Fabienne Cassman on sun 9 apr 00
Hello! :)
I blank fired my new electric kiln Friday night. Yeah! :) But, there is
always a but, the vent was incapable of handling the amount of smoke
resulting from this first firing. It billowed approximately around 600oC
and stopped around 800oC. Now that everything in the house is successfully
fumigated, I have a few questions.
The kiln is a ConeArt (~7 cu ft) the vent is a Bailey mounted on the wall,
one hole drilled at bottom back of kiln (about pencil size) and top (front)
peep hole opened (try 1/2 opened too, no improvement), lid closed
(clearly). The smoke escaped from between the lid and rim in various
places but mainly the front; there is only about a 2 mm gap in certain places.
Is it normal for this first firing to get so much smoke that vents cannot
handle them? I was warned it would smoke, but this is ridiculous. Or, is
it just that the vent is not creating sufficient negative pressure?
Any suggestions as to what I should look for and try?
Thank you,
Faye where it snowed that night, of course.
--
Milky Way Ceramics http://www.milkywayceramics.com/
Yes, I have learned from my mistakes...
I can reproduce them exactly.
Fredrick Paget on mon 10 apr 00
The Cone Art has an inch of fiber board insulation outside the bricks and
under the stainless steel outer jacket and the fiber board is rigidized
with cornstarch so it will stay together until it is installed. The
cornstarch burns out in the first couple of firings and after that it won't
smoke anymore. The fiberboard becomes very weak and soft but the way it is
installed it is trapped under the jacket and is still good insulation.
Fred Paget
>I blank fired my new electric kiln Friday night. Yeah! :) But, there is
>always a but, the vent was incapable of handling the amount of smoke
>resulting from this first firing. It billowed approximately around 600oC
>and stopped around 800oC. Now that everything in the house is successfully
>fumigated, I have a few questions.
>
>The kiln is a ConeArt (~7 cu ft) the vent is a Bailey mounted on the wall,
>one hole drilled at bottom back of kiln (about pencil size) and top (front)
>peep hole opened (try 1/2 opened too, no improvement), lid closed
>(clearly). The smoke escaped from between the lid and rim in various
>places but mainly the front; there is only about a 2 mm gap in certain places.
>
>Is it normal for this first firing to get so much smoke that vents cannot
>handle them? I was warned it would smoke, but this is ridiculous. Or, is
>it just that the vent is not creating sufficient negative pressure?
>
>Any suggestions as to what I should look for and try?
>
>Thank you,
>
>Faye where it snowed that night, of course.
>--
>Milky Way Ceramics http://www.milkywayceramics.com/
>
> Yes, I have learned from my mistakes...
> I can reproduce them exactly.
>From Fred Paget, Marin County, California, USA
Susan Schultz on mon 10 apr 00
Faye,
I have a Coneart oval (16 cf) with a double Bailey vent hooked up to it,
and I had the same experience. I have it in the garage below my studio
and it filled up the garage with smoke and seeped through the (supposedly)
weatherproofed door into the house. What a lot of smoke! But no smoke
in firing #2. I think you'll find the worst is over .
Susan
Stonington, Ct.
Tuckers Pottery Supplies on mon 10 apr 00
At 09:00 PM 4/9/00 EDT, you wrote:
>----------------------------Original message----------------------------
>Hello! :)
>
>I blank fired my new electric kiln Friday night. Yeah! :)
>
>
>Is it normal for this first firing to get so much smoke that vents cannot
>handle them? I was warned it would smoke, but this is ridiculous. Or, is
>it just that the vent is not creating sufficient negative pressure?
>
>Any suggestions as to what I should look for and try?
Hi Fabienne,
The kiln which you purchased has 1" of block insulation in addition to the
bricks.The insulation has a binder which burns off during the first firing.
It will not happen again.The vent systems are not designed to handle this
much initial burn off but since it won't happen again there is nothing that
you need to do.
If you have any other questions feel free to call us.
Frank Tucker
Tucker's Pottery Supplies
1-800-304-6185
Tuckers Pottery Supplies
1800-304-6185
chris@euclids.com on tue 11 apr 00
> >I blank fired my new electric kiln Friday night. Yeah! :)
> >Is it normal for this first firing to get so much smoke that vents cannot
> >handle them? I was warned it would smoke, but this is ridiculous
-------------------------------
> Hi Fabienne,
> The kiln which you purchased has 1" of block insulation in addition to the
> bricks.The insulation has a binder which burns off during the first
firing.
> It will not happen again.
> Frank Tucker
-------------------------------
Hi Fabienne,
About a year ago, one of our insulation suppliers changed their formula
slightly without notifying us. This caused a few problems similar to yours.
We usually do the "burn off" firing at our plant (because it can be quite
smokey & smelly, as you experienced) but there still seemed to be some smoke
when the kilns were fired by the customer. Our solution was to do the "burn
off" firing to a higher temperature for a longer period of time ...
this works well.
I never did like "burning off" kilns in the plant, the smell & taste is
disgusting ... it must have been a nightmare in your house (not to mention a
little scary).
I believe, personally, that the manufacturer should do this burn off process
... all of us ... At the moment we don`t all do this all of the time. We all
should.
There are health concerns here as well.
sticking my neck out, maybe a bit too far,
chris
chris@euclids.com
www.euclids.com
800-296-5456
Fabienne Cassman on wed 12 apr 00
Hello Chris,
Thank you for your reply. I was just wondering about this very thing, why
isn't the burn off done at the factory?
I fired it to cone 04 over 7 hours and peanuts. The next firing is another
blank one as per manual instructions and to be done at cone 6. Will that
be sufficient? What if I take it up to cone 9 and get it over with once
and for all with that smoke issue? That should take a while no to mention
it's the temperature I'm planning to fire to. It would seem to make more
sense to do this anyway as this firing is not only to oxidize the elements
but to see if the thermocouples perform properly. Any comments? - TIA
I might be undergoing a "onetimer" episode -- the manual did warn of
smoking, but never of how much, as in "ludicrous" smoking. It was quite a
surprise; my jaw hit the floor.
Faye the frozen smoked herring
--
Milky Way Ceramics http://www.milkywayceramics.com/
Yes, I have learned from my mistakes...
I can reproduce them exactly.
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