Pres

For me it's a combination of both. Most of my decisions about what to make are driven by sales. But the final decisions about quantities will also include "how many will be most efficient in terms of kiln stacking?" 

Stacking determines the load. I cut out a posterboard template of kiln shelf that I put the pots on for each shelf. Planning starts at the design level when possible. For example if I know I'm going to have a bunch of wide bowls to fire I make sure I have pots that will fit in the shadows to maximize shelf usage as much as possible. I try and have a lot of bisque on hand so I can plan the load to have as little dead space as possible.

Once again there is no new question in the QotW pool so I will pose one. 
I have been thinking of statements over the last year by potters who figure the size of their pots to the shelf heights they load. This is much different from me as I guess I throw together all sorts of mixed loads. I may have 20 mugs, 4 plates, some pitchers, or some small bowls and some large bowls in one load. However, some people run 50 mugs and a great number of bowls, or other things, not having the variety of forms or sizes and heights that I run. 
My question for the Question of the Week is:  Does your stacking determine the items in the load, or does your load determine the stacking?
 
best,
Pres

I moved this from the "Studio" area because I believed the content is more about feelings, and perception than process. Even though @LeeU's work is in evolution in the process and use of surface it is also as she describes it an evolution of the mood or feelings her pieces represent during the process. All of this seems to be more about the aspect of creativity and art as often referred to as aesthetics.
 
best,
Pres

I moved this from the "Studio" area because I believed the content is more about feelings, and perception than process. Even though @LeeU's work is in evolution in the process and use of surface it is also as she describes it an evolution of the mood or feelings her pieces represent during the process. All of this seems to be more about the aspect of creativity and art as often referred to as aesthetics.
 
best,
Pres

When working with ideas rather than forms, often it is a matter of what if, and why today, or how do I feel, not just about the work, but about myself. I imagine that we will have many artistic expressions over the next few years concerning lockdowns, viruses, masks, and so many other aspects of the pandemic and the way it brought many to their knees>
 
best,
Pres

When working with ideas rather than forms, often it is a matter of what if, and why today, or how do I feel, not just about the work, but about myself. I imagine that we will have many artistic expressions over the next few years concerning lockdowns, viruses, masks, and so many other aspects of the pandemic and the way it brought many to their knees>
 
best,
Pres

When working with ideas rather than forms, often it is a matter of what if, and why today, or how do I feel, not just about the work, but about myself. I imagine that we will have many artistic expressions over the next few years concerning lockdowns, viruses, masks, and so many other aspects of the pandemic and the way it brought many to their knees>
 
best,
Pres

Mine is about 30 degrees off at cone 6, about 10 degrees at cone 04. No voltage issues, plenty of power. I've had several customers in the past 6 months experience the same thing. I think it's just a difference with the programming in the controller. I even used my old TC blocks just to see if that made a difference, since they have a different terminal material.
@Pres If you plan to do your own program anyway, just run a firing with cones you can see, and shut the kiln down manually when the cones drop and use that temp as the peak for your firings. That's what I do for my glaze firings.
 

That sounds normal to me.  It's just a simple squirrel cage blower, so not the most advanced  blower technology. When they go bad the bearings wear out and they make a lot more noise than that. I couldn't hear it in the video, but if you're getting any additional noise from vibrations in the wall, you could put it on the floor on a piece of foam to isolate it more.

I have 3 giffens and never do they lossen. I have used one for 3-4 deacdes now. I think this must be all operator issues. If the grip is counter clockwise then the wheel must be counter clockwise. When the grip gets dirty they get very hard to move either direction. I take mine apart now and then and clean it and spray a small amout of silicone spray -then it slides to easy for a day or two. You can also drag your pant leg on it to keep it tight (never had to do this) I suggest reading the setup instructions again as this sounds like its not setup right. The slick washers go on the bottom under the 0-ring.Are you 100%v yoiu have the counterclockwise model?
Brand of wheel should play NO part in this as a wheel spins as a wheel spins-no matter the brand. The grip adjusts to any size wheelhead at setup.When adjusted right you do not have to  stop and tighten 

My Giffin Grip loosens, I've learned that I need to tighten it every so often. I have a Shimpo VL Whisper Wheel and someone said that the Giffin Grip can be a problem with this wheel. Personally, I would rather stop & tighten it than trim without it.
I know that my response didn't help to solve your problem...sorry, but unless someone has a solution, it might just a be a matter of recognizing that you have to stop and tighten it every once in awhile. 

Bam2015 posted a question in the QotW pool this morning around 9am. She asks:
To wedge or not to wedge? Do you wedge clay when it comes straight from a bag or pug mill? If you do wedge, why?
Maybe you wedge for the following?
a) It's what I was taught and I can't get my instructor's voice out of your head?
b) I'm a little OCD, I can't sit down at the wheel until I've repeated my wedging "x" number of times.
c) There is scientific proof that one must wedge! 
d) Nope, don't wedge, waste of time and my pots turn out beautifully!
e) Other...please enlighten us.
 
Ha, I suppose I should point out that there is one other possibility here, which is . . . because I have to! All of you by now have heard that I order clay once every few years, and store it under my sea kayaks. This means in central PA that it freezes often for months in the winter. That means that the freezing turns the "mechanical water" or water of plasticity to ice. This causes large rifts in the bagged clay, and as it thaws, the water is to the outside of the clay. Wedging or pugging is the only way to get the outside and inside areas of the clay to become homogeneous again. So I wedge, first by cut and slash (tip here: a wiggle wire works really well if having to add water by spraying) then by cone wedging that I learned in my first Ceramics class in college. Without wedging the clay first as I do not have a deairing pug mill or any pug mill my clay would not throw well at all.
So I will ask for @Bam2015, and myself: QotW: To wedge or not to wedge?
 
best,
Pres

Wedge, aye.
Right out of a fresh bag (a well sealed actually fresh-oh bag), perhaps not, perhaps...
The last bit of clay I got, two bags seemed fresher than t'others; they were softer and more homogenous - likely right out of the bag would have been ok. The other bags, not so much.
Even a slight variation in consistency makes things harder! Looks to me that the clay flows in direction opposite to rotation of the wheel. Anywhere the flow slows down (to go around a bubble, around a blob or bit, around a less wet bit...), there's a thickening spot; anywhere the flow speeds up (wetter bit, a shear...), there's a thinning spot. I don't need more difficult!
I'm fairly certain that throwing is easier with homogenous (Dictionary.com says homogenous and homogeneous are 'bout the same, hmm; language tends to evolve to shorter/easier, so.) clay sans bubbles and bits.
I'm not certain that turning the clay ball up on its right side actually helps, but I believe it does, so, there's that also. I run the wheel clockwise, hence, the clay must turn the opposite way when dragged (by hands/tools). My final wedge is of the "rams head" variety, hence, turning it up on the right side matches what's coming on the wheel. I'm recalling that some recommend the opposite, as the finished piece will then have less of a twist and will unwind less through the drying and firing processes. Any road, I'm not certain, as I haven't thoroughly tested the notion that throwing in the same direction as wedging actually helps, nor have I tested the more/less wound up ideas. I did wedge clay balls for several of my fellow students (just the struggling ones) in "Wheel I" class - matching their counterclockwise-ness - they were amazed.
My preference is to start with clay just a bit damper/softer than ideal (for me), so it will be ideal once wedged up, for there's some moisture loss in the wedging, eh?
I'll spiral a larger chunk afore dividing into the desired size, then rams head. As it looks to me that the inside of said rams head is more static, I'll turn the clay ball several times. After the last wedge, I'm stashing the prepped balls in a container and covering them, so they don't dry out as much.
Clay that's "just right" centers easily, opens and pulls evenly, finishes round and even, winning back some o' that wedging time.
Oh, for a pug mill! I've never worked with freshly pugged clay - maybe some day. However, a new(er) kiln will likely be next.

Cone 11 fired 1/2 way is my lifes blood-If I had to choose between low or midrange I would be a midrange person. Low fire breaks much to easy . I did them all in art school (not midrange) and settled in at cone 10. I like wood and salt but my btread and butter is porcelain toughness with bright colors. They sell themselves and people love them for the durability.
I got this from square today in fact
  Wait Time, Quality, Other, Selection, Environment, Customer Service     Thanks mark! We appreciate your work. 
We have 4 mugs and 4 bowls and a butter dish with lid and 4 large plates, and few other things I’m not remembering. 
Plus all the countless gifts we’ve given to friends and family over the years. Thanks for your help, and take care!
 
All my collage low fire work is broken and gone except a jug from high school on a shelve (non functional ) most likely lead glazed.I was 17 or 18 then.It reminds me how far I have come. Must be about 1 foot thick wall as well.

I understand that I can do things like that. I believe that I will have to see what the present settings do, look at what I see going on, and then set up some sort of custom setting that allows me to fire up, and fire down the way I was used to doing it. I knew that there would be a learning curve, after all it took me 25 years or so to get to where I could fire the old one intuitively. Hopefully this one will not take that long!
 
best,
Pres

I understand that I can do things like that. I believe that I will have to see what the present settings do, look at what I see going on, and then set up some sort of custom setting that allows me to fire up, and fire down the way I was used to doing it. I knew that there would be a learning curve, after all it took me 25 years or so to get to where I could fire the old one intuitively. Hopefully this one will not take that long!
 
best,
Pres

Following. Great thread! 
But I keep lamenting my inability to buy an L&L here in Europe.
They now have a distributor in UK, but UK is not in EU anymore! >hits forehead with open palm<
Well, like I said, really good discussion!

The factory thermocouple offset of 18F was used with the closed-end protection tubes because the tubes insulate the TC a bit. With the open-ended tubes they started using this year, they do not need an offset because of the tubes since they're open. An offset may be needed for typical calibration reasons, though.

Actually @Bill Kielb, after posting the fast, and thinking of the newness, I changed to the medium setting as the preheat was not over. I still used the ^5 target, as I believe the kiln is overfiring by about one cone. or close to 20F.
 
best,
Pres

Actually @Bill Kielb, after posting the fast, and thinking of the newness, I changed to the medium setting as the preheat was not over. I still used the ^5 target, as I believe the kiln is overfiring by about one cone. or close to 20F.
 
best,
Pres

Might be worth trying the medium slow. Pretty popular schedule and for larger kilns generally can finish more even and on cone with a pre programmed final segment of 120 degrees per hour. Definitely closer to the Orton specified 108 per hour. With our glazes we could only get away with fast glaze in our little test kiln, all others just didn’t have the power to really maintain the rates so the results and evenness would vary significantly amongst our four other kilns which range from L&L to Paragon to Cone Art.
Might be worth a try, still can slow cool as you like.

I'm all about durability and functionality with most of the pots I make, I like my clay vitrified to the point that it won't leak without glaze, for me it's midrange stoneware or porcelain.  Would be great if there was a commercial body that was in the cone 2-3 range that met those requirements. I'ld gladly pay a bit more to fire lower than ^6 and yet have a clay that would be less expensive than a lowfire fritware body. Would probably need to use more frits in glazes than I currently use at ^6 but I think the decreased wear on the kiln elements (and kiln itself) would more than offset that cost. 

Midrange is really all I have known.  And to echo what Min said, I am on the platform for functionality and durability as well.  I love the variety of clays at midrange.  Porcelain (like) stoneware, dark, light, grog, smooth.  I love what it all brings to the table.  
Roberta

Hi folks, once again nothing in the pool for QotW questions. . . Hope everyone knows where it is?? At any rate, after the last barrage on electric vs gas firings, I thought why not on firing temps?
QotW: Earthenware or mid range Stoneware, What is your preference and why?
This has been an interesting question for me over the years. I grew up as most of you remember with my parents painting bisqueware and having it fired. They could do it in the shop where they got the bisqueware and had it fired, or they could as they often did, work on it at home, sanding and glazing. I was never really much involved with it, being more interested in other things at the time. Then after three years of college with a Math/Science emphasis I  ended up in a college ceramics class in the summer. This was ^10 gas fired stoneware, and wheel throwing, or handbuilding. I became too involved with the wheel to do much handbuilding. Glazing was simple dip and pour with brushed oxides, simple and direct I loved it! Another Ceramics class confirmed my love of ceramics. Then I went to teach at a large HS in Central PA. They were just ramping up with more art courses, and had added a new teacher the previous year, then me, for a department of 3. The teacher hired before me had started a ceramics class, and was doing cone 06 Earthenware clays form Amaco with Amaco glazes. I worked that year on the 2 speed Amaco wheel with students and over the next few years the program became mine, and I moved it to ^6 immediately as I really did not like the Amaco clay, and had checked out several of the clay bodies from SC, choosing one that I thought looked most like a ^10 body that was also good for handbuilding and throwing, SC 112. I also took several courses at PSU allowing me to explore more in the way of throwing(large) firing salt and regular reduction, and glaze formulation.  After we bought a house with a garage, I decided to set up a shop. Bought a motorized kick, and a kiln. . . . I had gotten over ^10 knowing it would never work on main street. Earthenware? I really never liked the feel of it for throwing or otherwise. I always thought of it as being "not as nice", even the ring was false to me, and I know I will get some sour retorts on that statement, but it is IMHO.
So once again,  
QotW: Earthenware or mid range Stoneware, What is your preference and why?
 
So once again