mel jacobson on sun 31 mar 02
tim f. at orton should answer this, but as long
as he is on a long weekend...i will take a stab.
the kiln sitter is made for small cones. that is taken for
granted. bars work too.
when using small cones, remember, they can be placed
high or low in the sitter. it you put the cone in with the rod
resting on the very thin end...the cone will bend sooner than
if you place it towards the thick end. it is made to go in the
exact center.
there are many ways to tweak a kiln sitter.
if you take a small screw driver open the screw and move the weight bar
that sits beneath the release lever, you can add a cone of
temp just by lifting the bar a 1/16 of an inch..raise it too
much and the weight will not fall and your kiln will not
shut off.
you can change how far the long rod goes above the cone.
open the set screw and move the bar out a bit, and you will
drop the cone sooner.
sometimes the end of your rod that pushes down on the
cone gets all muggered up. take it out and replace it.
study how the cone drops, study what makes it work.
REMEMBER, THESE ARE NOT FAIL SAFE. THEY SOMETIMES
DO NOT DROP. it is a good tool, but always check.
set an alarm clock...check things out. even with controllers,
check the progress of the firing...and don't whine when things
go bad and you are not on hand. in all firing procedures, it
as totally up the potter to keep an eye on things. yes, electronics
are wonderful..helpful...but learning to fire your kiln with cones..
using visual on off is nice to know. i have run a new pilot light
out of the kiln room and mounted it on the wall of my studio.
i can see when the kiln shuts off. i had a 100 watt light bulb
mounted on the wall of my office at school..when a kiln was firing, the
light was on. when i left at the end of the day it lite up the
office when other lights were shut off. a great reminder.
(yes, it was a 220 light bulb.)
at the farm, when we fire...we have a meeting...we talk of
what it means for cone 10....is it all the way down, half down...
melted.? often we draw a picture, with chalk, on the kiln, of what
we have decided.
kerry brooks say's.`cone 10 is perfect when cone 11 is melted.`
i like cone 11 just starting over. that is perfect cone 10.
kurt likes cone 10 about 75 percent over. so, we fight about
it. kerry always wins. and then dannon scolds us all if we under fire.
cones...the life blood of firing.
learn to understand them, use them...a lot of them.
have them on the shelves.
they work.
mel
From:
Minnetonka, Minnesota, U.S.A.
web site: http://www.pclink.com/melpots
From:
Minnetonka, Minnesota, U.S.A.
web site: http://www.pclink.com/melpots
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