Reclaiming Large Volumes Of Slop

[Joseph Fireborn]

I might be wasteful, but I don't reclaim. It all goes in the trash. I don't want to deal with the nasty clay that smells horrible, and it just doesn't seem worth the effort. If you sell 2 mugs at $25 each that pays for 100#'s of clay(at retail, non discounted prices for bulk). It seems like the amount of effort put forth for the reclaim would be much better spent making new products.

 

I could be crazy, but I fill up my TS wheel bucket in about a 2-4 weeks, and its slap full. I then take that out and dump it into a trashcan outside with my mask on, and seal the bag up and its done. It can't be much because I pick up the wheelpan myself and it feels like its only 15-25 pounds. That's like 15-20 dollars worth of clay I guess. But to go through all that effort to get back clay seems crazy. I realize I am probably the minority here. If I had a pugger it might be different, but still I doubt I would. I never really have any plans on reclaiming even when I get more busy and start selling more products.

[Chris Campbell]

That's a point I agree with Joseph ...

The cheapest material in your studio has to be the clay and the most expensive item is your time. So why spend your expensive time reclaiming the cheapest item? The wear and tear on your body and the time spent doing this ... rather than making more new work ... does not equal savings.

The only ways I could see it making sense is if you make your own clay so know how to re-constitute it to replace ingredients washed away during throwing ... Or you live somewhere the shipping costs make the clay very expensive or difficult to obtain ... Or a school where no one will increase your budget to buy more clay and you have young people to do the heavy lifting ... Or you just really enjoy heavy manual labor.

[Mark C.]

I used to toss 3 five gallon buckers a week out .Now with my peter pugger its about two buckets a week into the road fill place down the road.

I reuse all soft clay and now mix bodys and make hard clay soft with pugger. I still todd dry scraps and trimmings.

[ronfire]

I use my reclaim for slab work. I run it several times through the roler before my final roll. 

Might have to try the plastic tarp idea instead of the pillow case though I have had good luck with the pillow case.

[hitchmss]

There's a potter called Dan Weaver who has a series of

on how to de-water slip using a filter-press bag inside a vacuum bag attached to a vacuum pump. It'll take a bit of work to set up, but it looks like quite an efficient way of doing things.

Pieter; this method is an intriguing one. The methodology is sound but I think the scale of the operation vs the cost of setup would prohibit me from utilizing this method. He suggested that he was able to process about 40 lbs during one cycle, which is roughly $12 in clay. Now granted the system can be reused time and time again to make up for the expense but it also seems fairly labor intensive in setting up the bags, etc etc. A good vacuum pump can cost a good bit of money let alone the cost of the bags, boards, hosing, filter, etc, and then my time.

 

   I think until I move into a larger studio where we can store more reclaim and process during summer months without consuming valuable studio space we'll just have to process what we can via plaster bats as we have done in the past. We may try to remake my "drying table" with a non organic material, and use a nylon fabric instead of a cotton sheet and hopefully this will fix the issue of the mold growth. I think what we'll do in the future is to create a large table with removable sides that we can just pour all of our year's slop into at once, and dry it in the sun for a day or two and throw it into the mill.

    I hate to just throw the slop away because the way I see it, a 5 gallon bucket of slop will yield about 30# of usable clay which is about $10 if purchased at retail prices. During production I produce about 3 buckets of slop per week, or $30 of reclaimable slop per week of production. I dont produce all year round but a realistic estimate is around 7 months(28 weeks) of the year, which totals $840 of reclaimable slop per year. To me, I see $840, that Id happily spend on new advancer shelves for the kiln(or a million other things), than throw it out the back door.  Now, granted if I spend any serious amount of my time having to process this the profit margin of processing this slop goes way down and makes it not worth the hassle, hence my desire to find a non labor intensive, cheap method of reclaiming.

    I appreciate everyone's ideas and suggestions!

[Magnolia Mud Researdh]

Sam,

 

I don't use the volumes of clay being discussed, but this has worked for me on about 3 gallons of throwing slop and trims made while throwing. 

 

I used large terra-cotta flowerpots from the local garden center. 

Put a bisque shard over the hole, and fill it with the slop.  The water slowly makes it way through the walls and bottom. 

 

I set the pot on my garage back porch because that was where I had room. 

 

The water both evaporates and drains out of the pot, so you do need a catch pan. 

When the slop started to show signs of being more solid that liquid, I dug the thick stuff out and placed it on large terra-cotta flowerpot saucers. to finish dewatering and drying.  IMO the saucers are better than plaster because they are lighter, take less room to store, less likely to crumble, easier to handle, and can be cleaned with a water hose. 

I recovered white stoneware (B-mix) without contamination.

 

You should be able to find pots that will hold about the same volume as a 5 gallon bucket at most garden centers.

 

This may take less room than what you initially described with you cloth, etc.

 

LT