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K.X. STUDIOS,Inc.

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presents:

An ILLUSTRATED TUTORIAL

CERAMIC DRYING RACKS

EXCELLORATE DRYING TIME. Ceramic Drying Racks are wooden frames with two layers of screen.

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Drying racks are wooden frames with two layers of screen. First a heavy screen wire [ lathe for stucco ] is stapled to the frame. It is covered with plastic or fiberglass window screen. The window screen has a smaller texture than the heavy screen wire. So, it leaves less or very little texture on the soft drying clay. Of course, clay will dry faster if air can circulate all around it; 360 degrees. It will aslso help control warpage.
Drying racks are the same dimentions as wareboards; 18 x 27 1/2 inches. [ 46cm x 70 cm ] Therefore, they fit on the ware shelves for storage.
The drying racks are primarily for drying hand built or slab ceramic objects.
For wheel thrown odjects use bats made from “peg board” [ That is, a board that has a network or grid of holes in it drilled by the manufacturer.]

Here is a close up of the corner joints of three dry drying racks. They are all screwed and glued.
The first two are “butt”joints. One board butts into the other. The first one on the left is made from a teak wood table; from a table discarded along the road.
The middle drying rack is teak and pine.
The one on the right is pine. It will be be ten years old in August, 2003.
You can see the LATHE screen on each of them. The window screen; finer and thinner, can be seen in the very first image at the top of the page.
We use these racks to dry tile. check out the MOSAICS

These we call the “magnum” racks.
They are extra heavy duty to accomidate the weight of heavy wet clay.
They are made to slide into the ware shelves; if they get in the way or it rains.

Here are a few simple diagrams to clarify the design of the drying racks.
The wooden frame is rather basic. You could [ should ] add a rib in the middle to make the frame more stable. The wider the board the better.
A rib wider than your frame would be drilled, screwed, and glued side ways. That would make the frame VERY stable.
My favorite joint is the lap joint. Lap joints are very difficult to make with hand tools. You could waste a lot of time and materials trying to get it right.
Drill, screw and glue all the joints.
The side view at the bottom is not proportional. It merely demonstrates the order of the layers.
Notice the reference to staples. The layers of screen are stapled to the frame. Nails would work if the heads are big enough and do not rust..
Do not use anything that will rust. Rust is iron oxide. Rust from the nails or staples on your clay will fire black.

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