Melt fluidity comparison - 1650FFired at 350F/hr to 1650F and held for 15 minutes. FZ16 has turned crystal clear and spread out across the runway (has low surface tension). Frit 3110 has so much surface tension that the flow can be lifted off the tester. Since 1600F Gerstley Borate has gone from unmelted to passing all the rest! Context: Melt fluidity comparison - 1600F, Compare Melt Fluidity of 16 Frits Wednesday 1st January 2020 
Tenmoku porcelain mug with spiral throwing ringsFired at cone 11R using pure Alberta Slip (from Plainsman Clays). The body in H570. Context: Throwing rings, throwing spiral, Tenmoku Tuesday 31st December 2019 
Things that are too big to 3D print can be done in two piecesThis jigger mold shell has a step that provides the ideal place to split it into two pieces for printing. It is not necessary to do it in your 3D design app, 3D slicer software has the ability to do just before printing. In Simplify3D you just push the object downward on the platform (anything below ... more Wednesday 18th December 2019 
The myth of aging clayDo you really need to age clay when you make your own? No. In ancient Japan they did not have power blenders and propeller mixers, we do. To illustrate: I just sieved out the +80 mesh and +200 mesh particles from this raw clay (from one of our stockpiles) and then propeller-mixed it as a slurry. ... more Context: Bentonite, Mix the slurry using a propeller mixer, Propeller Mixer Wednesday 18th December 2019 
Aged commercial clay really needs to be wedged before useThis is a cut through an eight-month-old slug of pugged clay. The cut was done near the surface. The patchy coloration is a by-product of the aging process. If a slice of this was fired in a kiln, an even and homogeneous white surface would emerge, with no hint of what you see here. A few moments of wedging will mix the matrix and ready it for wheel throwing or hand forming. Context: Bacteria, Mold on Clay, Wedging, kneading Wednesday 18th December 2019 
Hand-tooling a mug model vs. 3D-printing a mold to cast itI am creating molds for a 2019 casting-jiggering project to reproduce heavy stoneware mugs manufactured here 50 years ago. I have a profile drawing I want to match (upper left). The solid plaster model on the left was my first attempt at manual tooling. The metal template was time-consuming to ... more Context: Casting-Jiggering, 3D-Printing, 2019 Jiggering-Casting Project Friday 13th December 2019 
Cone 10R mugs made with new casting-jiggering processVery exciting! The easiest batch of mugs I have ever made, no wheel throwing or trimming. These are made from two casting recipes I am working on to match the fired appearance and glaze compatibility of Plainsman H550 and H440 (buff and iron red burning bodies). This is how many you have to make to learn some of the finer points of the process. Context: 2019 Jiggering-Casting Project Friday 13th December 2019 
3D-Printed shell to cast working plaster jigger moldsThe grey outer shell mold on the left was printed in two parts and glued together (at the shoulder). It's vertical split enables me to open it a little. The center model of the outside contour of the mug (on a two-step base) was made by casting the plaster inside another two-piece 3D-printed form I ... more Context: 3D-Printing, Jiggering, Casting-Jiggering, 2019 Jiggering-Casting Project Friday 6th December 2019 
The incredible utility of 3D printing master handle moldsThese molds are 3D-printed from PLA filament. They are part of my 2019 year-long casting-jiggering project. A quick soaping, 164g water, 236g plaster and a fifteen minute set produced this plaster mold. It takes time to learn how to soap the masters properly to get optimum quality, but these molds ... more Context: Final cast-jiggered mug beside original 3D-printed mock-up, 3D-Printed master mold, handle mold made in it, first cast, Slip Casting, 3D-Printing, 2019 Jiggering-Casting Project Thursday 5th December 2019 
Fusion 360, my choice for 3D modellingIntimidation by the complexity of this type of software is the biggest obstacle you will face to learning 3D design (for 3D-printing). That being said, the new mission of AutoDesk, the leader in CAD software for 30 years, is to make it easy and universal! Fusion 360 has a lot of advantages. It is a ... more Context: G-Code 3D Printer instructions, Fusion 360 on YouTube , 3D-Printing, 3D Design, 2019 Jiggering-Casting Project Thursday 5th December 2019 | Contact Us:Use the contact pages within or outside your account at Insight-Live.com 
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Still available for Mac, PC, Linux Interactive glaze chemistry calculations (legacy, no longer supported) What people have said about digitalfire• We have been aware of your company and website for many years and see it as a model in its approach to educating makers about the processes involved in making/drying/firing. You teach them to take responsibility for their work process rather than blaming the product. • Your materials database has been the best source of information for me for a long time. Even most of the European frits are in there and this is not true for many books. • Great site you have here, I am the ceramics tech at the University of .. the info. on your site is a great help to my students. • I'll be reading and studying for a while, but what is so great is that the information is now right at my finger tips anytime that I need it - its all so very interesting - I never thought that chemistry would ever be interesting, - and I know now very soon I too will be able to slay the glaze dragon! • I'm all right brained..... I have the serial number. My computer is finally going. Thanks for the service. I love my Digital fire. • Your web is great! • Thanks for your website! I found it greatly informative and useful in my research work on high temperature ceramic materials. Click here to see all 191 What people have said about Insight-Live• I spent most of yesterday playing with the “new” (to me) version of insight on line. I love it, it is faster and eventually easier to use. And by the way, thank you for creating and maintaining the enormous data base of ceramic materials and making it available for anyone to use. What a wonderful gift to all of us interested in ceramics. • Thanks so much this info is so great!! • Digitalfire is just jaw-droppingly awesome. Thanks for all your hard work. • Having explored and taken lots of advice from your site, I just wanted to say what a brilliant and informative site it is. • You are a real gem, your work really help me a lot. • Thanks for sharing your extensive knowlege with the clay community. • I am a ceramic manufacturing manager, and before this position, I had no training on ceramics. I was taught our recipes, but none of it was explained. The dragon ran amok. After reading through your articles and descriptions, I feel I have learned so much about my own products, and I have a foundation for changing, improving, and troubleshooting my materials issues that I wouldn't have had otherwise. They taught us in engineering school that we all stand on the shoulders of giants, because we all get to use knowledge and tools at a moment's notice that took others years to develop. Thank you for sharing all that you have, so the rest of us can stand on your shoulders to do our work that much better. Click here to see all 125 |
