Judith Enright on sun 12 apr 98
First, THANKS to you who responded with suggestions and understanding.
Clayart is a great resource!
Thursday night's (glaze) load underfired, and after some thought and
conversations I decided to replace the elements. There was also some
speculation that the tube assembly for the sitter might be suspect, so I
decided to replace that too.
Skutt came through with flying colors! On Good Friday, one of their
technical troubleshooters, Perry (a fine man), was extremely helpful
through about six phone calls. The upshot is my local supplier didn't have
the parts I needed, so Perry UPS-Overnighted them and they arrived this
a.m. By 2 p.m. the parts were all replaced. The test fire went
beautifully. Tomorrow I refire Thursday night's glaze load and we'll
see.... As recommended, I will never EVER fire again without witness cones
in place.
I have never replaced elements before today and have always thought myself
an electrical dyslexic. Which I am sure fueled a significant portion of my
angst over all this. But after being trained by my electrical whiz-bang
husband this afternoon, my brain tells me that I know more than I ever
thought possible in one lifetime. There are some considerations to trying
to do this alone, though: clipping the pigtails and properly crimping the
connectors calls for more strength than I have, and lifting the kiln
segments was a bit awkward as well. Still and all, a worthwhile experience
and I certainly have a better appreciation for what we put our kilns
through. For the first time I feel like the kiln is really mine and not
just a piece of equipment bought and paid for.
It's getting late and, as Ms. O'Hara said, 'tomorrow's another day.' Thanks
again, all of you!
Be well...
.... Judith Enright @ Black Leopard Clayware
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