Sandi Janson Selk on mon 5 apr 99
I have an L & L electric kiln I bought in the mid 70's. Ive used it
quite a bit and have moved it from state to state as needed as I moved.
IT is made of a base on a stand, two rings with two elements in each and
a third ring with an attached lid. All the fixtures attaaching the lid
are rusted and the chains that were to hold the lid open have long since
rusted off. So much for history.
My problem now is that the lid has several cracks in it - none see to
go all the way through- and many of the firebricks and chiped or broken
quite a bit. I can see daylight coming in through the spaces between
the base and the rirse ring as well as through other places where bricks
are in bad shape.
I had L&L send me some "HI TEMP CEMENT" . From Southern Oregon Pottery
Supply I bought some #0290 Refractory Cement. All that is on the pint
can's label is it's name (#0290 Refractory Cement ) and "Please thin
with water". No instructions on what the consisteny needs to be. I do
not know it this is a product from International Technical Ceramics,
Inc. or not.
I've got some old odd pieces of fire brick that I could presumably shape
to fit into the awaitin gouges and crevices if I knew how to cut the
brick and if it were all right to use. I fire to ^6-^7.
One concern I and my husband had was that the rings would stick (be
cemented) together if we tried to repair the kiln by cementing pieces of
fire brick at the edges of the rings where most of the damage is. We
dislike the idea of taking the kiln rings apart yet once again for fear
of causing an even looser bonding the the brick and damaging the
integrety/stability of the kiln.
Another concern is that the air temperature doesn't get above the
freezing point on a 24 hour basis and we do not know what effect that
will have on any repair we do.
Any help would be most appreciated in getting my kiln back to being
really tight, evenly heated throughout and not wastful of electricty .
At one time I wrapped the exterior of the kiln with a product call
FIBERFAX, then wrapped the Fiberfax with heavy duty aluminim foil. It
seemed to work well. I lost the Fiberfax in our last move and have
since beeb told it is not a wise thing to do - healthwise. Any comments
on that?
Please respond to me at sjselk@cdsnet.net directly and on the
Clayart list as I do not always have time to read the Clayart digest - I
think I am about 6 weeks behind now!
I am also interested in finding any potters in my area. I live half way
between Klamath Falls and Crater Lake National Park in Oregon. I
would like to start and "Empty Bowl" project here.
TIA
Sandi, wondering if Spring will ever come!
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