Maria Elaine Lanza on sat 19 feb 00
Does anyone have experience with making porcelain knobs for cabient
doors/drawers that you can give me some advise and/or instruction?
We are in the process of remodeling our kitchen and to my surprise yesterday
my husband suggested he would like me to make them. I do have both ^6 and ^9
porcelain to work with that I would fire in oxidation. The surface
decoration is in itself an exciting challenge... but what I need some
guidance on is how to accomodate the hardware... screws, bolts, etc. ...
needed to thread the knob to the cabient.
For starters I will test various shapes for clay wall thickness... looking
for shapes that will tolerate daily use.
I suspect the best way to drill the hole in the neck of the knob would be
between leatherhard and not so bone dry... thinking that at this stage I
would not risk distorting the overall shape... (realizing I must allow for
shrinkage)... what size hole? and how deep into the neck?
Then... once the item is high fired... what is the best way to attach the
screw into the neck?... glue? any particular type you would recomend?
Is there any other consideration I missed?
Thanks so much... Marie Elaine
Should the wall thickness of the knob neck be at least the same thickness as
the screw hole?
vince pitelka on sun 20 feb 00
> Does anyone have experience with making porcelain knobs for cabient
> doors/drawers that you can give me some advise and/or instruction?
>
> We are in the process of remodeling our kitchen and to my surprise
yesterday
> my husband suggested he would like me to make them. I do have both ^6 and
^9
> porcelain to work with that I would fire in oxidation. The surface
> decoration is in itself an exciting challenge... but what I need some
> guidance on is how to accomodate the hardware... screws, bolts, etc. ...
> needed to thread the knob to the cabient.
I used to make lots of cabinet knobs. Throw them off the hump. Center a
large lump of clay, and raise it up into a tall pointed cone. Form a rough
version of desired knob shape on top, but before narrowing the neck to the
desired diameter, poke a bamboo coctail skewer, or some other similar
implement, directly down vertically into the center of the knob, with the
wheel spinning. If you do it carefully with the wheel spinning, the skewer
will penetrate the knob exactly on center. Leave the skewer in place, and
finish forming the knob and the neck, plus whatever flange you want at the
base of the knob. With the wheel spinning, cut inwards at an angle with the
tip of your needle tool, while gently holding the end of the coctail skewer.
When the needle touches the skewer, lift the skewer out of the hump, and
poke it into a lump of clay on the ware board. Make another knob with
another skewer in similar fashion. After the knobs have stiffened a bit,
pull the skewers out of them and let the knobs get leather hard. When they
are leather hard, use an ordinary drill bit to enlarge the holes to the
desired size, taking shrinkage into consideration. If you want to use a
flathead brass screw to attach the knobs, then use a larger drill bit or a
counter sink to flare the outer opening of the hole to accept the screw
head. If you want to use a blind stud, then seal the outer opening of the
hole with a dab of soft clay.
If you use a stud, bisque and glaze-fire the knobs, then epoxy an
appropriate length of threaded rod in the knob. Average-size knobs usually
use 10-24 thread-size. You can purchase 10-24 threaded rod, or if you can't
find it, just get long 10-24 screws, cut off the heads, and epoxy them into
the knobs. Use smaller or larger thread size as needed, depending on the
size of the knobs.
Another approach is to drill a larger hole, and expoxy in a female threaded
sleeve, to accept a screw. You can get them from good hardware suppliers.
Good luck -
- Vince
Vince Pitelka
Home - vpitelka@dekalb.net
615/597-5376
Work - wpitelka@tntech.edu
615/597-6801 ext. 111, fax 615/597-6803
Appalachian Center for Crafts
Tennessee Technological University
1560 Craft Center Drive, Smithville TN 37166
Marian Morris on sun 20 feb 00
Drilling the hole might be the harder way to go. Another idea would be to
insert something while you are making the knobs (like dowel-being sure to
allow for shrinkage, or even a small cylinder of paper that could be left to
burn out- I have made bead holes with spagetti that is left to burn out).
Then you could insert the thread fitting with 2000 LB Epoxy. I haven't done
this, but its an idea I've always thought of.
On Sat, 19 Feb 2000 20:37:15 EST, Ceramic Arts Discussion List wrote:
> ----------------------------Original message----------------------------
> Does anyone have experience with making porcelain knobs for cabient
> doors/drawers that you can give me some advise and/or instruction?
>
> We are in the process of remodeling our kitchen and to my surprise
yesterday
> my husband suggested he would like me to make them. I do have both ^6 and
^9
> porcelain to work with that I would fire in oxidation. The surface
> decoration is in itself an exciting challenge... but what I need some
> guidance on is how to accomodate the hardware... screws, bolts, etc. ...
> needed to thread the knob to the cabient.
>
> For starters I will test various shapes for clay wall thickness...
looking
> for shapes that will tolerate daily use.
> I suspect the best way to drill the hole in the neck of the knob would be
> between leatherhard and not so bone dry... thinking that at this stage I
> would not risk distorting the overall shape... (realizing I must allow
for
> shrinkage)... what size hole? and how deep into the neck?
>
> Then... once the item is high fired... what is the best way to attach the
> screw into the neck?... glue? any particular type you would recomend?
>
> Is there any other consideration I missed?
>
> Thanks so much... Marie Elaine
>
>
>
> Should the wall thickness of the knob neck be at least the same thickness
as
> the screw hole?
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Reg Wearley on mon 21 feb 00
Hi Maria Elaine-
Years ago my mother-in-law, Val Knight, made quite a
number of drawer knobs which we are still using. It
looks like she rolled out a slab about 1/4 inch thick
(I measured the thickness of these knobs and they are
close to 3/16 inch thick now). Most of these are
circular and have a bit of a concave so you could get
your fingers behind it and it has a texture on the
face and a bead (probably hand rolled) behind. She
then simply used a slot headed machine screw to
attatch to the drawer. But, the screw head is visible.
I have often thought that it would have been better to
glue a headless bolt into this combination and also
either glue or fire a bit of clay over the hole. Some
of her other knobs were formed the same way but were
in the shape of a flower blossom (again, she left the
head of the bolt showing). Hope this adds to all of
the information that I see you have recieved here.
--Reg
--- Maria Elaine Lanza wrote:
> ----------------------------Original
> message----------------------------
> Does anyone have experience with making porcelain
> knobs for cabient
> doors/drawers that you can give me some advise
> and/or instruction?
>
> We are in the process of remodeling our kitchen and
> to my surprise yesterday
> my husband suggested he would like me to make them.
> I do have both ^6 and ^9
> porcelain to work with that I would fire in
> oxidation. The surface
> decoration is in itself an exciting challenge...
> but what I need some
> guidance on is how to accomodate the hardware...
> screws, bolts, etc. ...
> needed to thread the knob to the cabient.
>
> For starters I will test various shapes for clay
> wall thickness... looking
> for shapes that will tolerate daily use.
> I suspect the best way to drill the hole in the neck
> of the knob would be
> between leatherhard and not so bone dry... thinking
> that at this stage I
> would not risk distorting the overall shape...
> (realizing I must allow for
> shrinkage)... what size hole? and how deep into the
> neck?
>
> Then... once the item is high fired... what is the
> best way to attach the
> screw into the neck?... glue? any particular type
> you would recomend?
>
> Is there any other consideration I missed?
>
> Thanks so much... Marie Elaine
>
>
>
> Should the wall thickness of the knob neck be at
> least the same thickness as
> the screw hole?
>
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SAM YANCY on mon 21 feb 00
Have hubby (and you) visit a hardware store. You a should easily find
plastic inserts for use in plaster of paris walls or dry walls. These
will hold a screw for hanging pictures, ect. Dimensions are on the
package. You should look at the package (or the hole to drill in the
wall),for the dimension needed for your porcelin knobs. Might want to
add 10% for shrinkage though. Very easy to do and will generally work
without gluing the insert in (ahthough you may need to trim the length
of the plastic insert). This should make it very easy to make the knobs.
P.S. Hope you don't mind - A great idea. I will make some myself as we
are starting to remodle the kitchen too. Regards, Sam .
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