Fredrick Paget on tue 30 apr 02
kiln?
Jules,
It seems that the people who designed it thought it would be a good thing.
I kind of wish I had one on my kiln.
Two years ago I was firing my gas kiln and got up from the chair where I
was sitting rather close to the kiln and walked toward the house. After
going about twenty feet I fell striking my face on a cast iron arm rest of
a park bench just above the deck and landed on my face on the deck down
the stair. My wife was working on the computer just a short distance away
and saw me fall. She called 911 and paramedics came and took me to the
hospital. I had 5 hours surgery on my face and eye socket and remain
permanently blind in the left eye.
The kiln continued to fire with no one watching it and went up to cone ?
beyond cone 11. When I was concious again at the hospital I got them to
call the fire dept. to go and shut off the kiln. They really did not know
how to do it and my wife had never had any thing to do with it. They
managed to turn off the gas and stop it somehow. All the ware was junk.
Now I have written instructions posted in 2 places near the kiln on how to
shut it off
.
We have two theorys as to why I fell. One is I tripped from stepping on my
shoelace which was rather long and easily became untied. The other is I
might have gotten carbon monoxide poisoning from sitting too near the kiln
which has a slight leak in the door seal.
I now wear shoes with velcro straps or slip-ons. The park bench is gone. I
don't fire that kiln much anymore and I don't sit near it if I do. I am
blind in one eye too.
I think that the solenoid valve is there to shut off the gas line to the
kiln and would shut off everything - the pilots too because there would be
no gas at all. The pilot function should be controlled a different way such
as by a baso valve with thermopile or it could be done with an ultraviolet
sensor - but they are a lot more money than baso valves so you probably
don't have UV sensors.
Fred
>Hey Fred, it isn't that I don't have electricity (I
>could easily run an extension cable), it's just that I
>like the simplicity of a gas kiln that requires gas
>only. I've never used a kilnsitter for a gas firing
>and really think it would be unnecessary. I'm not
>worried about falling asleep on the job. Having said
>that, Earl responded and told me that the solenoid
>valve will also turn off the gas flow if the pilot
>light goes out, and since I'm moderately afraid of
>blowing up , perhaps this
>contraption isn't a bad thing. I only paid $4800 for
>the kiln, and it has twenty feet of stacking space, so
>I can't complain too much. Also, it weighs 1300 lbs,
>so there's NO WAY I'm sending it back... Jules
From Fred Paget, Marin County, California, USA
vince pitelka on wed 1 may 02
kiln?
> I don't want to touch this. You have purchased a kiln that requires
> electricity to operate. Your safest action is to return the kiln whence
you
> bought it and ask for one that will operate under the condition you have
> which seems to be a place without electricity.
Once again, this just is not true. I can't believe the misinformation that
is being cast about so casually here. Julie has a Kiln Sitter with a
electromagnetic shutoff valve. That is independent of the Baso safety valve
system, which does not require any external power supply. As I said
before, with a natural draft kiln with a Baso safety system, if she does not
want to use the Kiln Sitter, then there is no reason at all to have the
kiln hooked up to the power grid. That way you do not have to worry about
power failures, power spikes, etc. In area where code requires
flame-rectification burner systems (fire-eye sensors and automatic
re-ignition) you have no choice, but otherwise you are far better off
independent of the power grid.
Best wishes -
- Vince
Vince Pitelka
Appalachian Center for Crafts
Tennessee Technological University
1560 Craft Center Drive, Smithville TN 37166
Home - vpitelka@dtccom.net
615/597-5376
Work - wpitelka@tntech.edu
615/597-6801 ext. 111, fax 615/597-6803
http://www.craftcenter.tntech.edu/
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