Pazu - Viewing Profile

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Active Posts:: 8(0.05 per day)
Most Active In:: In the Studio (8 posts)
Joined:: 05-December 12
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Last Active:: Feb 19 2013 03:28 PM
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Pazu is smiling gumdrop smile & having joy joy thoughts

Posts I've Made

In Topic: New Thingy installed

Posted 10 Jan 2013

atanzey, on 10 January 2013 - 06:32 AM, said:
Marcia - My plug is very hard to get in and out, and it didn't seem like a good thing to do it repeatedly. The BEST option is to put in a dedicated shut-off switch that's made to do that with. But we didn't think of that until the drywall was done, soooo..... I don't operate mine more than a couple times a month yet, so we're going on the premise that flipping the breaker will cause wear-and-tear on the breaker. We installed it, so we can replace it! And my husband is confident that any failure would be in the latching mechanism, not in the electrical components. Still, I'll be interested if anyone else chimes in. Maybe I'll contact some breaker manufacturers and get their opinion..... when real life allows...

Alice

'Switch duty' breakers can handle more cycles.
In Topic: A Couple Wheel Questons

Posted 9 Jan 2013

For what it's worth I made a recent wheel purchase and am 100% satisfied. About 3 months ago, paid Clay King 524. including shipping for a Speedball Clay Boss, very happy with it. I researched a REVERSIBLE (I'm lefty but my boys are righty), warrantied, entry level wheel. I also wanted it delivered via FEDEX/UPS so I didn't have to be home to receive it or have to hassle with lift gate service. Though I read that some potters are averse to it, I went with it anyhow at 1/2 the cost of a comparable Brent. Variable speed works great. 100lb. capacity is twice what I'll likely ever use. Maintains wheel speed despite resistance that is applied to the wheel. 4 year warranty. I doubt that there's a pot in the wells of my imagination that I could throw on a Brent, yet somehow not on my Clay Boss. It spins varied flat and true and the splash pan is at the right height.
In Topic: best practice for chip resistance?

Posted 22 Dec 2012

Frederik-W, on 21 December 2012 - 11:33 PM, said:

If people want unbreakable chess pieces, they can buy ones made from metal.
Don't forget the aesthetics of the object. Why would people buy them ? because they are beautiful or because they are rock-hard? People who buy chess pieces made from glass or ceramics know what they buy.
By nature ceramic objects are breakable if you mistreat them, no need to cripple your style to make them harder. As you say, they hold up fine.

In all probability the chess pieces will get lost long before they break.
Make a few extra pawns.

All good points Frederik, thanks!
In Topic: best practice for chip resistance?

Posted 21 Dec 2012

Weeble, I haven't chipped anything yet. I clinked some of the pieces together a bit, and they held up fine. Looking to work with the toughest clay possible so that the pieces have the highest probability of withstanding the test of time; as game pieces, they must hold up to use and storage. I want to be using the strongest clay/glaze combination out there, up to ^5. I'll single fire the remaining pieces @ ^04, 1 cone hotter than the others, and with hope not much glaze color appearance or deviation in patterning will occur as these are two sides, sets of 16 each. They should look like they belong together. Perhaps the hotter cone will also lessen the crazing that is evident on several of the pieces. No big deal, it was probably due to a novice excess of glaze. Now I know I can go with less. Since some pieces did not craze, I know that the clay/glaze combination can work. I am assuming that a crazed piece is more likely to chip or break, as compared to one with a contiguous layer of glaze. That's the only reason the crazing bothers me. Thanks for your thoughts, I'll turn up the heat a bit and test.
In Topic: best practice for chip resistance?

Posted 17 Dec 2012

Lucille Oka, on 16 December 2012 - 08:25 PM, said:
Hold it! Clay and glaze must be compatible. Amaco's #25 has a firing range from cone 05 to cone 3; as far as I know Amaco does not make cone 3 glazes. But there are other companies that may make them or you can formulate them or mix them from a recipe. So, if you decide to use Amaco’s #25 low fire clay, use a compatible glaze that at least matures up to cone 3. That also means test, test and test.

#65 Porcelain is considered a midrange clay body and has no ‘range of firing’ it is a cone 5 clay. The glazes you can use mature at cone 5 or less but be sure to bisque fire to cone 04-1971°F. It does make alot of difference for glaze application. Be sure to test.

If using another company’s glazes, test, test and test to see if they are compatible with the clay.

Please if this is not clear, please say so and maybe I can or someone else can explain it better.

Your advise is clear Lucille, thanks.

I'm not quite clear though as to whether I am good to go with the pieces that I have already done, or whether I ought to throw them back in the kiln to be certain I've got them to ^04. They have only been fired to ^05 at this point. I don' t think that the glaze will be radically affected by taking it to ^04, and if it will make the pieces a lot stronger or more chip resistant, it would be worth it, though they seem strong enough now.

These pieces were single-fire method, some will cringe at this no doubt but please understand, I haven't had enough experience to know better, quite yet. If I can get away with turning these out in a single-fire process I'm going for it for the simple reason that they will cost me $20 and a firing day less to do it. I need to install a new outlet in my home to accommodate my kiln so for the time being I am running it off of my generator, and it uses between 4 and 5 gallons of gasoline to complete a slow bisque fire to ^05. So that could be $40 for the two firings and it's a small kiln. I can afford it but cost-effectiveness is important as well.

The Amaco 65 porcelain clay and the Amaco Potters Choice glazes that I have, are compatible, both cone 5, so they should work out? So for best practice I would slow bisque the Amaco 65 to ^04, then glaze them and do a fast glaze up to ^5 I believe.