Gay Judson on wed 10 oct 07
Thanks for all the help. We changed the thermocouple--it seemed time to do
that. Yesterday I did a ^6 glaze firing. Everything came out OK. The top
and middle levels melted the self-supporting ^6 cones to just touching. The
bottom area was not touching--just barely bending, it was at about 1:00. I
also put in cone packs. The upper sections showed ^6 toughing, the lower
section had ^5 at 3:00 and ^6 at 12:15! The pots looked good, though. I
have the envirovent and the kiln is electronic but does not have separate
controls for each section--I have one control for the whole kiln.
I am very happy to be able to fire. I just need 2 more firings in the next
week. Then we are packing up to move. I want to wait until after the move
to change the elements--if needed then. I understand that I should change
all the elements at the same time. It seems to me that maybe only the lower
section elements need changing now. I did get suggestions that there might
be a problem with the connections or with the flow of electricity. When we
changed the thermocouple we looked at all the connections and they seemed
good. But we are totally inexperienced with this and don't really know what
to look at/for.
Thanks again for your help. Gay Judson
William & Susan Schran User on thu 11 oct 07
On 10/10/07 11:55 AM, "Gay Judson" wrote:
> We changed the thermocouple--it seemed time to do
> that. Yesterday I did a ^6 glaze firing. Everything came out OK. The top
> and middle levels melted the self-supporting ^6 cones to just touching. The
> bottom area was not touching--just barely bending, it was at about 1:00. I
> also put in cone packs. The upper sections showed ^6 toughing, the lower
> section had ^5 at 3:00 and ^6 at 12:15!
If your kiln has only one thermocouple, then adjusting the shelf & pot load
may help even out temps top to bottom.
Raise the bottom shelf at least two inches off the floor. A downdraft vent
with piping mounted to vent through the floor will also help.
Load taller pots and a bit loosely at the bottom, smaller/denser load at the
top.
--
William "Bill" Schran
wschran@cox.net
wschran@nvcc.edu
http://www.creativecreekartisans.com
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