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2019 Jiggering-Casting Project of Medalta 66 Mug
A cereal bowl jigger mold made using 3D printing
Beer Bottle Master Mold via 3D Printing
Better Porosity Clay for Brown Sugar Savers
Build a kiln monitoring device
Celebration Project
Coffee Mug Slip Casting Mold via 3D Printing
Comparing the Melt Fluidity of 16 Frits
Cookie Cutting clay with 3D printed cutters
Evaluating a clay's suitability for use in pottery
Make a mold for 4-gallon stackable calciners
Make Your Own Pyrometric Cones
Making a high quality ceramic tile
Making a Plaster Table
Making Bricks
Making our own kilns posts using a hand extruder
Making your own sieve shaker for slurries
Medalta Ball Pitcher Slip Casting Mold via 3D Printing
Medalta Jug Master Mold Development
Mold Natches
Mother Nature's Porcelain - Plainsman 3B
Mug Handle Casting
Nursery plant pot mold via 3D printing
Pie-Crust Mug-Making Method
Plainsman 3D, Mother Nature's Porcelain/Stoneware
Project to Document a Shimpo Jiggering Attachment
Roll, Cut, Pull, Attach Handle-making Method
Slurry Mixing and Dewatering Your Own Clay Body
Testing a New Load of EP Kaolin
Using milk as a glaze

Making our own kilns posts using a hand extruder

Posts don't need to have thermal shock resistance like shelves do. And they don't need to be as refractory. They don’t require tensile strength. And they don't require powerful pressing or extruding equipment to make them. Any potter who is mixing glazes or clay bodies already has the materials to make them.

3-D printing has suddenly made it easy to extrude round or square or even complex hollow shapes and tubes. This is possible because it is now easy to make highly precise compression dies for extruders. They can be made out of a variety of metals and plastics.

Related Information

Making your own kiln posts, is that even practical?


Hand extruder die for kiln posts

Supply chain issues during Covid made it difficult to get posts. I wondered if I could make my own. I have access to the same ceramic materials that post manufacturers use. Firing to the highest temperature they will ever experience should make them dimensionally stable, for me that is cone 10. In the past it was always a hassle to make the extruder die, but not anymore. An ordinary 3D printed PLA template will easily withstand the pressure in a hand extruder (even if printed with infill). The precision tapering possible is amazing. Notice that the floating centre has a tapered bridge to help clay knit together as it flows around it. What about a refractory plastic body? I started with L4543, it is cheap to make and dries quickly with minimal shrinkage. To cut posts to length with a square end I print sleeves to slide them into. I you would like the 3D drawing it is in the Files manager in Insight-live.com, it is parametric and easy to change.

Thin walled kiln posts using a hand extruder


3D print kiln posts

Shown is a tube hand extruder die (with a floating core). It was 3D printed using ordinary PLA. These posts weigh 23g/in (vs 81g/in for the commercial one shown). The posts were cut square-ended using the length patterns shown. Commercial regular posts will support the weight of a city bus but we are supporting pottery - so a thinner more energy-efficient version seems appropriate. This new drawing has been uploaded (visible in the Files panel in your Insight-live.com account). This drawing is more parametric than version 1, it enables setting the post width, wall thickness, draft of the float and position and angle of the float supports. This clay is normal pottery stiffness and contains ~20% grog and sand. We are experimenting with various refractory mixes (e.g. L4543).

By Tony Hansen
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