neilestrick

Here you go! B1 Revised.pdf

Many commercial underglazes just don't hold up at cone 10. They start to flux out and that causes them to behave poorly when you put a glaze over them. If you're just looking for black or blue, you'd probably be better off making your own underglaze or slip. If you do want to use commercial underglazes, each color will need to be tested to see how it holds up and cone 10 and with your clear glaze.

Sourcing used bricks is becoming increasingly difficult since US manufacturing has been in decline for so long. You probably won't find any on FB or Craigslist, as those are listing by individuals. Instead, you want to look at industrial liquidations, commercial auctions, and even government surplus. Also contact manufacturers of refractories and see if they have factory seconds.

I'd go with the 325 unless it's really expensive compared to the other. The finer it is the easier it will enter the melt.

The thermocouple offset will effect everything. It makes the thermocouple read higher or lower. If your glaze firings are fine, then a cone offset would be the way to go to dial in your bisque firings, but do the pre-programmed firing first.

I'd start with just using the pre-programmed medium speed firing schedule in your controller. Those schedules work for most applications. If there are issues with the firing, then you at least have a simple baseline to start making adjustments from.

They won't be affected at all by 800 degrees. Dead relay in the kiln?

Another way to get some great colors is to use salt. Soak wood chips in a saturated salt water, let them dry, then use them in the saggar. It can give great red, yellow, and orange colors.

That's a steam explosion from firing too fast for the thickness of the piece, or the piece still being too wet. Let the piece dry completely, do a preheat for a couple hours. Be sure to vacuum out all the clay crumbs from the elements.

First, why vinegar in the throwing water? Usually when we see black on the wheel head it is simply a tiny bit of the aluminum abrading from the clay. Could just be the abrasion of the bat against the wheel. Does wiping it down not remove it?

Are you bisque firing first?

It's not about temperature, it's about heatwork, which is what cones measure. Setting it at 950C doesn't necessarily mean cone 08. It depends on the rate of climb of the final 100C degrees. If it's not hitting the cone, then it could be due to the rate of the final ramp, or simply that the system needs to be calibrated. You can do a thermocouple offset which will affect all temperatures, or a cone offset to change the final temp of a specific cone. Using the pre-programmed firing schedule (I'd use Medium speed) will give you a better idea of how accurately the system is firing compared to a custom schedule.

I'm voting iron as well. I think that also accounts for the pinkish tint in low fire bisque pieces. If we were able to have a slab that thick of our clear glazes we would also see it to varying degrees. Window glass is also green for that reason. It look pretty darn clear when we look through it, but if you put some paint on it you'll see just how much color it really has. They make super clear glass, of course, but it's expensive. If I remember correctly they call it Water White glass. Standard plate glass and such is quite green. I worked for a glass shop for a few years after grad school, and we would occasionally have to replace opaque colored glass panels on buildings that were no longer available from the original supplier, so we just had to paint the backsides. Getting an accurate color match was nearly impossible due to the tinting effect of the green. You couldn't just have the paint color matched to the old panel.

It's rate to just above cone 6, which means it'll only get to cone 6 maybe 50 times max before the elements need to be changed. Probably a lot less than that given the quality of the elements they are likely using. So to get any sort of real life from the elements you'll probably want to limit this to cone 2 at the most. Really we consider cone 6 kilns to be best suited for low fire work. I would definitely check to see if you can even get replacement elements for it. It appears to be on angle iron legs, but they're not very tall. Most kilns have 8" legs, so this kiln is on the short side and it should definitely need to be placed on something fireproof. If it were mine, I wold put it higher up on some bricks to give more air flow under it, with a fireproof floor below.

Pack the middle the tightest. Have you tried just using the cone 08 preprogrammed firing schedule?