Holly Schile Nielsen on mon 20 feb 06
Hello,
Not too long ago, I had an accident when I was unloading work from my
kiln. The lid collapsed while I pulling out student work. To make a long
story short...my head, neck and back were injured. My low back was
injured to the point that I could not walk and resulted in neuro-surgery.
And to make this even more interesting, I also found out shortly after the
accident that I was pregnant. I had to wait until the second trimester to
have the surgery...no meds for pain throughout after confirmation of the
pregnancy.
Has anyone had a similar experience where a Skutt lid has fallen without
warning?
Holly Schile
Canada
Craig Clark on mon 20 feb 06
Hi Holly, I have been using a Skutt Kiln since 1985. I used them in
school, along with a Paragon, and a Cress, and now own two of them. One
is a 1027. I have not had any problems with the lid. I have, however,
watched the handle gradually deteriorate over time. I replaced the
handle and the screws which hold it to the stainless before it failed.
This is just normal kiln maintenance in my book.
I watched a handle on a Cress fail several years back. A friend of
mine was lifting the lid and she suddenly let out a yell and I looked at
her bleeding hand. After some direct pressure, Iodine, topical
antibiotic and some buterfly bandages she was up and running. She ended
up going to the doctor to check our first aid and get a tetnus shot as
well. Seems the old handle had just rusted through. I remember the
blood. I watch and pay close attention to parts which could possible
fail resulting in bodily harm.
How did the lid fail? Was it the handle, hinge or did it just
collapse? The last time I was in an institutional setting was when I was
in school. A number of the students had taken to putting some of their
pieces, many of which were heavy, smack dab in the middle of the lid to
try and get them to dry more quickly. The lids were not designed for
this. They ended up with some cracking issues. Ended up having to
tighten the stainless strap and patched a few of the cracks, but nothing
ever failed completely.
Hope this helps
Craig Dunn Clark
619 East 11 1/2 St
Houston, Texas 77008
(713)861-2083
mudman@hal-pc.org
Holly Schile Nielsen wrote:
>Hello,
>Not too long ago, I had an accident when I was unloading work from my
>kiln. The lid collapsed while I pulling out student work. To make a long
>story short...my head, neck and back were injured. My low back was
>injured to the point that I could not walk and resulted in neuro-surgery.
>And to make this even more interesting, I also found out shortly after the
>accident that I was pregnant. I had to wait until the second trimester to
>have the surgery...no meds for pain throughout after confirmation of the
>pregnancy.
>Has anyone had a similar experience where a Skutt lid has fallen without
>warning?
>
>Holly Schile
>Canada
>
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>
Gail Heilmann on mon 20 feb 06
Holly~
I've owned and used Skutt kilns for the past 24 years,
including a 1027 for about 8 years. I've never had
any trouble with the lid falling. Mine have been top
quality equipment for me plus the customer service
team have gone out of their way to help me. I'm a
total cheerleader for Skutt.
I'm sorry for your accident though!
gail j. heilmann
potter in the black hills of south dakota
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