Eleanora Eden on mon 2 dec 02
Hi all,
I also am firing with cones now as my pyrometer has slowly gone off and
then, I think, suddenly is way off. This is complicated by the fact that
opening the peeps to look at cones seems to stop the firing dead in its
tracks and so time and temperature rise are all off their usual
connection. Also the bottom cones at the peep are in a cold spot so they
don't show what they are. I have had cones in the middle of the kiln each
level as well to monitor what the peep cones are saying.
We replace the thermocouples periodically and haven't seen a connection
between new ones and our epidemic. The unit is about 10 years old I guess.
Feels like I am firing blind after pretty much a trouble-free decade. The
readings are low but not consistently so. I am trying to figure out how
off each level is so I can start to fire with just internal cones to
monitor the firing and bypass the peeps.
Eleanora
Eleanora Eden 802 869-2003
Paradise Hill Road eeden@vermontel.net
Bellows Falls, VT 05101 www.eleanoraeden.com
Gail Dapogny on tue 3 dec 02
Eleanora, I know that feeling of flying blind! And I'm of no help with
pyrometers.
Having said that--- You of course already know this suggestion (but
probably there are newer potters/firers who do not or haven't thought about
it much): be sure to notice the various heat-color stages that your kiln
goes through. I often think that I should really make a detailed chart
about these for our kiln, when they occur, lengths of time before they
change, and about how long the top temperature color lasts before and
during the soak, and before turning off the kiln. Would be interesting.
You can only go so far with this, of course, and it would certainly vary
quite a lot from kiln to kiln, although less so from firing to firing in
the same kiln. Still, those colors don't lie!
---Gail
>I also am firing with cones now as my pyrometer has slowly gone off and
>then, I think, suddenly is way off. This is complicated by the fact that
>opening the peeps to look at cones seems to stop the firing dead in its
>tracks and so time and temperature rise are all off their usual
>connection.
...Feels like I am firing blind after pretty much a trouble-free decade. The
>readings are low but not consistently so. I am trying to figure out how
>off each level is so I can start to fire with just internal cones to
>monitor the firing and bypass the peeps.
>Eleanora
Gail Dapogny
1154 Olden Road
Ann Arbor, MI 48103-3005
(734) 665-9816
gdapogny@umich.edu
http://www.silverhawk.com/ex99/dapogny (single historical photo - no longer
registered with Silverhawk)
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