Jeff Lawrence on sat 14 jun 97
Hi,
Linda Blossom was asking about ITC thin coatings. I sprayed my electric
kilns wtih the recommended device at the recommended dilution and have
detected marginally better results - 5.5 instead of 6 hours to ^04 in small,
7 instead of 8 in larger. Not a magic bullet for me, I must say. I'll
probably use the rest of it at low pressure to get a better coating, but
with nowhere near the hopes I had for the first one.
My high hopes remind me of the mighty zoysia lawn I tried to establish in a
Santa Fe weedpatch. The ad I snapped on made it sound like the grass would
take over the whole southwest. The weeds won. When will I ever learn?
Maybe the second coat will re-establish my faith.
Zoysially yours,
Jeff
Jeff Lawrence
Sun Dagger Design
ph/fax 505-753-5913
Eric Lindgren on sun 15 jun 97
Jeff,
It matters how you control your kiln:
If you use a ramped automatic controller, you may not notice very much if
any time difference - just a difference on your power bill. I use an Orton
controller, which switches all the elements ON/OFF while monitoring the
temp rise. It controls the elements to achieve the desired rate of rise. To
find out how much power I'm using, I connect an electric bedside clock with
a small transformer (the kind for travel to 240 volt countries) in parallel
with a pilot light that indicates the elements are on. I set the clock to
noon before starting the firing. The clock only runs when the elements are
on. When the firing is over, I read the clock time to find out how many
hours of power it took. (ELECTRICAL HAZARD: THIS REQUIRES ELECTRICAL
CAPABILITIES - DO SO AT YOUR OWN RISK - THIS IS JUST AN OUTLINE OF MY
METHOD, NOT A DO-IT-YOURSELF GUIDE)
If you turn up the kiln manually in stages, then it's harder to figure out
your time change. Perhaps it isn't a zoysia-lawn-difference but indeed more
substantial.
Unless you have good records pre-itc, you'll have to look at your power
bill, not a clock. If you'd give more firing details, there might be
another way to look at the effectiveness of your kiln renovation.
-Eric Lindgren
lindgren@muskoka.com
>
>Linda Blossom was asking about ITC thin coatings. I sprayed my electric
>kilns wtih the recommended device at the recommended dilution and have
>detected marginally better results - 5.5 instead of 6 hours to ^04 in small,
>7 instead of 8 in larger. Not a magic bullet for me, I must say. I'll
>probably use the rest of it at low pressure to get a better coating, but
>with nowhere near the hopes I had for the first one.
>My high hopes remind me of the mighty zoysia lawn I tried to establish in a
>Santa Fe weedpatch. The ad I snapped on made it sound like the grass would
>take over the whole southwest. The weeds won. When will I ever learn?
>
>Maybe the second coat will re-establish my faith.
>
>Zoysially yours,
>Jeff
>Jeff Lawrence
>Sun Dagger Design
>ph/fax 505-753-5913
>
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