Pugmill question

[Min 3,432]

@Stephen, I seem to remember you use a Tacoma Clay Art porcelain? Just throwing a wild hunch out here, when I tried their JG6 porcelain I noticed the clay slip in the throwing water didn't hardpan much, makes me wonder if they don't use nepheline syenite but rather custer for the flux. It would be interesting to find that out. This would make a difference to the pitting rate as the latter has about 1/2 the sodium as the former. I've read that using the pugger frequently helps also.

[Stephen 531]

On 9/24/2020 at 1:55 PM, Min said:

@Stephen, I seem to remember you use a Tacoma Clay Art porcelain? Just throwing a wild hunch out here, when I tried their JG6 porcelain I noticed the clay slip in the throwing water didn't hardpan much, makes me wonder if they don't use nepheline syenite but rather custer for the flux. It would be interesting to find that out. This would make a difference to the pitting rate as the latter has about 1/2 the sodium as the former. I've read that using the pugger frequently helps also.

Yep, we use JG6. I made a white stoneware for a bit with a blue bird stainless mixer and pugged it and it used NS in its recipe and and then switched after about a year when I got tired of making it. Over the years I just stopped worrying about it but now that you bring this up it does seem like it has kind of been the same for years now. Maybe my pitting stopped whit the switch and just didn't notice..  

If that' true then I could have a problem soon because we have been having it shipped from Tacoma and it raises the cost to 75 cents a pound. I can source porcelain locally for more like 40 cents and our volume is going up so it is starting to matter.

Edited September 30, 2020 by Stephen

[neilestrick 4,598]

7 hours ago, Stephen said:

we have been having it shipped from Tacoma and it raises the cost to 75 cents a pound. I can source porcelain locally for more like 40 cents and our volume is going up so it is starting to matter.

Use whichever clay you like best, and adjust your prices accordingly. Adding 50 cents to every mug to cover the cost shouldn't affect sales.

[Stephen 531]

4 hours ago, neilestrick said:

Use whichever clay you like best, and adjust your prices accordingly. Adding 50 cents to every mug to cover the cost shouldn't affect sales.

ya know I would normally agree but it does add up with some volume so going to try a couple of local options but you are right on that if we dont like the local stuff its prob worth just having it shipped. The other plus is that they ship a pallet to my door instead of me having to drive 3 hours round trip to pick it up, so there's that.

[neilestrick 4,598]

14 hours ago, Stephen said:

ya know I would normally agree but it does add up with some volume

Sure, the initial cost is more painful, but it evens out in the end. And if you figure in the struggle and loss rate of using a clay you don't like or has problems, and the time it takes to pick it up, you might not be saving much anyway.

[Stephen 531]

On 10/1/2020 at 2:07 PM, neilestrick said:

Sure, the initial cost is more painful, but it evens out in the end. And if you figure in the struggle and loss rate of using a clay you don't like or has problems, and the time it takes to pick it up, you might not be saving much anyway.

Thanks Neil, good points! Thanks for your reply as I keep not doing this. Like you said above I should only be paying double if the local stuff is not up to speed. Since I haven't even tried the local porcelain it is dumb on my part to not do the testing so I am making an informed decision. Still have a few k pounds on hand but its going pretty fast and I don't want to change overnight if I do end up doing so.

change is hard