POTTERY IN THE KITCHEN
CERAMICS
A small kiln from the thrift store, and just like that you’ve got a new hobby—and the kitchen looks like a construction site.
Every beginning...
These are my first tentative attempts at clay casting, and I'd say they're not half bad! But it'll probably take a few more weeks before everything really comes together…
We're building an oven control system...
An Arduino UNO R4 Wi-Fi board, an Adafruit Thermocouple Breakout Board MAX31855, a K-type temperature sensor rated up to 1200 °C, a 16-amp relay, a little C++, and ChatGPT—and just like that, the furnace is running as it should: With a detailed, programmable firing curve that can be monitored and adjusted via the Internet using IoT. The user interface now looks reasonably tidy as well. The five phases of the simple firing curve—including the quartz jump brake—are freely programmable, and various firing profiles are also available as presets.
Clay Casting for Dummies
The positive mold was designed in Tinkercad 3D. It was then printed on a Prusa Mk4 (PETG) or a Uniformation Gktwo (resin) and finished with acrylic paint. This positive mold is cast using modeling plaster. Now you have a plaster negative and you’re ready to go: Pour liquid clay through a sieve into the plaster molds, wait ten minutes, pour out the clay, wait twenty minutes, and watch the layer of clay left in the plaster dry. Wait a little longer until the clay has shrunk, remove the objects from the molds, and just like that, you have a few more cups in your cupboard.
Small Miracles
The enamel and ceramic kilns (Uhlig U24 and U15), which are probably a bit older, can reach temperatures of 1,100 and 1,000°C, respectively. Unfortunately, you can’t fit much into these two tiny kilns: 8 espresso cups or 4 regular cups for the bisque firing. During the glaze firing—when it’s best not to stack the pieces inside each other—you’re limited to just two regular cups…
Software
Tinkercad 3D
PrusaSlicer
Arduino IDE
Hardware
Uhlig U24 & Uhlig U15
Arduino UNO Wifi R4
Adafruit Thermocouple MAX31855
Thermoelement K-Type -1200°C
Relais 16 Ampère, 230 Volt
Ton & Co.
Fertige Giessmassen:
Bodmer Steingut Giessmasse C19
Bodmer Irdendgut Giessmasse K25
Selbst hergestellte Giessmassen:
Glorex Töpferton weiss
Glorex Töpferton schwarz
Witgert Liqui-Fix
Engoben:
Diverse Bodmer E
Glasuren:
Bodmer transparent, glanz (52.005)
Bodmer transparent, glanz (82.210)
Bodmer zirkonweiss, glanz (51.012)
Rok transparent, glanz Nr. 511