Reef Plugs

[Tomoko Schum]

Hi y'all,

I just picked up a block of clay for making ceramic plugs for $12.00. The block should produce at least 300 to 500 plugs. A local ceramic shop is willing to fire the plugs for a reasonable price ($8.00 for 1/4 kiln or $12.50 for half a kiln which should hold all 300 to 500 plugs.) This translates to 5 to 9 cents a plug depending on how many we can produce out of the block. I believe that the reef plugs (Portland cement ones) that CRA sells cost close to 30 cents a piece. A nice thing about ceramic plugs is that it is inert and there is no need for curing them. You can make it into any shape you want if you'd like.

Are any of you interested in getting together to make a bunch of plugs?

They need to be dried for a day before I take them to the shop so that I can transport them without damaging them. The shop will dry them for a few more days and then fire them at the next available time slot. They will be ready in one to two weeks after I drop them off at the shop. I need some extra hands to produce a lot of plugs at once since the more I take at one time, the cheaper the cost is going to be.

John Newby said that he has an old kiln but he is not sure if it's operable. If his kiln is in a good condition, I can do this in a more leisurely manner. Does anyone have a kiln that I can use by any chance?

I suppose we can do this as a club meeting activity in March or April or a couple of weeks before a meeting so that they are ready to be picked up at the meeting.

What do you all think?

Tomoko

 

[timrandlerv10]

LOL i can see us all sitting around chatting like a knitting club, as we form reef plugs for an hour...

i'm all for it. especially if somebody is willing to answer dumb questions, i'll make all the plugs you want!

 

[Philip Root]

I use slip it works better IMO.

The kiln rates you got are very cheap. 25.00 is the cheapest I know of here in town.

 

[Tomoko Schum]

The shop has slip, too. However, they told me that slip is almost too much work to make the plug that I showed them as an example. I can kind of see their point, too, although discs and flat pieces are easier to produce with slip. Besides, looking at the crew we've got, I can see mud, mud, mud everywhere.

I have made ceramic ware with both slip and clay before. I even casted a few plaster molds for a relief and other art work. It's a fun project if you like to play with mud pies and things.

Tomoko

 

[buzzbait00]

Sounds good Tomoko!I use ceramic plugs and luv em!Got them from Hard-Rock,he got them from a group buy with the Chattanooga Reefers.I was thinking about perposing a group buy for us but I was also wondering how much it would cost to make them.Thanks for the info and the leg work!Are you thinking of square or round?Did you see the square ones at the Nashville Swap?They fit well in egg crate.Im on bord!Let me know what,when and where

 

[Tomoko Schum]

They can be made into any shape you would like. However, I prefer the shape of the round one with a leg like Boston Aqua Farms reef plugs. The square ones with tiny protrusions on the bottom just don't sit well in my egg crate shelf since I have a number of marauders who love to knock things off the shelf. They tend to be a bit too light for a large acro frags with gnarly branches.

How much did a ceramic plug that you bought in the group buy cost?

Tomoko

 

[Tomoko Schum]

I talked with the shop some more today and they told me that the plugs do not have to be fired right away. We can keep on making them till we get enough to fill a 1/4 or a 1/2 kiln. The only thing is that bone dry clay pieces are somewhat more fragile than wet ones. We need to be a bit more careful when transporting the dry clay pieces to the shop to be fired.

This means that we can do this pretty leisurely. I can make them at my leisure and share them with you at cost, or I can break up the block of the clay into small batches and let you guys make your own plugs (in any shape or forms) at your leisure. We can get together later at a convenient time like one of the NARC meetings so I can collect them all and get them fired together to save on the kiln fee. I can deliver the finished plugs to the individual owners in the following meeting or at a mutually convenient time. I will calculate the cost to each person based on the volume.

Does this sound better?

Tomoko

 

[8BALL_99]

Sounds kewl, I'd like to try my hand at making them. Dosen't seem much to it. When could I meet you to get some clay? If people wanting to work on them at the meeting that should work out well also.

Will

 

[Tomoko Schum]

It should be a fun project. The texture of the clay is just like Clayola clay. It's really easy to form it into a plug. A clay plug shrinks some when dried and fired. Maybe 20% or so. We need to make the plugs just a bit larger than the Reef Plugs.

Tomoko

 

[MaryBebo]

I would like some plugs to do too. Sounds like a fun project.

 

[Tomoko Schum]

Shall we do this in our March meeting? I can see us playing with clay like little kids playing with play-dough

If you can not come to March meeting but you are coming to CRA soon, I can leave a small bag of the clay with John for you to pick up.

Who would like to do this besides Tim, 8Ball, Buzzbait, Mary and me?

Tim's comment reminded me about this group of knitters working with their yarns at Starbucks area in Barns and Noble. There was this really big masculine lady (could be a man dressed like a lady) among the knitters. I burst out laughing thinking about big guys (to me many of you guys are big) sitting with us ladies making tiny clay pieces

Tomoko

 

[Mariner]

Ok, I'm in if I can make the meeting, but NO CAMERAS ALLOWED. I don't want any pics put on the internet of me sitting with a bunch of little ladies making reef plugs
Mariner

 

[aujay]

Great minds must think alike because I've been thinking about doing the same thing. My mom is an art teacher and has a fairly new kiln in her classroom. But i'm not sure if its kosher to use a schools kiln and electricity to fire stuff for private use. I'll have to check with her. I'd even gone as far as getting some clay we had around the house. I was thinking, it may be easier to make a mold of some sort, even if its one for the disk and one for the peg and then score and slip those together.

 

[Big Goose]

"I burst out laughing thinking about big guys (to me many of you guys are big) sitting with us ladies making tiny clay pieces "

Guess you never heard about Rosie Greer the 300lb football player that knitted or Joe Namemuth and his panny hose (an Alabama Graduate-LOL).

I was thinking about making a flat sheet and scoring it into squares but not breaking them. This setup would be nice for growing softies that spread. You could them break them off by the squares.

BIG Goose!