Karen Shapiro on sun 3 jul 05
Hi all,
I have a Set and Fire Paragon kiln, which I love by the way. It is needing some attention, i.e. the bottom coils are popping out of the spacers. The spacers have been breaking out. It is still firing well, but I need to know how much time I have before I have to do repairs.
I live a couple hours from my "people" (Creative Ceramics in Santa Rosa CA), so it's kinda hard to get someone out here.
I fire a lot (only up to cone 04) and need to know what I might be facing along the way. I would be up "shit creek" if the kiln stops working.
Any suggestions, info would be greatly appreciated.
thanks,
rakukaren
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Craig Clark on sun 3 jul 05
Karen, I just finished rebuilding a coupla old kilns which are as
good as new. The elements had also popped out of their grooves, sagged
and quit working. It was time for an overhaul. One thing that I learned
along the way was to pay particular attention to the use of the
retaining pins that hold the elements into the grooves. These are
extremely important. The more the merrier as they say.
So what you might try to do is go ahead and either order yourself
some retaining pins from your favorite ceramics supplier, I actually got
all of my last set of elements from Euclids up in the Northern Climes,
and set the pins at diagonals to each other (like a small criss-cross)
to hold the elements in place.
If the soft brick has deteriorated to the point where there isn't
much groove left just get yourself some Nichrome Wire and clip it into 2
inch lengths. Take your favorite pair of needle nose pliers and bend a
hook into one end of the wire piece. Press the unbent end of the wire
into the soft brick and make sure that the "hooked" end catches over the
inside curl of the wire. Do this every 6 or seven inches and your
elements ought to stay in place for you if there is still a shelf of
support beneath them.
If the horizontal support beneath the elements is entirely broken
away over larger areas then you will have more of a problem. You will
need to come up with a means by which to provide the support or the
elements will simply sag between your pins when they are heated up, even
if you are only going to an 04.
Awhile back somene had advised what sounded like a really good,
easily made compound that you could use for a purpose such as this one.
Can't remember right now, my memory is like a rusty old sieve.....Just
check in the archives as see what you can come up with under soft brick
or electric kiln repair I'll see if I can find the old post as well.
Though I might not get back to it until mid week or so.
Hope this helps
Craig Dunn CLark
619 East 11 1/2 st
Houston, Texas 77008
(713)861-2083
mudman@hal-pc.org
Arnold Howard on tue 5 jul 05
Karen, I suggest that you shrink bulging elements back into the grooves.
Once you've done that, your kiln should be fine for a long time.
To shrink a bulging element back into a groove, heat the element with a
propane torch. The element will become red-hot. While it is hot, squeeze the
coils together slightly with needle-nose pliers. This should shrink the
element back into the groove. Do not squeeze the element coils if the
element becomes cold. Moving a cold element will break it.
If an element is bulging out due to broken grooves, then you should hold the
element in place with element pins after you shrink the element back into
place. However, use pins only as a last resort. For areas where the grooves
are in good condition, I would not use pins.
Sincerely,
Arnold Howard
Paragon Industries, L.P., Mesquite, Texas USA
ahoward@paragonweb.com / www.paragonweb.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Karen Shapiro"
> I have a Set and Fire Paragon kiln, which I love by the way. It is
needing some attention, i.e. the bottom coils are popping out of the
spacers. The spacers have been breaking out. It is still firing well, but I
need to know how much time I have before I have to do repairs.
Craig Clark on tue 5 jul 05
Howard, I just rebuilt my old electric kiln (admidtedly from one of
the other manufacturers) and I used quite a few element pins. I made
sure that there was a pin at each corner of the soft brick and at the
half way point along the brick between the turns as well. Was this using
too many pins? Should I pull some of them out? It was a tedious activity
and I certainly don't want anything to shorten the new life of this old
kiln. I just didn't want the new elements jumping out of their grooves
any time soon.
Thankyou for any and all advice
Craig Dunn Clark
619 East 11 1/2 st
Houston, Texas 77008
(713)861-2083
mudman@hal-pc.org
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