Interested in a Ceramics Space?

Hello! This is Elizabeth Lakes (not Jimmy) I’m a ceramist in the area who is curious about volunteering to set up a ceramics/pottery space at the Lansing Makers Network. It would start small at first, hand building one clay body, simple glazes, and firing to cone 6, then hopefully would grow to have wheels. Would you be interested?

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I’ve been interested in this for a while, what would the plan for a kiln be? There is a wheel in storage

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I am quite interested in this. I have been wanting to recreate a number of medieval earthen wares, and some modern ones also.

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(Actual Jimmy here)

Have never done ceramics before, but could see it as something I get… suuuuper into.

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Hi! Im new, but would also be interested in this, don’t know much about ceramics at the moment but can help with labor!

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I’m also interested! And will help however I can!

I am also interested and happy to help set up a space at LMN!

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We have a kiln in the back storage area. Might need some work though.

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I believe it has had some work done, but @seabrig29 should know more.

I’ve spent a lot of time lately learning about kiln wiring and refurbishing a kiln from the 50s and might be able to help fix it

@JamesFriend , you really want to talk to @seabrig29 , or search for “kiln” and see what he has already done. Seems like the thread ended with his conclusions that the switches for, or the elements themselves (of element numbers 2 through 4) were toast. He volunteered to foot the bill for generic elements, but if the space wanted model specific elements, he couldn’t foot the $270 bill.
Perhaps he can eventually receive an answer.

Yep. I tried to refurbish but there are 3 elements that need replacing. I already footed the bill for a PID temp controler and wired it up. I didn’t write up an operational Doc because I wasn’t planning on replacing the elements at my own cost. You are more than welcome to take over the project and work on it if you like. I’d be happy to meet up with you and go over the controller and the wiring some time.

Okay I’ll be there Friday and Saturday or am free to come in almost any time, I might be in this afternoon as well.

I saw a kiln sitter taken apart in the jewelry section, was there 2 kilns before? What happened to that one?

From reading the other kiln thread the kiln we have fires to cone 8 but requires heavy gauge wiring to a 240v outlet with at least a 40amp breaker. is this something the space has or would reasonably be able to achieve? I don’t want money to go into fixing it and not be able to safely plug it in.

It will also need to be ventilated, commercial vent systems are pretty expensive, I built a vent system for mine with HVAC and and an inline fan for about 60 bucks.

Also I saw in the thread about the kiln people talking about it having an automatic shutoff and not needing to be watched, this is not true, kilns with a kiln sitter need to be checked every 15 minutes for the entire firing.