Pres

Always done my own work-from electrics to gas. Once 50 years ago I melted my 60 amp service and called a friend (an electrician at the time) who tught me how to fix it. He became a electrical contractor and I used to work for him now and then never looked back on hiring anyone for electrical work. I call for code updates now and then . Gas kilns same deal build them and fire them-up to about 12-14 under my belt now. Worked as a plumber with a plumber contractor back a the in the 80s never needed one to run pipes . Being a potter for me means knowing a lot about manicanical things. I learned them for those in the trades-same with home building -framing and roofing. Potter for  me means the whole of an all-arounder. 

Ceiling fan is a cheap and great idea.   I worked with a portraiture sculpture group for ten years.  We  made turntables out of formica sink cutouts and ball bearing kits for lazy susans.   I have a large heavy duty one that I put together.  It will easily hold and turn a couple of hundred pounds of clay.   Denice

I slice and slam my bags of recycle often with part of a freshly opened bag. I use a wiggle wire to do this, and spray water between layers. After cutting through the blocks once to combine I slam and re-block to cut from another direction until all sides have been cut and slammed. Then the clay gets wedged using the cone method. I started doing the same as her putting the point down when I found that large plates would seem to survive better in that manner.  My biggest complaint of the video. . .  as much as she explains the process and demonstrates it well, her wedging table is very inefficient!   The table should be lower so that the wedging motion uses more of the shoulder and body to move the clay. When I wedge, the motion of the wedging lifts the shoulders and stretches the spine. . . that is why I have said so often that I wedging relieves the pain in my back. The rocking and stretching helps a lot, especially on days when the weather change causes those old aches from old injuries to flair up.
IMHO
 
best,
Pres

I have never seen the direction of the wedging to have any effect on my throwing or any of my students' throwing. Once you cone the clay a couple of times during centering, any wedging spiral is gone. IMO she is overthinking the process, or finding something to blame for poor centering technique. I have wedged 'backwards' of the way she's showing for 30 years, and I've never had any issues. Same with my students. Wedge it, make it into a ball, smack it onto the wheelhead, and center it. With good coning technique it doesn't matter which way it was wedged.

While I don’t use groggy clay, when I did, wet sand the bisque to smooth as much as practical ( rim and foot)  and ALL pieces after glaze firing - foot diamond grit ( wet) sanded super smooth.

Hi folks, going through some of my old techniques, and things I have figured out for myself and wondered about others tricks.
QotW: What is your favorite trick/hack that you have used to solve a problem when making pottery?
One of my favorites when working with cylinders or other thrown forms is to use an embroiders hoop to mark the line around a thrown form to mark an easy cut an angle to cut and then reverse the top portion 180 degrees and rejoin for pieces like salt pigs.
best,
Pres

+1 for the cell phone. It has the advantage of being probably already in your possession, and small tripods that are easy to position  are readily available online or at some mall kiosks. 
If you do elect to use a portrait orientation, a trick to avoid distortion is to hold it upside down. Most people will angle their cellphone forward when taking images, and we don’t notice any angle weirdness because that’s how we ourselves are viewing the world. When the angle goes the other way, the distortion is more noticeable in the moment, and easier to correct. 

I believe that you could set up a live feed with most any older camcorder or a recent digital using ports in the TV connected to the USB post in the camera. Does the TV have a model make and model # where you could look up the manual online if you don't have it?
 
best,
Pres

I taught for 36 years, much of it Ceramics day to day. Not really work of the physical type that potters do, but still a lot of clay, wedging, throwing, demonstrations, lectures, and coaching beginners and intermediates. Retirement brought on some regular throwing, lots of bowling, and other activities that taxed me. Now in my mid 70s I find that it is easier to get tired, delay going out to the shop, or to not take that kayak out as often. Luckily, even though I have quite a bit of arthritis in my hands and other areas, I still enjoy working with the clay and creating one of a kind pieces. . . for my self, or my vision. So what if I make less, there is no need there to sell, but still the need to make . . . hope to continue on til gone.
 
best,
Pres

I believe that you could set up a live feed with most any older camcorder or a recent digital using ports in the TV connected to the USB post in the camera. Does the TV have a model make and model # where you could look up the manual online if you don't have it?
 
best,
Pres

Nice pictorial, great way to make a strap handle that matches the surfaces/fluidity of a casserole or other piece.
best,
Pres

I taught for 36 years, much of it Ceramics day to day. Not really work of the physical type that potters do, but still a lot of clay, wedging, throwing, demonstrations, lectures, and coaching beginners and intermediates. Retirement brought on some regular throwing, lots of bowling, and other activities that taxed me. Now in my mid 70s I find that it is easier to get tired, delay going out to the shop, or to not take that kayak out as often. Luckily, even though I have quite a bit of arthritis in my hands and other areas, I still enjoy working with the clay and creating one of a kind pieces. . . for my self, or my vision. So what if I make less, there is no need there to sell, but still the need to make . . . hope to continue on til gone.
 
best,
Pres

I bought a 500$ new washer just for clay stuff and its out next to studio and drains to my timber bamboo patch. I use only cold water and never any soap. You will have to clean out rubber trap under washer every now and then as clat settles there.I would never wash clay stuff into a house drain system especaily ours on a septic septic system

Sounds for the best. The pointmade re electricity supply  and 3 phase is worth noting. Unless your property has 3 phase supply best to stick with single phase kilns imo.

Thanks, all, for the advice. It's very helpful. The kiln is listed for $500, which seems reasonable, but I don't have any experience working on kilns, so I'll probably just wait for a decent deal on one that isn't in need of repairs.

Looks like there is something goofy going on with the 3rd row of elements. . . as the elements are not setting in the bottom channel, or there is no front wall to the bottom channel of the bricks under the lid hinge area.  Also the area where the lid hinge is will need to be completely replaced.
All IMHO of course!
 
best,
Pres

Faceplate shows it’s a 3 phase kiln, are you set up to run that?

Unfortunately / fortunately the way of the future. Batteries improving in longevity and weight. ECM motors more efficient. Rare earth magnets replacing wound copper rotors. Brushless! Powered tools improve productivity and non corded site safety a whole bunch. Gone are the days where the tool is holstered, you are tied off of Course dragging around 50 ft of extension cord just waiting to pull off balance, get tangled or stepped upon. Pneumatics also being replaced with battery powered - same issue, maybe worse. Like printer cartridges though everyone has their proprietary battery shape and chargers.
Lithium batteries - game changer in weight and power density. Lithium iron phosphate newest game changer, now battery powered site generators in many ways better than the old fueled. Tesla scheduled to reveal newest next game changer battery soon.
For home construction and special needs, corded are still fine. For convenience and improving site safety more than tenfold, cordless can’t be beat and very few sites (if any) are significantly corded anymore. Cord safety in itself a constant OSHA issue. When real contractors build things, as many cordless as practical are in use for many good reasons.

Several years ago,  I built a deck attached to the garage and house. 2 layers, no help building the framing at all. Used one corded hammer drill and two different cordless drills. Charged over night batteries lasted all day. Dad helped me put on composite decking. Don't know how I would have done it using corded drills with cords all over the place.
The only electric putty gun out there was by Ryobi at the time. Easy to make a fake putty tube out of cvc pipe. used regular pipe fittings to finish up. Had to modify the plunger head to fit the cvc inside diameter.  Great idea suggested by @Minthat has been used for handles ever since.
 
best,
Pres

Wasn't particularly happy with the battery powered tools I bought some thirty years ago.
However, "big" projects* drove decision to wade back into cordless, so many positives!
Lightweight, powerful, long battery life, precise control at low speed, cute little light that shines on the target, easy to use on a ladder...
...also very handy for stirring up glazes - no cord knocking over coffee, wares - and that precise control, woops, heh, just kidding, no, really, check that the trigger has the feel/control you need.
The chuck is awesome - just that is so worthwhile.
It's no substitute for the burly half inch corded model when it comes to mixing reclaim, no.
Add a hammer drill to the stable?
Yep! Hammer drill makes putting holes in concrete/stone so much easier, sooo much.
Add an oscillating tool? Why did we not have one of these a'ready? O M G what a handy tool.
...the batteries are all interchangeable, go.
     Added: The batteries on our three yellow branded tools are completely interchangeable.
                        The three amp/hour one is heavier, but lasts longer, eh?
All three have already "earned" back the costs, imo, after their first jobs.
Another tool I put in that same class, pancake/portable compressor and finish nail gun; compared to setting nails in baseboard and door casing By Hand?
We've since added a framing nail gun and upholstery staple gun.
I'll be quiet now!

*Remodeling the son's house, where we're often using every drill motor we own, each fitted with a different bit/drill, go!
The aforementioned (yellow) brand markets a very short body lightweight cordless, handy for drilling wire ways through wall studs, makes a long day of hanging sheetrock a bit less onerous - light, powerful, and, And, precise control for those of us that prefer screws to nails (without investing in a drywall screw gun). 
Added II: Note, a "driver" hammers in the turning direction, which assists in driving screws; a "hammer" drill impacts straight ahead, which helps when drilling, particularly where the material doesn't cut into chips when drilled, e.g. cement, stone

@Pyewackette, not trying to hijack this thread but there is also the electric caulking gun extruder option too. I came up with the idea and Pres made it work. We collaborated on an article for it, link from Pres' website to it here. https://picworkspottery.blogspot.com/

I have had some success with firing vitrified pieces in a glaze firing.  1) Heat up the piece   2) Dip or pour quickly as there will be more thick drips if too slow. Fire as normally.
The pieces I have fired in this manner do not look like the rest of my ware, but are more transparent in glaze, have color but also more of the color of the clay. stain decoration over top is excellent, but again it does not look like my work at all.
 
 
best,
Pres

Moved.
Good catch! You'll be much happier with the new elements.
New kilns and old kilns only differ in cost of firing if they have different brick thickness. 2.5" brick used to be the standard on older kilns, with the exception of 28" wide kilns. Now 3" is the standard on all sizes for the most part. Some manufacturers don't even offer 2.5" brick any more.
I once did a test to see how much firing costs change as elements wear. I let the elements in my L&L e18T-3 wear until they could no longer reach cone 6, and the firing cost was double that of a new set of elements. On my kiln that was an extra $9 per firing. In a 10 cubic foot kiln it could be $25 per firing. So definitely keep those elements fresh. Once the resistance has changed by 10% from new they are due for changing. A cheap multi-meter is definitely worth the investment to be able to check element resistance every now and then.

I learned how to dip. pour, & spray but now I mostly just brush, sometimes sponge, unless I want a certain effect like making a spatter. 

I would have told myself I had less time than I thought and not to wait for "permission" - also to find a doctor who would start treating my Addison's disease IMMEDIATELY and not 40 years later, LOL!