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storing and handling shelves

updated fri 30 jul 99

 

Arnold Howard on sun 25 jul 99

I would appreciate your suggestions on the following:

What is the best way to store kiln shelves--leaning them upright
against a wall? Does flat storage damage them? I've stored shelves flat
without any problem, but they were 16" shelves.

Does using a 4th post in the center help prevent a shelf from warping?
It would seem that a 4th post would also make shelves less stable than
3 posts.

Many thanks,

Arnold Howard
Paragon


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Ingeborg Foco on mon 26 jul 99

Arnold,

My personal experience has been that shelves sag in the middle when posted
with 4 posts, one on each corner. Many years ago the kiln I purchased came
with directions to 4 post......disasterous. I now use 3 posts positioned in
the form of a triangle Have not had any problems with sagging since.

I always store shelves upright but not sure if you have to.

Ingeborg

Tom Wirt on tue 27 jul 99

Subject: Storing and handling shelves


> ----------------------------Original message----------------------------
>
> What is the best way to store kiln shelves--leaning them upright
> against a wall? Does flat storage damage them? I've stored shelves flat
> without any problem, but they were 16" shelves.
>


Arnold....

Flat storage is dangerous only if you stack a bunch up and there's a bit of
something under one. Weight could cause a crack. Or if they're anywhere
someone could step on them....high likelihood of breaking. I build a 3
sided plywood "box" on casters (4") to stack shelves in. That way you can
move a whole bunch easily and roll them right to where you're loading the
kiln.

Tom Wirt

Wade Blocker on tue 27 jul 99

Arnold, I store my shelves one on top of the other, kiln washed side facing
kiln washed side. During the bisque firing I fire with the kiln washed side
down. During the glaze firing I reverse the proceedure, the glazed ware
sits on the kiln washed side. Eventually the shelves do warp and need to be
replaced, but that occurs after a long time. I remove glaze drips with a
chisel and hammer. Glazes containing a lot of colemanite or Gerstley borate
usually cause this. Hope this helps. Mia ,in hot Albuquerque.

Earl Brunner on thu 29 jul 99

My personal experience is that shelves don't sag any more with three supports
that four, its just that as they sag, you can always make contact with three
supports (the tripod idea) whereas with four as they warp you end up with three
that touch and one that doesn't. I try to avoid the whole thing by flipping my
shelves on a regular basis. I have mostly used four posts, it's just the way we
always did it. We also always had silicon carbide shelves which warped slower
than the ceramic ones. We would level them by mixing a batch of kiln wash to a
stiff clay consistency and put wads of it on each support. The shelf would then
be solid on all four as the shelf padding dried. Of course we once had a
brainless student assitant mix the recipe with with 50%whiting and 50% feldspar
instead of 50% EPK and 50% silica....... She said that she couldn't understand
the problem they were all white powders.......

Ingeborg Foco wrote:

> ----------------------------Original message----------------------------
> Arnold,
>
> My personal experience has been that shelves sag in the middle when posted
> with 4 posts, one on each corner. Many years ago the kiln I purchased came
> with directions to 4 post......disasterous. I now use 3 posts positioned in
> the form of a triangle Have not had any problems with sagging since.
>
> I always store shelves upright but not sure if you have to.
>
> Ingeborg

--
Earl Brunner
http://coyote.accessnv.com/bruec
mailto:bruec@anv.net

Earl Brunner on thu 29 jul 99

If any of them are warped and not perfectly flat it could be a problem.
This reminded me of the guy that had my job at the art center before me. All
of the shelves needed grinding so he took them out side the studio into the
parking lot. Lets see if I can discribe this right. there was a row of those
concrete parking bumpers along the edge of the sidewalk near the door, He
propped the shelves up on the edge of these concrete bumpers and got ready to
grind. Some yahoos in a pickup truck drove into the parking lot and drove over
every single shelf. The new shelves are really nice.

Tom Wirt wrote:

> ----------------------------Original message----------------------------
> Subject: Storing and handling shelves
>
> > ----------------------------Original message----------------------------
> >
> > What is the best way to store kiln shelves--leaning them upright
> > against a wall? Does flat storage damage them? I've stored shelves flat
> > without any problem, but they were 16" shelves.
> >
>
> Arnold....
>
> Flat storage is dangerous only if you stack a bunch up and there's a bit of
> something under one. Weight could cause a crack. Or if they're anywhere
> someone could step on them....high likelihood of breaking. I build a 3
> sided plywood "box" on casters (4") to stack shelves in. That way you can
> move a whole bunch easily and roll them right to where you're loading the
> kiln.
>
> Tom Wirt

--
Earl Brunner
http://coyote.accessnv.com/bruec
mailto:bruec@anv.net