Ceramic kiln news - october 2019

According to the docs linked to from the Metal Shop Wiki:

33″W x 30″D x 28″H inside workspace

I think the door opening has a modest lip, though.

1 Like

I dropped some stuff off up there to be bisqued about a month ago before I was out of town for a bit. When I went up the other day there was a note asking what clay it was and it has not been fired. I left my phone number and speckled buff as a reply on it. Do you happen to know what is going on with it?

1 Like

Still here if this is it?

Hmm, an interesting thought. The shelves would fit, the 1027 has 20” shelves. Some kiln shelves will just plain snap if they get too wet but those are the expensive, fancy ones we don’t have but I daydream about. Sweet, sweet nitride bonded shelves. I dig this idea, because it could seriously speed up the process but I have a couple of stumbling blocks.

  1. Kiln shelves are both sorta soft and absorbent. Depending on what has been cleaned recently, we could be contaminating the shelves with metals that we then heat to over 2000 degrees…then fuming and possible glaze interactions. Hmmmm. Food safety, heh, right out the window.

  2. I think it would take a really long time to dry out the shelves. You have to go slowly or you risk breakage and I’d be worried about kiln drying (like we do for the kiln wash (refractory material)) when more wet causing warp. While reducing labor time, it could increase kiln downtime.

I don’t know enough about the vapor hone, what are your thoughts about metal contaminants?

Shelves can warp. That will really mess up firing flat items like plates.

Yes those are it. Do you happen to know what that note is about or why they were not fired? I just want to make sure that they make it into the kiln since they didn’t previously.

Eye did not read it. :expressionless: When I get back over I’ll snap a pic for ya if kiln team hasn’t responded by then :+1:t3:

Thanks! I appreciate it. I have been throwing with this clay since I joined Makerspace so I just want to mitigate any confusion with firing moving forward. My number is on there too, feel free to call if that is easier or there are any questions.

2 Likes

I think writing “cone 6” explicitly on the label (assuming that’s accurate) would alleviate any concerns about firing strange clay.

I would love to help with this edit: (the shelf grinding/maintenance), although I would need to be shown how. @brendamvilla @Monikat

Also, I may have missed previous posts, and I was unable to attend the last committee meeting, but is there a process for joining kiln team? I’ve been interested in helping for a while, especially since it seems that everyone’s time and efforts are stretched pretty thin. Let me know!

3 Likes

Bisque firings are not generally altered in temperature based on clay bodies, which is why I was confused that it was flagged. Sounds good, I will mark the clay and cone moving forward to avoid any confusion. Thanks! I appreciate all the work the firing team does!

Your pieces were on the “to be glaze fired” shelves for quite a while and noone knew what kind of clay they were as they were beautiful pieces but so light and airy… We didn’t want to melt your pieces to a crisp if they were low fire. I am sure they will be going into the next bisque fire since you moved them to that shelf now.

1 Like

Like Christy said. Your Geenware was on the back of the ready to fire Glaze shelf for several weeks. The team did not load it in the glaze before we can confirm you didn’t make a mistake with shelf placement. Now that you have moved it to the correct ready for bisque shelf, it will go in the next round.

1 Like

Caveat: I have zero first-hand knowledge on kiln maintenance.

re: metal contamination
I think the best approach would be to coordinate with Metal Shop to wait until they are cleaning out old abrasive/putting in new abrasive and water, then using the new, no-metal-included slurry to clean the shelves.

re: water absorption
I can see this being an issue, and don’t know a) whether the shelves would be damaged by water or b) how long to allow them to dry before firing. Seems to me if they were thin and allowed good air circulation, that time would be measured in hours, though.

Issue c) is the blast from the vapor hone strong enough to break the shelves? I see this as a potential issue as well. A support frame would minimize the chance, but it’s possible it’d blow through the shelves (as opposed to causing the shelves to flex and break from pressure on the edges).

Jenny, I’ll start a message with the firing team and include you. We can add you to a training schedule and get you trained to be part of the firing team…Yay! And thank you for offering your help!

2 Likes

That makes sense, sorry about the confusion!

I think it’s worth trying out a bit of broken shelf next time there is a clean out. I’m still thinking getting the shelves very wet is risky but experimentation is fun!

2 Likes

FYI If you’re glazing, someone put all the mixed, empties, and contaminated glazes back on the shelves. :man_shrugging:t2:

1 Like

Thank you @Jenny for coming and help load a bisque and unload a glaze!:metal:

6 Likes

I like that ash glaze, was that a commercially available glaze or one mixed from a recipe?