Brad Sondahl on sun 18 jul 10
...
I've had several kilns over the years where, when you push the button
in on the kiln sitter, it pops right back out again, in spite of
having time on the meter.. I think the problem is caused by corrosion
on the back of the front plate, where a long thin wire spring is
supposed to hold the button in the "on" position, but gets hung up on
the corrosion. I grew tired of playing button roulette, poking and
poking it till it finally held. On my particular kiln, the sitter is
built into the middle control box, which means you have to disassemble
most of the kiln controls to do anything with the kiln sitter...
However, I realized the front plate can be loosened with the 4 corner
screws (after shutting off power to the kiln, of course) and pulled
forward enough, that I could loop a piece of fishing line over the
thin wire spring, then tie it onto the spring, pulling the fish line
over to the left, where it sticks out of the plate, and is secured
with a loop on the end. Resecuring the front plate still leaves the
fishing line loose enough to move in and out. Now when I push in the
button, I give a brief pull on the loop of fish line, and the kiln
turns on promptly, and still disengages as expected when the kiln
finishes.
I've put a photo of the wire spring to attach the line onto on my
website. http://sondahl.com/blog/sitterfix.jpg
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