yappystudent

Excellent!

How's it going???

It's going! I don't want to jinx anything. 

Yeah, neighbours can be tricky, want to get along with them but not be taken advantage of. 

Where did you decide to put the new kiln? Last word I saw, you couldn't put it in the shed. 

 Still unsettled as to it's final location. 

Congrats! Good choice! 

Make sure you get a kiln that is in sections, they are easier to rewire.  I have had a big Skutt for thirty years,  the only thing that bothers me is that I have had to replace the lid three times.  L &L kilns lists  scratch and dent  kilns on there web site,  the government auctions is also a good place to look.  I missed out on a good one near me, they were clearing out a ceramics studio at a air force base.  They sold 3 computer control Skutt for a couple of hundred a piece.   Good Luck.   Denice

A very worthwhile, and rewarding, purchase.  Congrats!

I like Skutt, and they do their job.  If I had money to spare, I'd probably go for a L&L.  But then I'd also go for a Thomas Stuart wheel, a wall mounted clay extruder, a slab roller a...

My first classroom kiln was a Skutt, computer controlled.  It worked well, but it seemed to burn through elements quickly, and that was at Cone 04 max.  I was a that District for six years.  The elements had went bad twice, in that time. 

My second District, used two Skutts, with kiln sitters and a back up timer.  They worked great.

My kiln at home is a Skutt, with just the sitter.

My current classroom kiln is a L&L, computer controlled, and I can't think of anything bad to say about it.  It fires spot on every time.  The computer controlled Skutt I used previously, I would occasionally have some glazes that didn't quite mature, leaving bubbles, that didn't have time to smooth out.  I will say, the height of the kiln, with the stand, requires me to stand, on the stand, to reach the bottom.  Obviously that means, that I have plenty of space for student projects, but it also means, that I have to hang over the edge to load some projects...

Regardless of what you get, I have no doubt you will be happy with your purchase.

Make sure you think about what your end goal is for how large of things you want to fire. I have a little kiln and its brilliant and I love it, but I can't make big platters or tall vases. In retrospect, I wish I would have gotten either wider or taller, but not much bigger. That being said any kiln is 100% better than no kiln, or a kiln you don't have control over the firings. 

Before you even start looking at kilns you have some research to do.  Wiring and location to start with and if you have a location will you be living at that location that it would be worth the cost of setting up a kiln.  Sometimes it is cheaper to take a pottery class where you can have work fired when your in limbo.  I  have bought two used kiln and one new test kiln in the last 45 years.   My paragon has finally gotten too old to rebuild and I just rewired my Skutt.   I use a dual digital Skutt thermocouple set up if I want to do any down firing.   Like I said a lot of research to do.   Denice

I can't imagine the time and work involved in doing a 4 hr round trip every time I wanted to fire pots. The control to fire how you want to, the convenience, glazes not getting dinged in the transport etc would make your life so much easier if you had your own kiln.

Agreed. 

I buy a few things from them.  Looks like a fabulous operation.  Nice you are close enough to go there.

If you ever get a chance be sure to hit them in person with enough time to browse, we only had about 20 min before they closed. I heard the one in Portland is bigger and better.