Michael Wendt on wed 31 aug 05
David hit the mark with his post and corrected me in a most gentle and
reasonable way..
In my situation, where we mix 150 lb batches of dry glaze at a time and do
it often, we can justify a large piece of equipment.
Lezlie doesn't need a cement mixer to mix glazes.
In her case I suspect, a smaller amount of glaze would be wasted if she uses
a 5 gallon bucket with a tight fitting lid and just tumbles it as David
suggested.
Special note:
One disadvantage to large batch mixes is it ties up your supply of
materials. Once the Feldspar and silica are blended with other ingredients
in a glaze, you can't separate them again to use for some other purpose and
if you make a mistake, the whole batch may need to be tossed so always test
the batch before you put it into use.
Regards,
Michael Wendt
Wendt Pottery
2729 Clearwater Ave
Lewiston, Idaho 83501
USA
wendtpot@lewiston.com
www.wendtpottery.com
David wrote:
Unless you are mixing hundreds of pounds of glaze, as Michael Wendt
may well do, a cement mixer is complete overkill for dry-mixing glaze.
I put my ingredients in a container that has a lid, which holds twice as
much as I will be mixing. A 5 gallon pickle bucket is good for 5-6000
grams. I do a little mixing of the dry powders each time a new
ingredient is added. Then the lid is snapped on and the bucket can be
rolled around the yard (good exercise) for a few minutes.
I don't know, it might make sense to put some fist-sized rocks in
the bucket, so you would have a "ball mill" mixing effect, but this
method has always worked for me.
I do it for two reasons:
1. It helps to disperse the soda ash (which can turn into hard
chunks) and bentonite (which clumps badly) if they are not
mixed in with the other ingredients.
2. I use the same base for several colors, so I leave out the coloring
ingredients and add them in when making the smaller batches. This
saves time, not making many small batches of the same recipe.
David Hendley
lee love on wed 31 aug 05
My main ash glaze is mixed from wet ingredients. The ash has been
washed and is in a slurry and so is the ball clay, the amakusa stone
and the kaolin. I add by the wet ladel.
Things like the amakusa are like soft rocks in the bag. It
comes in a rice type bag. But breaks down easily when slaked.
When I do test batches, I work around the clumps and just put poweder
through a sieve.
Dry mixing is all done outside. Wet mixing can be done inside,
because their is no dust.
--
Lee Love
in Mashiko, Japan http://mashiko.org
http://seisokuro.blogspot.com/ My Photo Logs
"We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep."
--PROSPERO Tempest Shakespeare
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