ginny bivaletz on thu 20 may 99
i have been following some of the discussions on electric kiln quality
and am moving slowly towards my first purchase of one. i live in
washington state and am leaning towards buying one of the local brands.
seattle pottery supply sells crucible and tacoma clayart sells and
services olympic kilns. for the past five years i have been
transporting my greenware in the back of my truck to our local pottery
studio(ten miles of often bumpy roads)to bisque, then fire to cone 10
in an ancient west coast updraft. eventually i would love to have both
electric for bisqueing and a gas downdraft car kiln. i do wheel
work,slab and sculpture. i lean towards some pretty tall pieces and
have been wondering about a front loading electric kiln. does anyone
have any info on them? any info on olympic kilns? should i just go
straight for the gas kiln and bisque in it? i had gotten a quote for a
20 cubic ft. shuttle kiln built on site of $15,ooo. it sounded like a
top of the line kiln, but is way out of my budget. any suggestions of
which way to go? thanks for your time
ginny in the san juans, where the sun is shining brilliantly(for the
moment).
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Judith S. Musicant on wed 26 may 99
I've followed this thread with interest, as I will probably be purchasing a
larger kiln sometime within the next year. I've been using a Skutt 818 for
many years, and it has certainly been reliable. However, the one problem
I've had is uneven firing from the bottom to the top. The bottom shelf
fires 1/2 jto 1 cone cooler than the upper shelves. I've tried to even it
out by turning the bottom dial up to high and the top dial down to medium
or lower, but it's been difficult if no impossible to cure the problem. I
also changed the bottom element - made no difference. I've gotten around
the problem by raising the bottom shelf another inch or so from the floor
of the kiln with kiln posts, but that takes up a lot of room in an already
small kiln. Is this not a problem with the larger Skutt's? I've thought
about a Cone Art, given its additional insulation, even though it is
significantly more money. Any thoughts?
Judy
Stephen J. Lewicki on fri 28 may 99
At 01:08 PM 5/26/99 EDT, you wrote:
>----------------------------Original message----------------------------
>
>
>I've followed this thread with interest, as I will probably be purchasing a
>larger kiln sometime within the next year. I've been using a Skutt 818 for
>many years, and it has certainly been reliable. However, the one problem
>I've had is uneven firing from the bottom to the top. The bottom shelf
>fires 1/2 jto 1 cone cooler than the upper shelves. I've tried to even it
>out by turning the bottom dial up to high and the top dial down to medium
>or lower, but it's been difficult if no impossible to cure the problem. I
>also changed the bottom element - made no difference. I've gotten around
>the problem by raising the bottom shelf another inch or so from the floor
>of the kiln with kiln posts, but that takes up a lot of room in an already
>small kiln. Is this not a problem with the larger Skutt's? I've thought
>about a Cone Art, given its additional insulation, even though it is
>significantly more money. Any thoughts?
>
>Judy
>
Dear Judy -
The new three zone controls such as our Dyna-Trol and Skutt's version of
this should go a long way towards solving this problem. Another thing you
can try on your current kiln is to put another bottom on the kiln to
increase the insulation on the bottom. I have recommended this with sucess
to several people. If you are firing heavy loads you may want to consider a
bottom elements (they are optional in our larger kilns - 23" in diameter
and above). Good luck and please be sure to look at our kilns (our web site
is www.hotkilns.com)
Stephen Lewicki
President
L&L Kiln Mfg Inc.
6B Mt. Pleasant Drive
Aston, PA 19014
Phone: (610) 558-3899
Fax: (610) 558-3698
Email: steve@hotkilns.com
Pottery by Dai on fri 28 may 99
Hi, Judy - I have an older Skutt, 23'' dia. 27" deep; have had increasingly
inconsistent firings with it in the last few months, and finally did the
large-cones-in-a-cone-pack thing (prior to this, I have been relying only on
the kiln sitter with a bar cone to shut it off at ^6). To my amazement, I
discovered that the bottom shelf (which is up on 1" posts) fired to ^5
(barely), the middle shelf fired to ^7, and the top one to ^6. I can't
believe there could be this much difference!
We are going to do a complete change of elements (it's past time) and then
I'll test it again. The kiln was packed quite well, with all full
shelves---I wonder if there would have been less difference if I'd had
staggered half-shelves in there? Anyway, at this rate, it's no wonder I
can't get consistent glaze results in this kiln! Now I'm going to test my
other one---hope it's better.
Incidentally, my routine is all three switches on low for 1-2 hrs, all on
medium for 1 hour, all on high and shut lid. The top peephole is always
open. Any comments, anyone?
Dai Scott - mystified in Kelowna, B.C.
Andrea Allison on mon 1 may 06
Hi:
I am looking to purchase an electric kiln. For where I am, my two choices
are a Shimpo ConeArt kiln or a Euclid.
The model I am looking at is 23" wide x 27" high. Anyone have thoughts on
either of those?
I fire to cone 6.
Andrea Allison
Atikokan, Ont.
Maid O'Mud on tue 2 may 06
I've owned both these brands.
I recommend the ConeArt.
Sam Cuttell
Maid O'Mud Pottery
RR 1
Melbourne, Ontario
N0L 1T0
CANADA
"First, the clay told me what to do.
Then, I told the clay what to do.
Now, we co-operate."
sam 1994
http://www.ody.ca/~scuttell/
scuttell@ody.ca
----- Original Message -----
From: "Andrea Allison"
To:
Sent: Tuesday, May 02, 2006 1:32 AM
Subject: electric kiln purchase
> Hi:
>
> I am looking to purchase an electric kiln. For where I am, my two choices
> are a Shimpo ConeArt kiln or a Euclid.
> The model I am looking at is 23" wide x 27" high. Anyone have thoughts on
> either of those?
>
> I fire to cone 6.
>
> Andrea Allison
> Atikokan, Ont.
>
>
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