Does it matter if you wire off right away or later?

[Crooked Lawyer Potter]

 

(Re-posted to a separate string/topic)

 I think that the most helpful hint has turned out to be to curve the handle and let it learn that position for a little while before attaching.  Much better now.

A related question -- What effect, if any, do you think there is to NOT wiring off right after throwing.  Do you think this has any effect on whether the rim warps? 

[JohnnyK]

Wiring off the bottom of the pot shouldn't affect the rim unless you try to pick the pot off and it warps. If you throw on a water absorbing bat, the pot will come loose when it dries enough. Even so, I wire off the pot anyway to break the join between the pot and the bat.

[Callie Beller Diesel]

I don’t wire off until it’s time to flip the piece, and I usually do that as soon as the rim will support the rest of the pot. 

There’s a few factors that inform what I do. 1, I my studio is in my home, so I can go back to pots in a couple hours with ease. 2, I only throw larger pieces on bats, I don’t use them for anything that is in the 1-2 lb range that is taller than it is wide. Larger pieces will re-adhere themselves to the bat after you‘ve wired them off while they’re still wet, so I don’t bother.  3, I use wooden bats, so they’re not as absorbent as plaster. If I were to leave them in place for any amount of time, I’d be more at risk for the piece developing cracks right down the middle because the rims are drying faster. My largest pieces get about 3-4 hours to set up before they get stood on their heads. I flip with the 2 bat method.

I find if I’m getting warped rims, it’s because the rim got distorted either because I picked it up wrong, or it got deformed while trimming. If you nudge the piece and move it back while it’s still fresh, it’s usually fine. If it has had a chance to set up at all and the rim gets bumped, that’s when it goes wrong for me. I do work with stoneware, so porcelain may behave differently. 

 

 

[Morgan]

For porcelain I wire on the wheel as it dries so fast…other clay bodies I do a few hours later so I don’t have to deal with the pot re-adhering and having to either wire it again or pull up pieces from the bat. I flip everything as soon as it’s possible. And if for some reason it is a bit warped, even with porcelain, a small nudge down flipped resolves the issue.

[Mosey Potter]

I found that waiting to wire off the mugs when the rim was dry enough to turn upside worked best for my desire to keep warping to a minimum. 

[Mark C.]

If your pot re-adhering to bat just use a parger diameter wire. I use several sizes depending on how wide the pots is-the larger the diameter of work the larger the wire size.

[neilestrick]

It all depends on the clay body, the form, and what type of material the bat is made of. To be safe, just wire it off right away. It only takes a second.