Dick Crichlow on thu 3 apr 03
We are in the process of building a new home with a studio. The house is out
in the country and will be using septic tanks. I have many articles on
building sink traps to catch larger particles of clay. I'm concerned about
the long term effects of silt in the water on a septic system. It seems to
me that I would need some type of micofilter system. Is this true or does
anyone have any thoughts about this and/or a separate dry sump.
Bonnie/Jeremy Hellman on thu 3 apr 03
How about draining your studio sink into the ground, and not into the septic
system. That's what we did in our rural CO house. I also have 2 drains in my
studio floor, and those, too, drain into the same pipe that goes into the
ground. Actually the end of the drain pipe comes out on a hill, so we can
see that water before it hits the ground. There is a endcap with holes in
it, and periodically we remove the endcap and clean out the clay, etc. The
endcap keeps little critters from getting into the studio, although the
drains all have caps with holes in them.
We had our builder (hubby was the general contractor) and plumber plumb the
sink so it could easily be connected to the septic tank, just in case the
county plumbing inspector insisted on it, but the inspector knew the
plumber's work, and when it was explained why, the inspector approved it.
I do not use lead in any of my glazes. Mostly I'm adding clay to the
clay-laden soil of the Rocky Mountains.
Bonnie
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dick Crichlow"
To:
Sent: Thursday, April 03, 2003 4:06 PM
Subject: Sink traps
> We are in the process of building a new home with a studio. The house is
out
> in the country and will be using septic tanks. I have many articles on
> building sink traps to catch larger particles of clay. I'm concerned about
> the long term effects of silt in the water on a septic system. It seems to
> me that I would need some type of micofilter system. Is this true or does
> anyone have any thoughts about this and/or a separate dry sump.
>
>
____________________________________________________________________________
__
> Send postings to clayart@lsv.ceramics.org
>
> You may look at the archives for the list or change your subscription
> settings from http://www.ceramics.org/clayart/
>
> Moderator of the list is Mel Jacobson who may be reached at
melpots@pclink.com.
>
>
Bob Santerre on thu 3 apr 03
Dick,
You definitely need to go the route of a separate dry sump. Water
contaminated with clay silt will clog your septic leach field in a very
short time rendering it totally useless :-( . A microfilter system
might work, but would probably be extremely time consuming and expensive
to maintain (frequent filter changes). Clay particle size varys widely,
but the finest particles can be less than 0.1 micron which would require
an extremely sophisticated filter system to capture.
Don't know where you live, but putting in a retention system (dry sump)
where clay contaminated water is allowed to settle and percolate down
through layers of gravel is an acceptable (to the Maine State Dept of
Environmental Protection) method of treating relatively small volumes
(100 gallons per day) of clay process water. We too have a septic
system and are currently installing a series of three retention fields
to handle clay process water from our new studio. If you're interested,
I can FAX or snail mail you a copy of the rough design and
specifications we're using.
Bob
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Dick Crichlow wrote:
>We are in the process of building a new home with a studio. The house is out
>in the country and will be using septic tanks. I have many articles on
>building sink traps to catch larger particles of clay. I'm concerned about
>the long term effects of silt in the water on a septic system. It seems to
>me that I would need some type of micofilter system. Is this true or does
>anyone have any thoughts about this and/or a separate dry sump.
>
>______________________________________________________________________________
>Send postings to clayart@lsv.ceramics.org
>
>You may look at the archives for the list or change your subscription
>settings from http://www.ceramics.org/clayart/
>
>Moderator of the list is Mel Jacobson who may be reached at melpots@pclink.com.
>
>
Gary Lee on thu 3 apr 03
I use a double trap system on the sinks in my studio which then empties into
the city sewer system. This catches about 80% of the particles. So far
after 4 years I have not had to clean out the pipes to the street. Knock on
wood. One way I found to work is I have a large barrel with a framed screen
sitting on top which I pour all the slop from my throwing bucket into. This
will screen out 95% of the slop which leaves very little to wash in the sink.
I take the more solid clay from the screen and put it into a bucket which
when full I place on a wooden table top to dry enough to pug. The clay
particles from the water barrel I empty every couple of months, dry it out on
the wooden table top and pug. This way I recycle 98% of my scrap clay. I
have 35 students a week and this system works well.
I tell you this because I was amazed at the amount of clay particles that
were getting through the screen into the barrel and settling out. These
particles WILL rise "heck" with your septic system.
Your other resort is to pipe your clay washing sink straight out into the
yard or woods. Wash nothing but clay tools and such in this sink. No soaps
or food stuff!
Good luck. Gary
Maurice Weitman on thu 3 apr 03
Dick, I'm in the same boat. My home (and new studio) are served by
a septic system.
I'm installing (as an experiment along with the obvious screens above
the sink drains) a system where the sinks drain into a 20-gallon tank
which empties near its top. My plan is to monitor the outflow of
that tank to be sure it's clear.
I'm not so concerned about the larger pieces of clay; it's the slurry
and fine, floating particles that make up the turbid water we've all
seen that scares me. In preliminary tests, it seems that if the
(muddy) water enters the tank without a great deal of velocity, the
finer particles will settle out.
I hope to have something rigged up in a few weeks. I'd love to share
experiences with you and others.
There's an article on "Building a Sink Trap" at
http://www.bigceramicstore.com/Information/tip15.htm that mentions
its prior appearance in Ceramics Monthly, and Vince Pitelka wrote an
article for the Nov/Dec 2001 Clay Times "A Sink Trap for Clay Scrap"
which I haven't yet seen, but I'd like to.
Regards,
Maurice
At 1:06 PM -0800 on 4/3/03, Dick Crichlow wrote:
>We are in the process of building a new home with a studio. The house is out
>in the country and will be using septic tanks. I have many articles on
>building sink traps to catch larger particles of clay. I'm concerned about
>the long term effects of silt in the water on a septic system. It seems to
>me that I would need some type of micofilter system. Is this true or does
>anyone have any thoughts about this and/or a separate dry sump.
Marvpots@AOL.COM on thu 3 apr 03
Hi:
I haver a simple trap right in the drain line; this allows the heavy
particles to settle into the trap and the thinner water to drain freely; I
also have a screen filter in my studio sink to catch anything coarser than
the screen mesh size.
This requires that I remove the trap periodically (e.g. every few months),
cledan it out an re-attach it. The trap is secured with a perforated band
with a tightening screw, surely avaialbe in any decent hardware store.
All fairly simple, not costly and very effective.
Good luck,
Marvin Flowerman
John Weber on fri 4 apr 03
We also live in the Country. After a long talk with my septic system
installers I was completely convinced that there is no way I will try to put
clay into the septic system. The obvious danger is the clay particles settle
into a hardpan in the lines and the tank and you get to either rotoroot the
stuff out or replace lines. So, I have a sink in the studio that is diverted
to a sump pump in a five gallon bucket, that then pumps the waste into a
drain line I ran from inside the studio to the back woods. I only use it for
clay clean up so it does not discharge anything harmful.
Jim Cullen on fri 4 apr 03
Sorry, but Bob didn't give us his e-mail address.
Bob, I'm in the same situation and would appreciate a copy of your rough
design.
FAX 630-527-8318 or snail
Jim Cullen
845 Edgewater Drive
Naperville, IL 60540
Thanks.
Keep Centered
CULLEN
Naperville, IL
-----Original Message-----
From: Clayart [mailto:CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG] On Behalf Of Bob
Santerre
Sent: Thursday, April 03, 2003 8:37 PM
To: CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG
Subject: Re: Sink traps
Dick,
You definitely need to go the route of a separate dry sump. Water
contaminated with clay silt will clog your septic leach field in a very
short time rendering it totally useless :-( . A microfilter system
might work, but would probably be extremely time consuming and expensive
to maintain (frequent filter changes). Clay particle size varys widely,
but the finest particles can be less than 0.1 micron which would require
an extremely sophisticated filter system to capture.
Don't know where you live, but putting in a retention system (dry sump)
where clay contaminated water is allowed to settle and percolate down
through layers of gravel is an acceptable (to the Maine State Dept of
Environmental Protection) method of treating relatively small volumes
(100 gallons per day) of clay process water. We too have a septic
system and are currently installing a series of three retention fields
to handle clay process water from our new studio. If you're interested,
I can FAX or snail mail you a copy of the rough design and
specifications we're using.
Bob
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
////////////////////////////////////////
Dick Crichlow wrote:
>We are in the process of building a new home with a studio. The house
>is out in the country and will be using septic tanks. I have many
>articles on building sink traps to catch larger particles of clay. I'm
>concerned about the long term effects of silt in the water on a septic
>system. It seems to me that I would need some type of micofilter
>system. Is this true or does anyone have any thoughts about this and/or
>a separate dry sump.
>
>_______________________________________________________________________
>_______
>Send postings to clayart@lsv.ceramics.org
>
>You may look at the archives for the list or change your subscription
>settings from http://www.ceramics.org/clayart/
>
>Moderator of the list is Mel Jacobson who may be reached at
>melpots@pclink.com.
>
>
________________________________________________________________________
______
Send postings to clayart@lsv.ceramics.org
You may look at the archives for the list or change your subscription
settings from http://www.ceramics.org/clayart/
Moderator of the list is Mel Jacobson who may be reached at
melpots@pclink.com.
| |
|
