Connie Christensen on wed 22 dec 04
Gads, by the 3rd week of December I always feel like I've hit a brick wall.
I'm taking a day off by going into the studio one hour later 8 or 9 days in
a row.
Awhile back, I wrote about bubbling problems I had after moving the kiln and
several people wrote with suggestions. I've fired 4 times now with
consistent results after making some changes. I was getting bubbling on the
shinos and the left side and front of the kiln didn't reduce well. These are
the changes I made:
Had the plates on the blowers closed down more, for the left problem burner
it was no more than 1/16 open at any time during the firing, the other
burner 1/8 inch at most. I got even reduction throughout the kiln with this
change. (Not sure if this helped with the bubbles)
Moved the target bricks towards back of kiln about 2 inches. This evened out
the temperature more front to back.
After I reach cone 10, cool the kiln to about 1900F and turn burners back on
and soak for an hour in a neutral atmosphere.
These three changes solved the problems I was having with shinos bubbling
and uneven reduction after the kiln was moved and the new stack was put on.
Also I had a problem with some bloating. So the last couple of firings I
used only new clay, no recycled - no bloating. I hate to think I can't
recycle my clay. I'm real careful about bisquing properly too and I still
got bloating (on porcelain).
Connie Christensen
Arvada, CO
www.conniechristensen.com
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