SBRANFPOTS@aol.com on mon 26 oct 98
Ann Peters wrote: ".............our kiln room overheated the other day and set
off the
automatic sprinkler. Hundreds and hundreds of gallons of water poured
out on top of our two Coneart kilns................."
Ann,
I had the same experience some years ago. What a sight. I was home at the time
and got a call from one of my assistants. "Hello Steve? It's raining." My
first thought was why is he telling me that it's raining? So what if it is? I
looked out the window and saw that it wasn't and since I only live 3 miles
from the studio it would be unusual if it was raining there and not here. "No
its not. Where are you calling from?" I said. "The kiln room" he said.
I got to the studio in a few minutes to find him and two other assistants
holding and replacing buckets under the sprinkler heads to try and divert as
much water as possible. Quick thinking also got plastic on the kilns to
protect them. Anyway, by the time the fire department shut off the water,
there had been quite a downpour.
We opened up the electrical boxes, dried them out with towels and paper the
best we could and then just let the kilns dry out completely. Of course, the
electricity had already been shut off.
When we were satisifed that the brick work was pretty dry and the electrical
components were completely dry we fired them up on low for a full day and
night to dry them out the rest of the way. After that they worked fine with no
lasting effects.
We then had the sprinkler heads changed to a much higher temperature rating!
Steven Branfman
The Potters Shop
| |
|
