Arnold Howard on thu 7 jul 05
In a recent message on bulging element repair, I forgot to mention that the
kiln should first be unplugged. (Diane Winters reminded me of that.) I hope
no one touches an element while the kiln is plugged in!
Sincerely,
Arnold Howard
Paragon Industries, L.P., Mesquite, Texas USA
ahoward@paragonweb.com / www.paragonweb.com
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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.
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