Wesley Derrick - Derrick Pottery - Jackson, MS on thu 21 oct 04
ok....I bought a J & H kiln second hand from a guy in Fort Worth who said
that it was a cone 10 kiln in good shape from a school district in that
local area. Turns out the mfr. of the Kiln (J&H) are in Fort Worth as well.
I got a manual ( if it actually counts as one) mailed from them with very
little info in it...nothing techical.
I tried ^6 a few times...with struggle...and then it wouldn't even get
close to ^6....so I started rakuing out of it consistantly ^06 with no
problem....a few elements eventually had to be patched and it, of course,
just continued to get worse so I decided to look into new elements....
Being a full time CS rep. and low on the totum....money was (and always
will be) an issue...so I looked into winding my own....The nightmare begins.
I contacted the mfr. again and said that I planned to wind my own and
needed some info. I said how I got the kiln and gave her the model # and
told her I didn't know what cone the kiln was at the moment but I wanted to
upgrade it to a cone 10...she said that it was most likely a cone 6
originally and that it was 16 gage kanthal and that presently each element
was 16 phms and I needed to go to 14.5.....I have (3) banks with (2)
elements per bank...(3) manual toggle switches with low/off/high.
If my calculations are correct...this lady has just misled me into building
the mother furnace of all furnaces...I think (THINK) I'm pulling close to
90amps with all (3) swithces on high....
All connections are correct...all elements are exactly 14.5ohms. the
winding went perfectly as did the stretching and
installing....however....Last night during the first test firing..it did
something wierd when it reached around 1300 F with all switches on high...I
think I was pulling some MASSIVE amps....I don't know what to do ....It
fires ..but not correctly...I'm pretty sure that the elements actually need
to be more than twice as long as they are.
The Kiln seemed to just quit heating but the lights were still on...the
breaker was not thrown or frozen up...The bottom two wouldn't do anything
on high or low and the top two elements on switch one seemed to (get
this)...be burning hot on low and either off or burning low when on high.
HUH!!!??!
After sitting there a moment thinking over it all I tried each element one
at a time on high...and they all functioned properly....I reached cone 06
last night with (1) switch on high and the other (2) on low....
What is the friggin deal ?????? Who can help me???????? Duralite was less
than helpful (taking business away from them just talking about it with me)
(whatever, I was really just hoping they could point me in some direction)
Does 14.5 ohms per element (X6 elements)for Kanthal A1 16ga. wire sound
right to those out there who may know???? For a Cone 10 kiln....it's only
about a 2 cubic foot kiln....5.5inch thick brick.....
SOMEONE PLEASE HELP..POINT....LEAD......SEND....HELP.
i'M ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE THAT WHEN SOMETHING OF MINES NOT "RIGHT" I WON'T
REST UNTIL IT IS RIGHT OR GONE........
FRUSTRATED...willing to learn.......
(please forgive the typos...I'm not rereading this...)
wesley
Arnold Howard on thu 21 oct 04
I'm sorry to tell you this, Wayne: Designing elements can be complex. I
would not design elements for a kiln, nor would I change the kiln's
temperature rating. If you raise the temperature rating, the kiln's wiring
and switches may not be able to handle the extra amperage.
I've heard even engineers disagree about element design. That's why I don't
think elements are as easy to make as one would think.
Sincerely,
Arnold Howard
Paragon Industries, L.P., Mesquite, Texas USA
arnoldhoward@att.net / www.paragonweb.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Wesley Derrick - Derrick Pottery - Jackson, MS"
> ok....I bought a J & H kiln second hand from a guy in Fort Worth who said
> that it was a cone 10 kiln in good shape from a school district in that
> local area. Turns out the mfr. of the Kiln (J&H) are in Fort Worth as
> well.
> I got a manual ( if it actually counts as one) mailed from them with very
> little info in it...nothing techical.
>
> I tried ^6 a few times...with struggle...and then it wouldn't even get
> close to ^6....so I started rakuing out of it consistantly ^06 with no
> problem....a few elements eventually had to be patched and it, of course,
> just continued to get worse so I decided to look into new elements....
> Being a full time CS rep. and low on the totum....money was (and always
> will be) an issue...so I looked into winding my own....The nightmare
> begins.
>
> I contacted the mfr. again and said that I planned to wind my own and
> needed some info. I said how I got the kiln and gave her the model # and
> told her I didn't know what cone the kiln was at the moment but I wanted
> to
> upgrade it to a cone 10...she said that it was most likely a cone 6
> originally and that it was 16 gage kanthal and that presently each element
> was 16 phms and I needed to go to 14.5.....I have (3) banks with (2)
> elements per bank...(3) manual toggle switches with low/off/high.
> If my calculations are correct...this lady has just misled me into
> building
> the mother furnace of all furnaces...I think (THINK) I'm pulling close to
> 90amps with all (3) swithces on high....
> All connections are correct...all elements are exactly 14.5ohms. the
> winding went perfectly as did the stretching and
> installing....however....Last night during the first test firing..it did
> something wierd when it reached around 1300 F with all switches on
> high...I
> think I was pulling some MASSIVE amps....I don't know what to do ....It
> fires ..but not correctly...I'm pretty sure that the elements actually
> need
> to be more than twice as long as they are.
> The Kiln seemed to just quit heating but the lights were still on...the
> breaker was not thrown or frozen up...The bottom two wouldn't do anything
> on high or low and the top two elements on switch one seemed to (get
> this)...be burning hot on low and either off or burning low when on high.
> HUH!!!??!
> After sitting there a moment thinking over it all I tried each element one
> at a time on high...and they all functioned properly....I reached cone 06
> last night with (1) switch on high and the other (2) on low....
> What is the friggin deal ?????? Who can help me???????? Duralite was less
> than helpful (taking business away from them just talking about it with
> me)
> (whatever, I was really just hoping they could point me in some direction)
> Does 14.5 ohms per element (X6 elements)for Kanthal A1 16ga. wire sound
> right to those out there who may know???? For a Cone 10 kiln....it's only
> about a 2 cubic foot kiln....5.5inch thick brick.....
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