liambesaw

Well the retrofit kit from euclids was 750+shipping. I got the parts for: V6cf controller - 280 Relays - 2x 22 Transformer - 22 Housing - 55 Wires and connectors maybe 20 bucks So saved around 300-350, took me about 3 hours to remove kiln sitter, rewire and put back together. I was genuinely surprised when I flipped the cutoff switch and the dang thing beeped and turned on. Was expecting fireworks at the very least! Was a fun project and highly recommend to anyone with a manual kiln.

No idea, I just plugged it in, hit fast bisque and chose cone 06. I haven't dingled with any of the settings yet, I just wanted to make sure all the parts were connected and working, and that there was no immediate fires. I also was able to get away with only one sheet metal cut on my hand and that is amazing.

Works a charm, test fired it to cone 06 last night, even forgot it was running! My main problem with the manual kiln was medium maxed out at 1800, high climbed way too fast. So to slowly climb the last 200 or so degrees, I had to go out and turn one switch to medium and one to high, and every ten minutes or so flip them to keep the kiln somewhat even. Pain. In. The. Booty. No more! Everything is gravy now.

Well my project yesterday was converting my manual kiln with kilnsitter into a digital kiln. Mission complete.

Looking good Shawn! Have you booked your first show yet? I ruined a kiln load of 40 mugs last weekend which will set me back a bit. I still need to figure out my branding and set up a website, etc before I even think about selling. It's all very daunting, wish I could just make pots all day and they'd magically sell themselves haha.

Did it last night and worked well, thanks!

It's not exactly comfortable, but I'm limited because it's the old tank style rk2, had it on blocks for a while but it was too high for my seat. I'm kind of used to it now

Thanks! I'll do that, I am picking up some lag bolts to mount my extruder on the way home. Maybe get a few done tonight. I'll try not pulling the last bit instead of rolling the rim, I kinda like the rolled rim though. They should end up right around 8 inches wide, if not, I will adjust and make bigger, my dogs current dishes are 6 inches wide and 10 inches wide and I wanted it to be in the middle.

The ones for my dogs are gonna have extruded sections inside to slow them down when eating, they're little piggies and will finish their food in under 10 seconds otherwise!! I was thinking a flopped rim might be fun too, but no way I could do that to a gauge.

Thank you, my water is pretty far away, it's a large crock pot on a sheet of plywood, wish I could get it a bit closer. Scrap buckets behind me. I'm gonna have to move out of my shed eventually, hopefully before I hurt my back haha. These plastic bats are not good, the holes have loosened in less than 6 months and they all have a knock. I put slip under it to help suction it to the wheelhead, and for subsequent ones I just put a little water to help the slip seal down the next one. I have Masonite bats on my shopping list for next trip to the pottery store, but also really need to just bite the bullet and pour up some plaster ones.

Ok, ended up only throwing 2 keepers last night, but I got my gauge set and will throw some more tonight. I can only do 3 a night for now because 3 of my bigger bats up and walked off somewhere. Oh well! I have a 50lb bag of plaster #1 and some pie tins, I should just start making some. Anyway, another video if anyone is interested in my process.

We've got 2 huskies, a 3 year old white one (Kita), she's 65lbs, and a 10 month old cream one (Kodi) and he's 45lbs so far. We also have a 12 year old daschund (Scotch) and a 15 year old tuxedo cat (meowzer)!

That sounds interesting!! And my wife has changed my plans for the week. We are putting together our business plan and she wants me to work on designing and throwing some dog and cat dishes. Our animals have always been central in our life, and so has our mixed heritage so we thought these would be central themes in a family business. So DOG BOWLS!!! WOO! Now I have to go find my sketchbook

Did a glaze firing last night, hope to open tonight when I get home. Kiln was still at 900f when I left for work. I've got 35 mugs in there and a shelf of spoon rests. Trying out a new glaze, coffee nuka. Went to mix some other glazes this weekend and lo and behold! No silica. Grrr, I thought I had half of a 50lb bag left when I saw the bin almost empty. Oh well! That just means I get to make another trip to Seattle pottery supply! This week I'm going to continue to try repeat bowls. That's all that's on the docket. I might do another glaze firing midweek if I can, but not a deal breaker

Let's race! I'll give you a 2 hour head start!

"Don't mind me, just practicing my juggling with all of your final projects over here!"

My hammer is a big maple tree, the pile is getting good.

Are you saying 10000 hours before someone will want to buy your work? That seems excessive!

I'll let you know when I get there. Like pres, I think hours is probably a better measure than years. I can throw a nice even mug the same way pretty much every time, and I've got 10 months of "recent" wheel throwing under my belt now. But I have a wheel at home and I am throwing for about 3 hours a night, 5 days a week. Weekends are mostly glazing and firing so I'm only at the wheel maybe 4 hours. So that's around 19 hours a week, for 44 weeks, 836 hours total so far and I'm just now feeling confident I can sell my mugs and bowls.

Nice about these little bats is no cutting (unless I need to free up some bats early), the mugs pop off at leather soft and I thumb trim them. The bad thing about a system like this is that you need to learn to center on a non-level surface because after some heavy use they don't sit down perfectly in the slot anymore. Hah! I don't have a problem wiring off the wheel, but with my limited room it can be hard to swing my body to side and place the mugs on the shelves using both arms.

Well I think we all would rather hear what form of education has helped you the most in pottery, but you asked for it!

I'm making YouTube videos now too! I thought to myself "what is the internet missing?" And guess what, there wasn't a single video of me in my pajamas making mugs, now there is! Still trying to figure out the whole YouTube thing but I'll get there!

I got a foundation in ceramics back before YouTube, but had a pretty long hiatus between college and getting my own gear. Now I spend a lot of time watching YouTube videos on technique and read helpful books like a potters workbook by Clary illian, or functional pottery by Robin Hopper. I also read back issues of PMI and CM. I think it's just all around absorb as much as I can. Of course these forums here are really nice as well. I have been to a single demo, and it was nice but I was getting annoyed by all of the weird questions that people were asking while the presenter was trying to demo, it felt like they really got in the way. I enjoy doing stuff by figuring it out so I think I'll stay away from the arts center for now!

Welp, had to go get clay again, was down to my last box. This time I decided to go ahead and bring a half ton home, which is all I trusted myself and my Tahoe to drive safely in crazy downpour. 500lbs of Klamath yellow and 500 lbs of vashon red. I really like the yellow as a fast, soft clay and the red as a stiffer smoother clay. Also picked up two new kiln shelves for the kiln I got in December. The ones it came with were both cracked and covered in lowfire glaze. Now I can get 3 shelves of mugs in my kiln at once which will be very nice. Speaking of kilns, I'm doing a full bisque right now! So far I've been able to fill my kiln every week with a bisque, I'm pretty happy with that! This week on my workbench is more spoonrests and mugs. I spent this last week doing just a bunch of spoonrests.

Haha this year if the farmers markets yield a bounty!