Regular members may not use the kilns, but that in no way means that they are used infrequently. Follow the monthly Kiln News posts in the Fired Arts area.
Trinity Ceramic Supply is currently recommending us for folks who need some studio space because $50 is cheaper than renting kiln time elsewhere.
Lets see if I can explain a kiln to you, ,. They need to fe fully loaded to work right, and to
give good results. It would be rare for one person to fill a kiln with their work
I took ceramics at Northlake for at least 6 years and students were never allowd to load a
kiln, Even unloading a kiln is tricky, because you can ruin the workd by
unloading it too quickly
I m not sure at what level is it taught,
I believe that Beth has worked with those that did have a kiln load
We are not stupid, we understand how they work we merely think that more people than Beth should know how to and be authorised to load and run it… Beth should not have to do all of the work. The bigger picture point of the rule is that it helps shift the responsibility of knowing how to use a tool from one person to as many as possible.
With the exception of certain glazes, the only reason to not fire a partially full kiln is economic. There is nothing inherent to an electric kiln that prevent firing a small piece in a huge kiln.
With certain glazes, the full kiln cools slower which is important for those glazes.
You get a more even temp with a full kiln, that is what I have always been
told by my ceramics professors
Can you tell us another tool where using it could damage other folks
work?
Leave the kilns alone. Of all the tools we “do not train enough on”, the kilns are not on that list.
3D, laser, welding, plasma cutter, metal lathe, vinyl cutter. I see the question pop up of “When can I get trained to use…”
The kilns have NEVER been on that list. NEVER.
Firing is an art. It takes time and dedication to get it right. Kilns run for hours through a firing cycle. If you have not experienced HOURS of your hard work being destroyed by an incompetent kiln run, you should NOT be talking about kiln training because you know nothing about it. (Yes, I have that experience, more than once, sigh. Far from DMS.)
I am not saying there should be not be kiln training. What I am saying is Fired Arts is currently doing a great job. Leave that one alone and work on a real issue.
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Well, that’s distressing right there. There are tools at the space which normal members, properly trained in the use of the tool, cannot use?
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I have been thinking about this, and there is no other resource that is shared in the way that the kilns are shared. Everything else – you want to make something, and you use the tool individually. The kilns are a shared resource. Regular members effectively use them by putting the items they wish fired on the proper, marked shelf, and their items are fired when there is enough ware to fill the kiln.
I am not that attached to most of my work but I prefer people who fire my things to already know what they are doing, sorry. A training class to learn about kilns would be fine. Beth already gave me a lot of great tips and advice for running my kiln at home but I would probably sign up for a class like that. But it doesn’t make sense for everyone to start running the kiln.
Agree completely with Diplomat.
The other unit affected by using a shared kiln schedule is time. The kiln takes about 24 hours for a full bisque cycle, and probably closer to 36 hours for a full glaze cycle. If individuals fired their items separately, the kilns might well run continuously. Plus, I think at that point we might well charge people to fire their items, since the full cost could be itemized. It’s not huge – Alex calculated it at about $6/run when I was considering charging one of the production potters for usage. (Not saying he was right, but that’s what he calculated.)
Me. John K. Nathan.
Yes. I am currently firing a glaze kiln. There’s enough stuff on the greenware shelf that there will probably be a bisque kiln as soon as the glaze is unloaded. Which, BTW, will probably be Thursday.
We all die.
One might fire one’s own pieces if there was significant slack in the firing and you had a Need. Not really likely, as I pretty much fire as needed.
Training and availability. Plus, generally speaking, only potters with their own kiln and senior potters fire kilns. Non-senior students at the colleges and universities don’t fire the kiln. It’s really rare to fire a lightly loaded kiln. Even potters with their own kilns usually load the sucker pretty full. If you had Trinity fire your ware, they’d do all the work for you, and I’m moderately certain that you might well share the kiln if you didn’t fill it.
The problem is that running a kiln takes 24 to 36 hours
not counting the time to load and unload and to kiln wash
shelves and let them dry
The kilns are more like a classroom than a tool because of the
length of teim it takes to run them
BTW I have wanted to get trained on the leather sewing machines for
2 freakin years now, I may have missed a class last year, but I don
remember seeing any, and periodically they are asked vor
I have NEVER seen a request for a kiln class
You only make one thing at a time on the HAAS, and every other piece of equipment that I can think of at the space. And – it doesn’t run for over 24 hrs to make that one thing (usually). The kiln can be filled with multiple items. It takes the same amount of time (minor ±) full or less full.
I do believe that one difference is that this does not prevent people from making pottery. Take a look at the bisque shelves to see the items that have made it through one firing already.
Yeah, I hope @Photomancer is paying attention.
I believe your original question has been answered. Especially considering that your next sentence demonstrates a base lack of knowledge of the kilns at all. You assume they are infrequently-used. Hopefully you can see from the many paragraphs of text in this thread that your assumption is completely incorrect.
If there is anything causing issues in fired arts it is a lack of space That area is one of
the most heavily used areas in the workshop other than the woodshop and maybe the auto
bays,
What would happen if running a job on the laser took it up ror over 24 hre
preventing anyone else from using it? What if the misuse of a
tool could destroy hours of multiple folks work, A pot fired too damp can
explode and it can break multiple other pieces,
FYI this is inaccurate I don’t really have a dog in the fight but we have lost 2 members and likely more from not being able to fire the kilns both were qualified to do it themselves.
I would be interested to know how many days a month the kilns are on?
From Beth s posts it looks like about twice a week, she is firing as soon
as there is a kiln load to fire
That is about the same rate as I remember at Northlake, but we also had a gas
kiln that fired about once every 2-3 wks,
Also more firings mean more wear on the element and more breakdowns
I have been at most of the fired arts committee meetings and I do not remember anyoen
complaining about not being able to fire the kiln or it not being fired often enough
How many members have we lost because they joined and bave up on getting a woodshop basics class
after a couple of months? and that has been a problem for at least 2 years
Something like this would give more “data” than we have now
https://talk.dallasmakerspace.org/t/run-hours-meter/23903
but of course does NOT compensate for such things as cooldown time, only “hours of electric consumption”.
I have the impression they’re on roughly “all the time” from those posts Beth makes in the monthly “kiln activity” threads…
Unloaded on June 1
Loaded again on June 7
Unloaded June 9
Loaded June 16
Unloaded June 18
Loaded June 23
Unloaded June 25
Loaded June 25
Unloaded June 27
Loaded June 27
Unloaded June 28
Loaded June 28/29 (not noted, but inferred)
Unloaded July 4
Loaded July 10
Unloaded July 12
MAINTENANCE
Loaded (not noted, inferred)
Unloaded July 15
Loaded (not noted, inferred)
Unloaded July 21
Loaded July 29
Unloaded July 31
Loaded July 31
Loaded August 1 (not noted, inferred)
Unloaded (not noted, inferred)
Loaded August 9 (inferred, noted as “running”)
Legend has it there’s the same and/or more information on FoulaceBook:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/352881235071266/
And when that happens, you lose your piece of material, it doesnt destroy
our computer file When a piece blows up in the kiln, several hours of work
can be destroyed, Glaze can drip and ruin another piece and even ruin a
kiln shef
Let me share a little of the process, Lets say you are throwing a bowl. You come in
and stake your wet chlay and sit at a wheel and throw, When you get one you like, and that
may not be the first on, you take it off the wheel and place it to dry. Now you have to clean up the
wheels and that will take I am guessing at least 15 min (I hand build, so cleaning wheels is nto
something I do often)
Then in a couple of days you come back in and you trim your bowl and you clean up
again Now the piece can be dry some more and in a few days it can be bisqued
After it is gisqued, it is ready to glaze and since we have limited space, you may not be able to
easily, Clean up after glazing is not a huge amoung of work
If we had room for some test kilns, we could teach more folks how to fire
The big issue is that to fire, someone has to handle the work of others