Mercy Langford on sun 14 apr 02
hi-before I ask my question I want to thank everyone for their input. I've
learned SO MUCH! Now my dilemma- I bought a used Duncan kiln that has a kiln
sitter. My problem is the plunger / i put the cone correctly but the
plunger(the button that you press in) won't stay put therefore i can't turn
the kiln on. if i hold the plunger in the kiln ddoes turn on but who's going
to keep their finger in for hours. Pllease any ideas or clues will be
appreciated. thanks-mercy
Snail Scott on sun 14 apr 02
At 01:44 PM 4/14/02 EDT, you wrote:
>...I bought a used Duncan kiln that has a kiln
>sitter. My problem is the plunger / i put the cone correctly but the
>plunger(the button that you press in) won't stay put therefore i can't turn
>the kiln on...
Does it have a timer? If the timer is at '0',
the switch won't stay on. Turn the timer to
10 hours and try again. Remember that to
get any use out of the timer as a safety
feature, you must know approximately how
long your firings will take at each temperature.
So, for the first firing, set the timer for
more than you think you need, and monitor
your witness cones closely. Then in the future,
set the timer to 1/2 hour - 1 hour past the
expected firing time. Densely packed loads
will generally take longer to fire than
sparsely packed ones, so allow for that, too.
And ALWAYS use witness cones, especially when
you are firing a new (or new-to-you) kiln for
the first few times. The sitter may not be
adjusted the way you would like, so use the
witness cones to check its accuracy.
-Snail
potterybydai on sun 14 apr 02
Mercy - if the sitter also has a timer, make sure you've turned it up for
"x" number of hours. If the timer has run down to zero, the button won't
stay in, because that's an automatic shut-off.
Dai in Kelowna, BC
potterybydai@shaw.ca
Life is 10% what happens to you, and 90% how you
respond to it.
Marianne Lombardo on sun 14 apr 02
Hi Mercy;
Gee, didn't anyone tell you? You have to stand there holding the button in.
Just joking (smile).
Sounds like you just forgot one thing, you have to hold the level (the one
that will fall down, on the outside) up and then put the cone in while
holding that outside lever up. Once the cone is position properly you can
let go and the lever should stay up, and then you can push the button in and
the kiln should stay turned on.
Marianne
> sitter. My problem is the plunger / i put the cone correctly but the
> plunger(the button that you press in) won't stay put therefore i can't
turn
> the kiln on. if i hold the plunger in the kiln ddoes turn on but who's
going
travis kilgore on sun 14 apr 02
Mercy,
I have an electric kiln made by duncan and you can reach them on line at
Paragon Industries I believe. You can email them questions and they will
respond quickly with an answer. You can also order part for kiln when things
are broken. They are a wonderful sorce.
Barbara
Alabama
----- Original Message -----
From: Mercy Langford
To:
Sent: Sunday, April 14, 2002 10:44 AM
Subject: electric kiln plunger
> hi-before I ask my question I want to thank everyone for their input.
I've
> learned SO MUCH! Now my dilemma- I bought a used Duncan kiln that has a
kiln
> sitter. My problem is the plunger / i put the cone correctly but the
> plunger(the button that you press in) won't stay put therefore i can't
turn
> the kiln on. if i hold the plunger in the kiln ddoes turn on but who's
going
> to keep their finger in for hours. Pllease any ideas or clues will be
> appreciated. thanks-mercy
>
>
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Nancy Guido on sun 14 apr 02
I had the same problem with my test kiln. So I took the whole kiln sitter
off, brought it inside the house, took apart the entire mechanism, put it
all
back together and brought it back out to the garage where the kilns are and
put it back on and then it worked. BUT, the next time I went to use it, it
did the same thing. So I held my finger in and flipped one switch, after it
warmed up a bit, and it didn't take long, the button stayed in.
It's cold in the garage and that's the only thing I could figure was wrong.
It has done this twice and its been cold both times I have had to use the
test kiln.
I don't know if this helps, I don't even know if it makes logical sense, but
this worked for me.
Nancy
Tommy Humphries on sun 14 apr 02
If your kiln has a timer, make sure you turn the timer past zero...other
than that you could have some trash or something blocking the plunger, but I
have never seen that happen.
Tommy
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mercy Langford"
I bought a used Duncan kiln that has a kiln
> sitter. My problem is the plunger / i put the cone correctly but the
> plunger(the button that you press in) won't stay put therefore i can't
turn
> the kiln on. if i hold the plunger in the kiln ddoes turn on but who's
going
> to keep their finger in for hours. Pllease any ideas or clues will be
> appreciated. thanks-mercy
>
>
Mercy Langford on sun 14 apr 02
that was done- it's something else. thanks
Mercy Langford on sun 14 apr 02
hi no we put the cone in just fine. but still the plunger doesn't wwork.
thanks, mercy
Diane Winters on mon 15 apr 02
>My problem is the plunger / i put the cone correctly but the
>plunger(the button that you press in) won't stay put therefore i can't turn
>the kiln on.
Hi Marcy,
I had the same problem develop on my kiln after about 8 years. In my case,
it's intermittant, but happens fairly often. I called Dawson and was told
this can occur when grit/debris has accumulated or gotten into the hole that
the rod passes through - was advised to just blow this out really well,
obviously without work in the kiln to "catch" the debris. In my case that
may have helped a bit but didn't entirely solve the problem.
After a bit of experimenting, I now do one or all of the following: (1)
take the cone out, put it back in, and try the button again - sometimes this
is all it takes; (2) without the cone in place, push the flap down quite
hard, so the little "thing" on the end goes into the side of the kiln, then
place the cone; (3) turn the timer all the way down to the off position and
all the way up to it's highest setting, before setting the number of hours I
want for the firing, then put the cone in and press the button.
Of course, I'm SUPPOSED to remember to do this and make sure the button
engages BEFORE I've got the whole kiln loaded. Are there some mice who just
keep going down the same wrong tunnel?
Hoping someone else has a better, more permanent solution,
Diane Winters
Paul Gerhold on mon 15 apr 02
My plunger will not stay in if the timer is set to maximum time. Anything
short and it works fine. Has always been this way.
Paul
Scott Harrison on mon 15 apr 02
Having just had this happen on my Kiln Sitter, I can relate. The button is
held in by a mechanical trip mechanism that can be activated by the timer or
the weight dropping. I took mine completely apart and found a 2 inch piece
of element pigtail that had shot off when the elements were installed and
found its way into the switch. If you unplug your kiln, pull off the plate
holding the kiln sitter on and take a look. The trip mechanism is right on
the other side and can be seen easily. I took the whole thing off and
cleaned the contacts of the switch while I was at it. Go to
www.kiln-sitter.com and check out the manual for your model. Near the back
of the manual is an exploded diagram of what it looks like. Holding the
button in while turning the timer all the way to 20 hrs. should lock the
button in. If it doesn't then something is blocking the piece of metal that
holds the button in.
Scott Harrison
Arnold Howard on mon 15 apr 02
Scott raised a very good point about the Kiln Sitter: that
something inside the Kiln Sitter can prevent the locking slide from
operating.
It reminds me of something the kiln inspector at Paragon told me
years ago. He was having the same problem with a new kiln: the
locking plunger wouldn't stay in place. He took the Kiln Sitter
apart and found that a wire was interfering with the sliding
mechanism.
By the way, if you clean the Kiln Sitter contacts, you should use a
pencil eraser. It is not too abrasive, like emery cloth would be.
The coating on the contacts is fairly thin and easily damaged.
Cleaning the contacts eliminates many problems with the Kiln
Sitter. The contacts seem to attract ants and other bugs, which
prevent the Kiln Sitter from working.
Arnold Howard
Paragon Ind. Inc.
--- Scott Harrison wrote:
> Having just had this happen on my Kiln Sitter, I can relate. The
> button is
> held in by a mechanical trip mechanism that can be activated by
> the timer or
> the weight dropping. I took mine completely apart and found a 2
> inch piece
> of element pigtail that had shot off when the elements were
> installed and
> found its way into the switch. If you unplug your kiln, pull off
> the plate
> holding the kiln sitter on and take a look. The trip mechanism is
> right on
> the other side and can be seen easily. I took the whole thing off
> and
> cleaned the contacts of the switch while I was at it. Go to
> www.kiln-sitter.com and check out the manual for your model. Near
> the back
> of the manual is an exploded diagram of what it looks like.
> Holding the
> button in while turning the timer all the way to 20 hrs. should
> lock the
> button in. If it doesn't then something is blocking the piece of
> metal that
> holds the button in.
> Scott Harrison
>
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