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more kiln horror stories

updated sat 15 dec 01

 

Marsh Pottery on fri 14 dec 01


Another over-firing story:
In ~1972 I neglected to turn off the switches when I saw the sitter arm
had fallen - DIDN'T see that it was caught on something. It continued
firing full tilt all night. 19 porcelain mugs melted into the floor of the
kiln.. The glaze on every piece in there boiled away... A half shelf
began sagging, posts sagged & became speckled. How hot that thing got I'll
never know - but it was HOT! The garage was over 100*...
We had to turn the kiln floor it was so badly gouged after we dug the
mugs out of the fire brick, but it was still firing to Cone 6 & 7 in 10 hrs
when I sold it 22 yrs later!
Marsha Koenig
Rockledge, FL


----- Original Message -----
From: "Ron Roy"
To:
Sent: Friday, December 14, 2001 12:14 AM
Subject: Re: L&L Kiln melt down


Sorry to hear it happened to you JIm, hope you don't mind if I just remind
every one -

Don't leave a kiln alone when it's firing - all kinds of situations can
occure that you don't expect including fires - you can just never be
absolutly sure an automatic (so called) system will always work or wiring
can fail.

There are more failures with sitters than any other kind of system - at
least in the past. It remains to be seen if the controllers are going to do
better - still - I will never trust em enogh to be very far away and always
there at the end to watch the cones and make sure everything is working
properly.

RR

>we had the kiln loaded preatty tight with terra cotta and stoneware for a
>firing to cone 04. well, i started firing and then turned it to hight and
set
>the timer for 3 hours. i had a meeting to go to so i figured everything
would
>be ok. the timer was set for three hours "just in case". well, when i got
>back i noticed the kiln looked hotter than normal. so, i tried raising the
>thing the little "hook lever" that holds the shut off trigger and it would
not
>let me raise it because it was stuck. i also noticed the timer had not
moved.
>well, i started to panic..... and i just turned the switches to off and
>unplugged the kiln and went home.

Ron Roy
RR# 4
15084 Little Lake Rd..
Brighton,
Ontario, Canada
KOK 1H0
Residence 613-475-9544
Studio 613-475-3715
Fax 613-475-3513

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