Fran Newquist on mon 25 nov 96
Does anyone have information on AA Porcelain that was produced by
Eagle/Cutter?
Was this product picked up by another company? Does anyone have a formula?
Also, has anyone out there solved the problem with the oval Olympic Kiln Lid
slumping?
Thanks in advance - Fran
Craig Martell on tue 26 nov 96
Hi Fran: Yes, I was able to come to terms with the lid problem on an Olympic
16 cu, ft. oval kiln. I took the stainless steel banding off and filled all
the cracks with Sairset Mortar. Some of the cracks had gone clear through and
the lid and it was in about 5 pieces. After the mortar job, I put the
stainless band back on without the little hose clamp fittings. I wrapped 1
strand of 5/16" Stainless Steel Aircaraft Cable (available at any good
hardware store) around the lid. The ends of the cable were fitted with a
3/8" turnbuckle and I tightened it until I heard the bricks start to crunch a
little. I also did away with the lid hinge and made a system using a boat
winch (another cheap item) so that I could raise the lid straight up off the
kiln. I did this because the lid was so heavy that when you open and closed
the kiln, the lid would cause the top ring to flex and in time this damaged,
and caused the interbox connectors(plugs between rings) to wear out and
malfunction. However, if you want to leave the lid hinge on it will still
work. The problem with that big lid is the hose clamp fittings on the strap
only exert hundreds of pounds of pressure on the lid bricks at best. The
Aircraft Cable and turnbuckle are capable of thousands of pounds of pressure
if you want to tighten them that much.
I made several other improvements to the kiln and told Olympic about the
problems I was having and that I didn't feel I was putting the kiln to hard
use beyond what it was designed for. They pretty much shined me on and I
have never purchased any of their products since. I thought that their 16cu.
ft. oval was VERY poorly engineered, and thier lack of response or concern
didn't instill much confidence about their products. I'll stop ranting now.
Once I fixed a lot of stuff, the kiln worked pretty well.
Kind Regards, Craig Martell-Oregon
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