: docweathers - Viewing Profile

Though adding magnets to my tools has greatly improved my ability to find my tools in my pigsty, this old pig is still in the habit of setting them down among my lumps of clay, trimmings etc. Recovering my tools from my slop is much easier now that I have painted the handles of my tools a high visibility orange.

I finally gave up on my Olympic gas kiln when I found a good used Skutt 1227 with computer controller on craigslist. Though it was in good shape, one of the top bricks had a crack in it about 4 inches long and about an inch in from the inside edge. It looked as if someone had thoughtlessly press their hand down on this weak thin edge. The prior owner had tried unsuccessfully to fix it by squirting some kiln cement in there and clamping it. Given that just kiln cement had proven an unsuccessful strategy, I tried another strategy which apparently is working quite well.

Given the theory that kiln cement sticks very well but has very little tensile strength I set about the following:

I carved a channel a half inch wide extending about a quarter inch on either side of the crack and about a 16th of an inch deep for the length of the crack. Like my predecessor, I squirted thin kiln cement down into the crack and worked it in as far as I could. Then I took a small amount of high temperature ceramic blanket soaked in kiln cement and filled my half-inch wide channel and smoothed it so that it was even with the other bricks. I have done one 06 bisque firing and the patch appears to be stronger than the original brick, though I have not done any destruction testing


The ceramic blanket soaked in kiln cement is very easy to work. If necessary, I think you could easily handbuild a missing chunk of kiln brick.

Larry

I saw a video of some guy slip trailing on bisqueware. I can't find it, so I don't know how he was accomplishing this. I'm using Pat Horsley's score-no-more slip. I can't get my slip to stick very well. I have tried adding gum Arabic, CMC and white glue to the slip. It still doesn't stick.

I know you're supposed to slip trail on green where but since I am a beginner at this I know, I will screw it up. I can wash my mistakes off of bisqueware but not leather hard.

Any suggestions would be appreciated

I understand that you can use coffee grounds to cause local reduction in an oxidation firing. How exactly do you do this?

Commercially made ball milling jar seem ridiculously expensive, so I am thinking about making my own.

I understand that there are several potential problems with doing this.

1) Throwing an absolutely round jar... I have figured out how to solve this.
2) I understand that porcelain tends to warp drying and firing-- is this true and what can be done about it? (I have no experience with porcelain.)
3) I understand that the porcelain commonly available to Potters is softer than what is used in ball milling jars. Is this true? Where is harder porcelain available?