This is just a reminder to those making pieces more than a 3/8" thick!!! Winter is approaching, which means pieces are drying very slowly. Pieces may appear dry on the outside but are still wet inside. This leads to explosions in the kiln. The kiln team asks that you ensure your pieces are dried well because this is a community space, and we don’t want pieces going home broken.
If you are making solid pieces, please make a vent hole for your pieces. Such as sticking a chopstick size stick or ceramic hole puncher into your piece at the bottom to allow airflow into the piece.
If you are making thick pieces, you can candle them in your own ovens at home. This is putting your piece in the oven at 180/200 degrees Fahrenheit for a couple hours depending on size to wick out moisture in the piece. The process is called candling if you need to research more on this.
If you are not adhering to these rules and your pieces are being placed on the needs attention shelf, please talk to a kiln team member or the chair to ensure that your method of making is approved. We will not be firing solid pieces during the winter time if we do not feel like it is safe in our kilns.
Lastly, as a reminder, the kiln team asks that people stop putting wet pieces on the greenware ready to fire shelf. It is not fair to our community guidelines and the kiln team members, who have to decide what is safe to fire. Pieces that are wet must be put on the in progress shelf to dry.
Well, there are probably one or two extra toaster ovens around the Space. I’m not up on toaster ovens, though. Can you run them at 180-200F for hours on end without potential issues? The other thing to think about is “will my greenware item fit in a toaster oven”? Some of the bigger pieces won’t.
They can, but then this blocks them for their intended use for hours at a time.
This is also a slippery slope. While most clays are not an issue, non-food use opens them up to other non-food. This is why that they were restricted to food use only the last time the galley toaster oven was replaced in May.
Yeah, but those now-decommisioned ones are in other areas, where there were others already. Ceramics could cruise around and see which departments have extras, and then politely request to have the spare. It could be a little special if many folks wanted to candle their wares all at once, but it’d be first-come-first-served at that point.
But if that happens, recognize that Metal shop isn’t going to have a dedicated team to load and unload that oven like the Ceramics team does with the kiln.
The person doing the candling would likely have to commit to showing up at a specific time to clear out of the oven so as to not prevent Metal Shop from using it.
I was specifically mentioning the candling method to do at home, since many of us bring our items home to do this method. I feel that members are responsible of their own pieces and equipment being used at DMS, and if they can’t dry their pieces, the kiln team just won’t fire them.
Also, ceramics has literally no space to put anything anywhere, but thank your for the kind offer for the ovens!
It will go higher, but I know it will go to 400F because I’ve used it there. It’s an electronic control, so the bottom is whatever the room is.
Tho old galley oven that was retired because of non food use is also in the powder coat area. I doing know for sure, but think it’s upper limit is 500F.
The main point here is that you’ll need to find a way and the time to candle your pieces that are thick or built more solid than not, especially in winter when there is humidity in the air.
This process ensures your piece will not crack, break, or explode and not damage other potters work or the kilns.
Candle means that your thick/solid piece is run in a 180/200 degree oven for several hours to dry it completely and throughout your entire piece.