The Wide Brown Sink

This sink is one of the wider sinks I've made. I made a smaller drain to highlight the large diameter. At it's base it is 8 inches wide and that the top it is 9 inches wide. This is about as wide as I should make a sink at the base for an average toilet top. If a toilet were not set directly against a wall and could be designed to be offset then I could possibly go larger.

I like the bubbling glaze effect that's happened with the light blue glaze on top of the brown.

The Tall Mossy Green Sink

This mossy green sink is one of my newest sinks. I like how the glaze turned out. The green compliments the red iron-oxide base nicely.

Sometimes when I'm not careful with the drainage holes they get clogged up with glaze. When that happens there's really not much that I can do to correct for that mistake. So with runny glazes I need to create holes that are a lot larger. With this glaze I can get away with smaller holes if I'm careful because this glaze generally stays where I put it nicely.

Another thing I did a little differently with this sink was to raise the walls and to have the walls taper a bit more. That way when your hand-washing you can put your hands in the basin as appose to over the basin. This diminishes the little splashing that occurs during hand-washing.

This added height also allows for a wider overall  diameter.  Typically, the limiting factor is the width of the toilet tank top which is about 9 inches wide. I like it when I have a few inches on each side of my base to see the top of the toilet.

The Sink Building Process

Step 1: Using at least 5 lbs of clay throw a bowl with a large base. Clay shrinks by about 12% so I try to make my base about an inch wider than I want the finished product to be. The walls should be at least 3 inches high. I prefer the sink to be on the thicker side than the average bowl. It's not designed to move around and should be sturdy. Also think at this point about drainage. Water needs to move the the lowest point in the bowl.

Step 2: Using 1/2 lbs of clay throw a tall narrow cylinder that is between 3 and 5 inches tall and less than 2 inches wide. If the cylinder is too tall you can get into a situation were the drain runs into the overflow tube. This can be remedied with thicker wood. If it's less than 3 inches it might not extend enough below the wood.

Step 3: After the cay is leather hard, turn the cylinder over for trimming. Round the bottom it is now the top of the drain. 

Step 4: Shape the cylinder and create drain holes. The holes need to be large enough not to be easily plugged by glaze. I learned this the hard way. With some glazes this is not an issue but with others it is.

Step 5: Turn the bowl over for trimming. Cut a hole in the bottom of the bowl for the drain.


Step 6: Join the drain and bowl together by slipping and scoring. The drain holes need to be at the bottom of the bowl. If they are above you will be left with standing water. It might be necessary at this point to continue to shape the drain a the base of the bowl to insure they water drains to the middle. 


Step 7: Create three or four supports out of clay. This keep the top heavy sink from falling over in the kiln. 

Step 8: Fire.

Step 9: Wax the bottom of the sink and glaze.

Step 10: Fire.


Step 11: Ready for installation. See Installation.

Installation

Before installing the toilet sink my plumbing had a water coming out the the fill valve in a few spots. Some of that water filled the tank and some of that water went into the overflow tube that filled the toilet bowl. The water that fills the tank does the flushing and the water that fills the tube sits there in the toilet waiting for you to befoul its waters. There's other stuff in the toilet not in my picture, but I didn't draw them because they don't matter for what we're up to.

Step 1: Figure out your top. I recommend drilling through your preexisting ceramic top or wood. Some woods do better living in a moist environment than other. I went with yew, because it was what the guy at the reclaim-it lumber yard recommended. You will want to cut a hole in the wood for the drain to fit into and for the copper piping. I just used a drill press for both holes. I made my hole for the drain 3 inches in diameter directly above the overflow tube. The hole for the tube I made the same as the copper tubing. My wood top still needs to be finished with varnish

Step 2: My refill tube was quite short and had a plastic thingy on its end stuck into the overflow tube. Take that off so you are just left with the refill tube.

Step 3: You now want to connect more tubing (about one foot long by 1/4 inch) to your refill tube using a plastic barbed union 3/16th inch. Make sure your getting a secure fit between the tubing and the union.

Step 4: That tube is then connected to the copper pipe. We used a 3/8 inch compression fitting to a barbed union. I like it when the copper pipe is directed on top of the drain. Just make sure it's aimed at the sink, there's a surprising amount water pressure.

Step 5: Place a funnel in the overflow tube to catch the water and place the sink on top. You may now flush!

The Toilet Sink

This was a great solution to a small problem. Our house is over 100 years old and it has all the weirdness/awesomeness that comes with age and change. When it was built there was no plumbing, no electricity and there was no basement. Thankfully, over the years it now has all three.

In fact it even has plumbing in the basement. Right out in the open sat an old toilet, the tops was cracked in two and there's was no sink to be found. Given that we are a family of three sometimes that basement toilet became lifesaver.

Now, I like hygiene and I like saving water.  With a little sheet-rocking, a door and a toilet-sink we now have a fully functioning second bathroom. It still needs work. Currently, it's lacking the trifecta (no electricity -> no lights) but there's a window.

Here's how the toilet sink works. It only "runs" when you flush. That perfectly clean water that comes out of the pipes normally goes straight into the overflow tube.  We basically detoured that water to the sink. The sink then drains into a funnel set in the overflow tube. That water then fills the toilet bowl.

I threw the sink as two separate pieces; the basin and the drain. They were then joined together and glazed as one piece. The drain continues down past the wood to make leaks impossible.