and the like passed what they knew down to my teachers who passed that to us. It was a solid 5 years in immersion in all things clay and kilns for me.Many a teacher and potter came out the other side of that Laundry . In my time I learned slip casting, low fire ,high fire , kiln firing, hand building ,slab work,clay and glaze formulation just to name a few. I Worked in work study program for years as kiln and glaze room tec.( Back then tec was not used) loading and firing kilns of all types.Salt to low fire electrics-with redution cone 10 gas as the standard . The program slowly after many deacdes switched as did many programs to around the country in schools to sculture and making art-mostly low fire. This slowy in my view turned the ceramics program into a lesser one than the one I was in at that time. I have heard lots of feedback on this from students over the past 30 years Now the University recently became Cal Poly Humboldt and humanities is at the botton of the pile now. They now have funding to build in massive science expansion 3 new parking structures and you gues it the Laundry will be scraped to put in a parking lot as Joni Mitchell once said in a song. The last 10 yeared ceramics professor retires this year (JUNE) and no one is fighting this stupid mistake. For me the university long ago lost the community support as they do not care about that. Two of the old ceramic teachers is compiling this book on 50 years of the Laundry-its history and students. I am just one of those and one of the few that choose the production pottery route over teaching and also stayed local and am still producing . In my. time we once had over 20 full timers in this small area making funtional wares now its me. Last man standing full time. The laundry is a special place for me in my brain as well as the people who shared what they knew way back in the early 70s with me. When folks are buying and using my pottery they really are using pottery that came from my years at the Laundry and those who taught there at that time. Ps this book is being complied and underwritten by a gallery In Davis Ca called the John Natsoulas Gallery. John is footing the bill He has a press at gallery and has had a 30 year ceramic realationship with HSU ceramics and did a book on the UC Davis ceramics lab already its a great thing he is doing for our local clay history-if you are ever in Davis Ca stop by that gallery its worth the trip-just look for the 15 foot high ceramic cat you walk to enter the gallery. You cannot miss it. https://www.natsoulas.com