Mark & Sylvia Mondloch on sat 27 jan 01
When I shut the MFT down two firings ago, I felt really good about how
things had gone. With the new pyrometer I had managed to keep the temp rise
even throughout the kiln from beginning to end. Did all the other things
right- slow bisque, slow temp rise towards end, nice soak, shut it down
tight for a slow cool. Had visions of beautiful pots.
Instead I had the worst case of nasty blisters ever in my rutile blue and
Reitz green wasn't much better. I've tried everything else and I felt like
my problem was in cooling so my last load I monitored the cooling with the
double-probe pyrometer. I've come to believe that I need some new air
drawing through during cooling to solve my glaze flaw problem in this kiln.
I had previously tried leaving the damper and burner ports partly open but I
think it was just going around the corner to the exit flue so I still had
blisters et.in the front of the kiln. But with the double-probe pyrometer, I
can tell how and where it's cooling and adjust it to cool evenly. I found
that by opening the damper full and closing the burner ports and all peeps
except the top front about 1/2, it would draw through the load from that
peep. What the hell, nothing else had worked and the load's half re-fires
from the last crappy load anyway. I could hear air swooshing through the
damper but interestingly, the temp in the morning was about 1100F (front and
back) which is what I get when I clam it tight. At that point I closed it
tight.
This was probably the best load I ever had in there. The zinc-rutile blue
was smooth as can be Reitz was better too. Even 90% of the re-fires came
out great.
I've been whining to the list and anyone else who would listen about this
for a long time. And I'm really grateful for input I've received. Sometimes
I think there is not a single right cure for something, but rather finding
the right combination that will work. Now maybe this was just a fluke and
the next firing I'll get back to tearing hair out, but for now I think I'm
going to just feel good.
Thank you all again,
Sylvia Mondloch
Mark & Sylvia Mondloch
Silver Creek Pottery & Forge
W6725 Hwy 144
Random Lake, WI 53075
silvercreek@execpc.com
http://www.execpc.com/silvercreek
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