Clay Drying and Firing Shrinkage Calculator
Back-calculate wet and dry dimensions from target fired dimensions and separately entered drying and firing shrinkage.
YOUR CALCULATION
Result
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Calculation steps
Work through one step at a time or reveal the complete calculation. The steps use your current inputs.
How to calculate
Multiply the retained linear fractions for drying and firing. Invert the combined retention for each desired fired dimension.
Final/wet retention=(1−dry shrinkage)(1−fire shrinkage); required wet length=final/retention
Worked example
5% wet-to-dry shrinkage followed by 8% dry-to-fired shrinkage retains 0.95×0.92=0.874 of wet length. A 10 cm fired target therefore needs about 11.44165 cm wet length.
Assumptions and input details
Enter measured linear shrinkages for your body and firing conditions. If a supplier gives total wet-to-fired shrinkage, enter it as one stage and set the other to zero; do not count it twice. All target lengths use one common unit. Volume comparisons cube retention only under isotropic shrinkage. No kiln schedule, glaze fit, warping, anisotropy, density change or finished tolerance is inferred.
Using this calculator
Can I enter my own problem?
Yes. Replace the example values with your own inputs. The result, calculation steps, tables and applicable diagrams update from those inputs. Blank or invalid values clear the result; example values are never silently substituted for missing inputs.
Are the results exact?
Results use floating-point arithmetic and displayed rounding. Read the formula, assumptions and any stated data precision before interpreting the result.
Is my input uploaded?
The calculation runs in your browser. No account, file upload or external AI service is required. Inputs are not saved between page reloads.
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