Planning A Glaze Kiln Load - How Much Planning?

[oldlady]

i notice dirt uses half shelves. the center posts do not have to be doubled, two shelf halves fit on the top of one post.  especially those big ones. that means 4 post per level as opposed to the 6 in the photo.

[Mark C.]

I was noticing in the picture Mark posted how closely his mugs match up with his shelf post height.  I always have trouble ending up with to much empty space above my pots.  How close can a bowl or mug be to the bottom of the shelf above it?  I am thinking of cutting some taller post down to match mug height.

For me the space is a thickness of a sheet of paper-the pots shrinks so it gets smaller-tghis is true with 99% of pots except for retires which are preshrunk and expand a some -so they need more space.

As far as cutting post thats not your best choice. Cut or break kiln shelves of various thickness and stack them on posts to gain space-you can see this in my loads-I use what I call nurds which are just spacers of 3 different thicknesses.

I have a box of each all covered in kiln wash-3/8 advancer shelve  shards 1/2 inch shelve shards and 3/4 shelve shards-these you add to a post to gain what you need-add to post hieghts do not cut posts.

 

That said when I had a slip business we had our own stilts heights made from the factory as all the pots where the same heights and we wanted the post to be exact plus 1/16th inch so all the posts where made to be 5 1/4 inch -I still own a boat load of these posts.

Mark

[LeeU]

For "capacity enhancement components" (thx Paul) I got a bunch of foam core sheets (20 x 30) and traced my half round shelves (25 x 13) onto the boards. Then I can set up and rearrange until everything works. The light weight loads can stay on the foam core until time to put on the kiln shelving (i.e. if I am moving them from one place to another while waiting..better than heavy drywall.) 

[LeeU]

Just a snapshot of my foam core boards for planning shelf loads.