Lili Krakowski on mon 27 feb 06
Too too awful for words.
1. Question: Did you use a witness cone? In case that means nothing to you
a witness cone is a regular standard cone (I have been using the
self-supporting ones--cost a bit more, save lots of time) that "report" on
the actual work (heat plus time) done in the kiln. You really must use them
every firing. It is best to use 3 in a sequence (as here : 07,06,05) which
would have the desired cone (06) in the middle.)
If you did not use a witness cone then what appears to be serious serious
overfiring cannot be verified.
2. I know nothing about Electronic Interfaces, but the dealer you bought
the kiln from, or Skutt, should be able to tell you how to check whether
that is working ok. As I said, I have no idea, but theoretically a
malfunction in the apparatus could have caused the problem.
If I had to guess something got stuck somewhere and prevented shut off.
3. It is possible that the bisque was defective. That somehow, despite the
claims made, it was for a lower temperature. For a variety of boring
reasons I think that MOST unlikely, but just in case: ask the dealer who
else bought any from that batch and ask them about their results, or ask the
dealer to test fire a bit of that bisque, or ask a friend....
4. What it sounds like is a severe case of overfiring. All the symptoms you
report --pieces melting around stilt, blistering and pinholing of glaze (can
be result of undefiring, but here appears to be overfiring) suggest this.
It is not clear what you mean with "pieces falling" If I understand
correctly they did not tip over, they melted around the stilts...
I am so sorry. Pulling out your hair will not help. If we all pulled out
our hair when kiln disasters occur we all would be bald. The point is that
while disasters should not happen they do, to all of us. You are not alone.
Remember: only two laws are rigorously and mercilessly enforced: Murphy's
Law and the Law of Gravity. Often both at the same time.
However. I hope you had kiln wash on your shelves. If so it should not be
too difficult to chip the wash off and rewash the shelves. Some people use
grinders for shelf cleaning, some --like me--prefer to use an electrician's
chisel...Whatever you do, wear a mask, wear safety goggles, work outdoors if
possible, otherwise clean up well as kiln-wash is really really bad for the
lungs.
As to the little piece that stuck. Work to "saw" it off with a piece of
hacksaw blade or similar held in your (gloved) hand. Yes you may damage the
brick a bit. If it is stuck more than a little you may have to kinda dig it
out a bit...again it may hurt the brick a little. Do not do anything
drastic like yanking and like that. You are likely to damage the brick more
than by careful excision. Buy some kiln patching cement and fix the hole.
Before you do the cement bit cover any nearby elements with plastic wrap to
be sure no cement splatters on them.
And when you have a chance: what does that woman want $1500 for a weekend
for? I really am eager to know. I have no Big Money Making Skills and
always am curious about the talents of strangers.
Justin. It all will turn out fine. You are not going to ruin any five-year
old's anything. Something along the way on this test-run wentwrong, it will
be fixed. Go hug that new child, and welcome to the club.
Lili Krakowski
Be of good courage
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