elenab

Good news, learning is infinite. I fired a stoneware bowl with black Amaco glaze on it. Lots of bubbles, but no distortion of the shape. I was able to fire slowly to 1000C, but after that, I just couldn't control it - the speed of firing was much more than 50C per hour. I do not have a digital control, remind you. I tried to open the top peephole, open the lid a little, put it back on medium, and combine some of the above, but still, I wasn't able to get slow firing up at a temperature above 1000C. And that was my lesson. I am shopping for a controller now. I also wanted to mention, that it looks, like Bill said, that the last 200 degrees are what matters most. It took more than 14 hours for me to slowly bake my clay, but it didn't help because, in the last hours, my kiln wasn't cooperative.

this! is exactly what I was thinking when Pres said "SPOT ON', honestly, i got nervous. I don't know what it means. I am only learning how to 'cook' clay here.

Thank you, guys. Great links, Hulk. I checked my sitter, looks ok, and feels ok... For now, I will assume that the sitter is ok, I will slow down firing, accenting on medium heat, I will have one hole(top hole) open all the time while using the middle hole for the thermocouple. Would it be ok for the thermocouple to be near some draft air? We could make a new hole anywhere else in the kiln... I ordered witness cones, but I just couldn't digest the notion that one cone in the kiln sitter and another one on the shelf in a closed kiln with more than 1200C might behave differently, even taking into account that witness cones are melting in 9 d lower temperatures. I can't believe that 9 degrees makes my bowls melt and glaze bubbling... In both cases when I fire the kiln fast (overfiring) and slow, the difference between the witness cone and the sitter cone would be 9 degrees plus a few more because of the location of the witness cone. I believe in both cases witness cone is insignificant. The total difference will be too small compared to the final >1200 degrees. In my next firing, I will put sitter cone as a witness and I will measure the difference. Before the kiln sitters, how did potters control their firings? Did they have witness cones? Also, I do not understand the mechanics of using 3 witness cones. I do understand that cones can help to understand a heat 'map' of the kiln. I don't understand why to use 5,6,7 witness cones when firing to cone 6. Cone 7 will be always standing high, and cone 5 melted, am I right? Yesterday I found out about temperature measuring rings. They literally can measure the temperature of the items in the kiln. Now I realize that the temperature might not be the most important factor. In the firing process, what is the one main factor that is far more important than others? Is it a certain amount of heat 'spreaded' in a certain time? If the answer is yes, then all I need to do is to slow down the firing and wait for the witness/sitter cone to bend. If I fire fast with a witness cone 6, would my wares warp and glaze bubble?

Hello everyone! I had my pottery on hold for some time, but I started firing a few months ago and new problems emerged. Ironically, my kiln is overfiring now. I fire porcelain and stoneware cone 6 with Amaco glazes and glazes that I made, my bowls are warped and sagged, and the glaze is all bubbles. I understood that firing was too fast, my kiln gets to cone 6 temperature in 6 hours. I will fire slower next time. But for now, I would like to figure out how to find the true temperature of the kiln. I have a cheap pyrometer and thermocouple. I stopped using them because the pyrometer was showing a much higher temperature, which seemed unreal to me. However, we checked the wires on resistance (or something) and it was good. I thought of buying witness cones and using them with a pyrometer, recording the data, and using those temperatures for firing. Basically, it is ignoring the kiln sitter. But why would the kiln sitter allow overfiring? Should the holes be open all the time - would it stabilize even temperature in the kiln? I don't fire a lot, two or three bowls at a time, so there is a space for air circulation. Please, let me know if you have any suggestions. Thank you! https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B071V7T6TZ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1#customerReviews https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B07G39QSPD/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Cone 6 temperature. I don't measure the temperature, I only use a kiln sitter. My glaze is Amaco Snow, maybe it's a glaze?

The rod is 3/8" in diameter. It's a brass rod that turned out to be very soft for this job, it got bent and I wasn't able to use it with the drill after the first element. I winded the rest manually, but because I had made an attachment for winding, the coils turned out great. Yesterday I was glazing my wares. What a disaster... I believed Amaco and used the glaze straight from the jar inside of the bowl, but it turned out to be too thick, and my bowl was drying all night. Now I glazed the outside of the bowl with diluted glaze, it's still not great. I will have to sand it and apply the glaze with a brush. I checked videos on Youtube, potters show that the glaze is drying within seconds, mine doesn't even with severe dilution! and they never mention the type of clay they used and what type of glaze, is it because it doesn't matter? Sorry for this, I thought the hardest thing would be the elements, but turned out the elements were the easiest part...

Hi High Bridge and everyone! I am back with good news! last week I did firing with the new elements we made and my kiln reached cone 6 temperature in 4.5 hr, yay... I didn't buy 12 g wire, it was too expensive, instead, I bought 14 g, cut enough wire to make 8 ohms for each element, winded it, then stretched it to the length we needed, and installed it. Accidentally, the rod I was winding the wire on had a perfect size and fit perfectly. Later I realized that if the rod was bigger I would not be able to insert the elements in the grooves. Changing the elements was so much simpler than I feared. I probably was reading F.Olsen's book too much, lol. But after all the self-doubt I made my kiln work, and thank you for your support! Elena

Oh, thank you for the tip! Your math looks great. Thank you for everything, I will more confident now! will buy the wire and let you know when it's done.

8 / 0.3388 = 23.613m Unfortunately, it's feet not meters. If I am wrong I would be happy. But the inner diameter looks like 5 mm!

The existing wire is about 16 gauge, I just compared to wires I have at home. (I have Nichrome 12 ang 16 gauge) Here is the video where the guy make an element coil, he used wire of length 7 times longer than stretched coil. It seems Paragon didn't use Kanthal wire,

Hello guys, I am back. The beautiful gas kiln idea should wait until spring, at least. Meanwhile, I decided to try to make one element from Kanthal A wire., but something is not working with my math. I watched a few videos on how to make kiln elements, researched info on Kanthal wire and got a book by F. Olsen where he has a chapter on elements. I also called Paragon office, but they can't help me with information about wire for the elements. MY Paragon kiln A81B has 4 elements, 7200W, 30 amp, 240v. Each element should have 8 ohms. The stretched length of each coil is about 15' (one coil goes around in the kiln 3 times ) , straight wire should be about at least 5-7 times longer than the coil's length. But it's not achievable with Kanthal wire. Kanthal A wire gauge 13 will be only 47 feet. (8 ohms/ 0.169 = 47) Here is the wire chart: https://duralite.com/resistance-wire-specifications For example, Kanthal gauge 10 wire to have enough length (of 8ohms) to make a coil, but it will be a very thick wire. If my math is not wrong, can the new coil go around the kiln only once instead of 3 times? But I believe something is wrong with my math, it can't be that ( for the same amount of ohms) the longer the wire the thicker it is. thank you!

Thank you for the replies! Looks like the elements are dying. Sorry, my kiln didn't prove it's worth fighting for I like very much the idea of a gas kiln - no elements to get old or to replace. And it seems (from comments I found) faster in firing. ( I want to fire to cone 6) I found a group on facebook that is all about gas firing. At first I was scared of possibility of explosion, but my husband's reaction was different, so we will try. Thank you!

Hello, we checked the resistance, from the top to bottom elements have : 9.2, 5, 8.4 and 8.5 And High Bridge Pottery was guessing right - the cone was 04! Sorry I didn't pay attention to zero. The kiln had the same ware both times - two platters and one bowl. Seems pathetic, I know Plus, one of the platters (better looking one) cracked and broke.

It is true that all elements are old, I can see it by looking at them, lol. I just didn't want to invest a lot and at once. It seemed odd to us too that kiln reached the temperature so soon, With cone 6 firing - the kiln was working all the time, I was checking it often. But now, I just realised that cone 4 was old (it came with the kiln). Cone 6 , was bought not long time ago. Could it make a difference? My husband will check the resistance tomorrow. Thank you for your help!

Hello everyone, I got an old Paragon kiln A81B with a kiln sitter, I fired it for cone 6 and it never reached the right temperature, it was on for 24 hr. Then I tried to fire for cone 4 and it reached the temperature in about 2-3 hours. Would it be enough to change only one element for cone 6 firing? Also, because my kiln is outside (I am in Whitby Ontario) would it make difference to fire in warmer temperature ( it was - 5C when kiln was working)? Thank you so much! ( I am very new to pottery and had never fired kiln before) Elena