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Fast Drying Tiles


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I will have a hundred or so tiles drying sandwiched between drywall made in several smaller batches spanning Mon AM (yesterday)-Wed PM (tomorrow night) I need to bisque them Friday and glaze Saturday. I have always left for a few days in drywall and then air dry for a few more to bone dry.

 

Any suggestions on drying them quickly without causing them to warp and/or crack? I was thinking sliding them to new drywall on Thursday and then Friday AM candling for several hours in the bisque firing.

 

I would appreciate any input. The tiles are 4x4x3/8.       

 

   

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Rushing tiles is never a good idea, but if you have them standing up with good air flow on all sides they should stay relatively flat. They warp when one side dries faster than the other, or when the edges dry faster than the middle. Once they are past leather hard the chances of warping are far less, and you can speed up the drying at that point.

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if you're sandwiching them between drywall, perhaps try adding a fan to the mix.  thinking the sandwiching will help keep things flat and the fan will provide faster evaporation.

 

how are the tiles being produced?  i think this may have more effect on warping/loss with the fast drying methods

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biglou,

 

thanks, I found it, very interesting idea.

 

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Posted 29 February 2012 - 09:14 AM

Like many production potters, I dry tiles in a drywall sandwich. -On my "heat tables". Radiant heat panels are resistance wires embedded in sheetrock, and can be wired for 110 or 220.
Half inch tiles are ready to fire in 24 hours.    
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Pekolator, they are pressed in a air release mold and normally dry flat if left sandwiched for a few days then air dries the rest flipping here and there. I'll keep the fan idea in mind. I do worry that the fan air might encourage cracking if some tiles dry unevenly.
 
 
neil, I transferred the 2nd batch from yesterday to a fresh drywall sandwich this morning and they were pretty close to leather hard and the ones from Monday were leather hard so I moved them to open air. Yeah this may not work but got to do it so I'll just have to hope for the best :-) 
 
Going to check out that drying system in the old thread, 24 hours to fire sound fantastic. Space is such a premium in the studio so moving tiles through faster would be great.
 
Thanks everyone, I can always count on this group for some quick solutions from folks that know what they are talking about. 
 
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and there ya go, $550 bucks and ya have a 2x2 foot fast tile drying system for tiles :-)

 

http://www.heatinggreen.com/product/plug-in-panel-heaters/

 

or possibly 2 $35 seedling heating mats:

 

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Viagrow-Seed-Propagating-Seedling-Heat-Mat-VSEEDMAT20/203357025?MERCH=REC-_-PIPHorizontal1-1-_-NA-_-203357025-_-N

 

still cheaper, a DIY option. 2 18' rope lights are $25 and if 100 degrees is applied to each side of the drywall it might just dry in a 24 hour cycle.

 

http://www.vegetablegardener.com/item/11658/diy-heat-mat-speeds-seed-starting

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