George Mackie on sun 9 feb 97
1. repair
The soft firebricks forming the lid of my old Cress C-20-H kiln
have cracked fter 33 years of use so there is a risk of brick fragments
falling on the ware during firing. The metal jacket is quite corroded, but
looks as if it ought to hold the lid together for a while yet. Ive tried
patching the cracks with Trowleze mortar, but they open up again. I dont
want to have to rebuild the entire lid and i doubt if Cress still make
them. Any suggestions wd be much appreciated.
2. Upgrade
Would be nice to install a pyrometer system that triggered a switch that
turned the kiln off automatically on reaching a preset temperature. One
would have to calibrate against real cones initially of course, but it
would be nice to get out the the house and leave it to fire itself. Is
there such a thing? Ive read about the Skutt Kilnmaster but it looks
unnecessarily complicated and costs over $1000 here in BC.
Jill
To bring the dead to life is no great magic
Few men are wholly dead
Blow on a dead man's embers
And a new flame will spark.
R Wuetherick on mon 10 feb 97
Am I missing something here? Are you not talking about a simple
yet effective "kiln sitter" I'm not sure but I would presume these
have
been put on electric kilns for at least 20 years.
You could easily install one on any kiln. Or you could make one
yourself
(bad idea). Or (better yet) buy one from skutt or whomever else
manufactuers
these handy little devices.
There are also controllers. Pricey but very effective!
Cheers,
Rod Wuetherick
----------
> Would be nice to install a pyrometer system that triggered a switch
that
> turned the kiln off automatically on reaching a preset temperature.
One
> would have to calibrate against real cones initially of course, but
it
> would be nice to get out the the house and leave it to fire itself.
Is
> there such a thing? Ive read about the Skutt Kilnmaster but it
looks
> unnecessarily complicated and costs over $1000 here in BC.
>
> Jill
> To bring the dead to life is no great magic
> Few men are wholly dead
> Blow on a dead man's embers
> And a new flame will spark.
David Woodin Set Clayart digest on mon 10 feb 97
First coat the bricks with ITC 100 then fill the cracks with ITC 200 wait
until everything drys overnight would be fine then fire the kiln with or
without ware in it. Any slight cracks that are still there fill with ITC
200. ITC's phone number is 904-285-0200. Does your kiln have a kiln setter,
if not the kiln setter option would be the easiest and cheapest way to shut
off the kiln.
David
Don Jung on mon 10 feb 97
Jill,
There are numerous kiln 'controllers', one of the less expensive,
simpler and very reliable types would be a Dawson kiln sitter. It uses
a junior cone as the trigger. Get the one with the timer as a backup
shutoff. Costs about $225.00 + gst&tax (in BC).
If you go for a replacement kiln, get the controller or sitter installed
with the kiln as it costs much less than getting one later. In fact a
fancy programmable controller is almost affordable when ordered with the
kiln.
As for question 1...can't help much with zero experience with Cress.
Don Jung
Kensington Pottery Club, Vancouver BC
George Mackie wrote:
> Would be nice to install a pyrometer system that triggered a switch that
> turned the kiln off automatically on reaching a preset temperature. One
> would have to calibrate against real cones initially of course, but it
> would be nice to get out the the house and leave it to fire itself. Is
> there such a thing? Ive read about the Skutt Kilnmaster but it looks
> unnecessarily complicated and costs over $1000 here in BC.
>
> Jill
> To bring the dead to life is no great magic
> Few men are wholly dead
> Blow on a dead man's embers
> And a new flame will spark.
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