MR. BUBBLES Posted July 8, 2012 Report Share Posted July 8, 2012 I have an old style kiln with four switches and a kiln sitter. It's rated for up to cone 8. How many hours should I wait between switch flipping for my cone 6 stuff. I want to prevent pinholes and bubbles. I was told to flip one every hour but I'm not to sure about that. One an hour seems kind of quick? My clay is standard #213 and #225. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OffCenter Posted July 8, 2012 Report Share Posted July 8, 2012 I have an old style kiln with four switches and a kiln sitter. It's rated for up to cone 8. How many hours should I wait between switch flipping for my cone 6 stuff. I want to prevent pinholes and bubbles. I was told to flip one every hour but I'm not to sure about that. One an hour seems kind of quick? My clay is standard #213 and #225. If it has been bisqued, then I don't see why you don't just turn it on high and see how the glazes look. (Call it a test firing and don't put your best stuff in). Then decide if you need to ramp up and/or down some. The glazes may come out a little better if you at least slow the cooling from 6 to 4 a little. You'll probably get advice to ramp up slowly and even more slowly down, but that is easy to over-do and very often a waste time and energy. For example I used a pretty complicated program of holds and slow heating up and cooling down for a while for some glazes that I had read needed this complicated cycle to look their best but then when my computerized kiln broke down just as I was getting ready for a show, I had to use a kiln without a computer so decided to just fire full blast to cone 7 instead of 6. To my great joy, I couldn't tell a bit of difference between pots that had been fired with lots of holds and slow ramps and the pots that had been fired as quickly as possible one cone higher than target cone and then cooled as quickly as possible. Obviously, some glazes do need the slow cool and/or some holds and ramps, but most don't. It's the heat-work that is important, not your creativity with firing programs, so the extra heat-work from going one cone higher sometimes does the same thing as all the holds and slow heating and slow cooling. Jim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Oz Posted July 9, 2012 Report Share Posted July 9, 2012 All the manual kilns I've used, one switch an hour was the recommendation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TJR Posted July 10, 2012 Report Share Posted July 10, 2012 Lucky you! Those switches never wear out. Start with the bottom switch, click one on every hour. You may want to leave your spies out for the first hour, but not crucial. TJR. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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