Hendrix, Taylor J. on mon 5 jan 04
Howdy all:
Greetings in the new year. My hope for us all is that 2004 will be a
better year that 2003.
I thought some of you might like an update to my 'new kiln' saga. As
you may recall, I purchased (jargon for bought) an old paragon kiln
model A99-B. It is a manual, three switch, 7 cu ft, cone 8 kiln. The
brick is in pretty good shape and I was fortunate enough to get
furniture and a vent hood in the deal. I bought the kiln as was, and
was was inoperative. A local potter went to check it out and couldn't
get it to fire up. I thought the fix couldn't be that difficult with a
manual kiln, so I got it anyway.
I have completed all the hard wiring necessary. Arnold Howard's
suggestion that corroded contacts in the kiln sitter might be to blame
for the kiln not firing was spot on. Thanks Arnold. I had a kiln
sitter with timer left over from the raku conversion and I decided to
disassemble it and clean it for a replacement. Arnold wasn't lying
about all the little washers. I now have intimate working knowledge of
Dawson Kiln sitters. Anyone need a step by step explanation on how to
disassemble, clean and reassemble the guts to a Dawson kiln sitter?
They are very simple in design and easily cleaned.
Pushed in the circuit breaker last night, set a jr cone in the sitter,
and got a hum. Turned the switches to high and guess what ladies and
gents? Yepper! All of them were hot, hot, hot. Red beauties all.
Only one minor problem. The new switch I purchased from Paragon is in.
Easy to wire and the stand offs were supplied with the switch. All I
had to find were longer metal screws to attach the box. Easy as pie.
However, the knob from the old switch, when fitted to the new stem is no
longer indicating the correct setting. Everything is off by one (I'm
not sure about this number) detent. I'm 99.9% sure I wired the switch
correctly. Could the knob just be configured for a different stem?
So, Taylor from Waco finally has his own kiln with which to make his own
mistakes. Wish me luck. I will be running my materials list by
claytown soon
Catherine Yassin on mon 5 jan 04
In a message dated 1/5/2004 12:56:01 PM Central Standard Time,
Taylor_Hendrix@BAYLOR.EDU writes:
> So, Taylor from Waco finally has his own kiln with which to make his own
> mistakes. Wish me luck. I will be running my materials list by
> claytown soon
Taylor, may the Force be with You! I expect pics of your "mistakes" and
successes in the near future.
-Cat Yassin
San Antonio
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