Bill Kielb

Lemon test usually meaningless, put it in your dinhwasher 30 times. Actually I would just line it if I were to let my pooch drink from it. It’s obviously artistically melted but I would never assume it to be durable. No lead or cadmium though so there is that.

Hmm, looks like Fido could use a liner glaze, maybe a durable 04 lowfire fix.

Annotating pictures? Making videos? You are getting to be quite proficient with this digital stuff!

Nice work, on all fronts. Potter to electrician to electronics design technician. Ya got some skills!

Yes, friendly joke. He thought it would mess me up

Pretty good with that left hand, for a bit there I thought you were going to throw left handed but rotating counter clockwise! I am ok with mine and stumped one of our RA’s recently when he switched my wheel direction while I was away and then went cross eyed when I came back and just finished shaping without swapping the direction back. He just walked away shaking his head. nice video

I really like the shape it’s pretty 1/3 - 2/3 proportion pleasing in my view. I usually end up with too high of a shoulder and when I step back ....... blech! What did I just throw?

I like it aesthetically and since I can palm a basketball it looks very inviting for my hand. It is also practical for when my siblings are at the table. We each have an equal opportunity to snatch it! As for pouring, well maybe use my other hand on the bottom.

Suggestion while you are learning it, maybe set max temp at maybe 2300 (Max in the tech manual I sent), Maybe cone 71/2 or what you feel is safe as a redundant safety against severe over fire. I think the default is 2400. Interesting in that it’s branded as a Euclid control!

I usually cut mine before I start just as a matter of habit. I take it you relay config and the wiring part went pretty smooth. Nice work! oh, one last add, how much did you save as diy.

Looks nice and clean, just curious if you added the down ramp segment to your base programming as well as the two key to keep unwanted starts from happening? I will probably add the SSR retrofit to this in about a month or so with early test data for folks to view.

Looks pretty nifty!

I love it! Glad the PJs have gone elsewhere! I have always had Shepherds ( clumsy bowl tippers) so I found it necessary to throw a quick ribbon for double wall and add it to the shape. This looks great!

Helped or been helped I have to give all the credit. You tube is relatively new so not as much as people, research people especially old research people. I think everyone has some wheelhouse skill and if one can figure that out and pick their brain, method whatever, one can benefit greatly. Clay is so diverse that old methods give way to new. Reading, listening and now viewing on the internet all have distinct advantages unto their own. my vote is all including forums of opinions. There is always something you can learn when I vacation, I always visit nearby ceramic studios, fascinating actually. All these have helped in their own way actually.

For mugs, cups, vases, I really like picking them up off the wheel head and placing them on a cheap cfold towel on a batt. Bottom dries out with the rest, stays round and no cutting later only to have a batt with a splotch of clay in the center. he definitely is in a groove though.

The throwing was great, the PJ’s not so much. I like the Air conditioner stashed back there for comfort as well.

@Mark C. It’s a Shimpo whisper, heavy studio use that has bad foot pedal cord so we will fix after I get some decent strain reliefs in the next few days. I will video and include the pedal adjustment and put it up somewhere for folks to access. Seems to be a need for it lately.

Funny I sat down tonight at a wheel and first it didn’t start, then it ran backwards, then it finally performed normally after I jiggled the footpedal wires. Guess I will do a quick video on cutting these back and repairing them nicely. New strain reliefs, new crimp on connectors all for little money but in good lasting order when they are done. It has come up on this site recently several times now. Time to make a video and link it here somewhere.

Clay tile roofs are great in warm climates and protect from UV quite well, plus they have mass and are less susceptible to uplifting forces. Final Waterproofing for these systems almost always depends upon the underlayment. Just a thought so minor cracks in clay tile not really a tremendous concern including cedar shakes unless the underlayment is not water tight. I would vote for the tight porcelain body myself. Assuring enough room for water expansion is difficult at best.

It was not actually, but I am a low sodium then low calcium guy anyway with porcelain so when I can reduce these it is usually decent practice for me. This glaze would actually over fire so badly that it would literally dry up. It had little self healing capability as well. When I solidified this Bristol recipe it fired nicely, no pinholes and matte per the chemistry so LOI is usually not a super high primary interest to me especially if it works when in correct chemistry form.. I find if I can normalize these things in Stull and they fire per their chemistry then I can move from there to try and get it to look the way everyone thinks it should. Just my method, I am a UMF guy and do like a lot of Tony Hansen’s stuff, as well as Britt, Arbuckle, Katz and many others. just my method of keeping it simple for me. LOI has never been something I designed to unless I was worried about the efficiency in use of materials.

@liambesaw The Rays cream is actually the first layer glaze. It’s only colorant is rutile (titanium) so it has always been an overfired matte where if you were lucky you would get a runny matte in which the crystals collected in the runs and at the bottom where it would turn shades of blue. Old recipe, pinholes most of the time, bad chemistry and also started out as a Bristol glaze back in the day to get this to melt around cone 4 ish. To answer your question Rays cream was the base and I have a blue fur over the top (rim dipped to 2”) in a very half hazard manner for this test piece. The rework was to lower the temp with boron, reduce the zinc to only as needed and eliminate the pin holes while bringing the flux ratio to a durable one. They like this glaze because as a runny matte anything over it or it over a smooth glaze has movement. It usually looks pretty good with minimal effort which is what everyone wants Updating this to a more boron controlled melt allows easy dial in of how much run. From there we just need to dial in the thickness for one dip, two dip, three dip. So SPG for the interns after testing is important for consistent results. Right now this works fine at 140% water to dry glaze at mix time. I think the final dipping thickness will be 135 - 138 ish so a bit thin. three second dips are the norm in our studio. I will message you the write up to the resident artists if you want the test recipe to try, just drop me a note. some generic pics of what this can do depending upon application thickness. All the pinholes, crazing and imperfections have been designed out of it at this point and it works on low expansion porcelain. Now time for the studio artists to figure out what they don’t like about it.

Hmm a skilled potter and talented electrician. Nice glaze! Just finished our Rays Cream to get rid of pinholes and dial in the perfect amount of movement with trapped titanium crystals. Funny, just pulled this out of the ELECTRIC test kiln today. (Sorry, I know I have it made, but couldn’t resist)

Constant speed, constant torque, constant horsepower. I learned on a hand control wheel and to this day try and set the speed with my foot then away my foot goes only to return shortly after the speed changes after I load the wheel. When I back off, here goes the speed just a touch, Annoying! Most of the wheels these days manage speed pretty well until they are loaded requiring more horsepower but when they do and are unloaded their speed ramps up a little. I think I am hyper sensitive to this. We have 20 wheels mostly whispers and I do like them but they are certainly not the best ever. You know I would marvel at my father as he matter of fact would tell me about smudge pots under the vehicle and boiling water to fill the radiator all while we were jumping on his tires as we changed them to snow tires in our basement. My conclusion, I just need to improve my throwing and maybe take some drum lessons to cure the dead foot issue. Every time I watch old potters on a kick wheel I think what kind of whimp am I?

Appreciate the kind words but the community helped with a variety of well meaning opinions and you crawled in and did the work, so hats off to you. Sometimes ya just gotta take the credit. go first successful bisque firing!

Nice work! Congratulations.