Jump to content

Drilling Holes In My E18 L&l For Air Inlets.


Recommended Posts

So I am reading L&L's manual they say the following:

 

Holes may be drilled in the lid brick at any time if later found necessary. If you decide to drill holes in the lid start with a 1/4†diameter hole drilled about 4 inches in from an edge of the lid (and then add other holes as necessary in the back of the lid and then on the sides). BE SURE NOT TO DILL ANY HOLES WITHIN 6†OF THE THERMOCOUPLES. You do not want cold air flowing onto the thermocouples.

 

That is a pretty vague description of where to drill a hole. Does that mean Drill them 4 inch's down from the lid on the first part of the kiln body. Or does that mean 4 inches from the top of the lid towards the inside. Or does it mean 4 inches down in the lid through the metal rim holding it? Or something else?

 

Anyone have any recommendations? Cause I think I need a bit more air coming into my kiln. I did the smoke test and only a few places are pulling, and the clay body I am working with I think needs more oxygen during my bisque.
 

So attached below. Are any of these locations right. They say it needs to be 6 inches from the thermo couple, but thats pretty tough to do on the front. It seems like it would make more sense for me to drill on the back first.

 

Edit: Obviously B is the wrong place because its not 4 inches from the Rim. So I am still confused. Where does one drill the first hole?

post-63346-0-30341600-1425083139_thumb.jpg

post-63346-0-30341600-1425083139_thumb.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Reason I want to drill a hole:

 

I have been working with a black clay and I cannot get rid of the bloating. I have went around my kiln with burning paper with the vent on, and it really doesn't suck in a huge amount. It is very tightly made. I think my main problem is that I am not getting enough oxygen into the bisque firing. I have altered my bisque firing several times and even created a custom schedule that spent 7 hours between 1000-1650F, then 80 an hour till cone 04. I still had bloating issues. I have tried cooking the clay to cone 5 and still have bloating. I have verified all these firings with self supporting cones on all 3 levels of my kiln. 

 

I am at a loss as to what else it could be besides not getting enough air into my kiln. I read somewhere that Neil had to drill a hole in his L&L because it was tightly made like mine was. So I figured maybe I would give that a shot.

 

Edit: Mark G, for some reason I got an email saying you replied, but your reply isn't showing up. So I just went ahead and posted the reason I want to drill a hole.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

can you take a peep plug out?

 

edit=--you have a sectional, mine gets plenty of air in... I cant get that Raven to stop bloating either... its super gassy..

have you tried ^5 then glazing it and going back to ^5? I have not tried that yet, if that don't work im done!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd like to see examples of the bloating. 

Does it always bloat:  on the interior?  

                                  on the thickess parts?  (trim more in that area) 

                                  on all forms?  (bowls and cylinders)

                                  on gifts or special pieces (otherwise known as the kiss of death) :>0

Are you able to add a smidgen of clay that doesn't bloat without losing the effect you want?

Can you fire to cone 4.5?

Just wondering.

Alabama

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have made plates tiles bowls cups and lumps, it bloats on everything. Super thin and super thick. It bloats on bottom, interior, outside, rims handles every where. 

 

As for the small amount of clay, crusty used it as slip and still got small gas bubbles. 

 

I appreciate the help, but I have tried everything I know how to do at this point it has to be something with the bisque.

 

I want to make functional ware with it and it is a cone 6 clay body, so 4.5 wouldn't really do it justice, and I know its possible at 6. Stone Mountain Clay has tons of it cooked to 6, or so they say atleast. I am just taking their word.

 

Also I have cooked it at 5, and still bloating. I have a thread with examples here:

 

http://community.ceramicartsdaily.org/topic/7599-black-raven/page-3

 

and here is a link to the test tiles that have bloating. http://s1183.photobucket.com/user/josephrosenblatt/slideshow/Black%20Raven%20Test

 

I think my problem is that the clay needs a ton of burn off time, and I am not getting enough fresh air into the kiln. I mean I know I am getting air into the kiln and I know my vent is working. I have checked the seals around the vent and I can put a flame to the kiln and doesn't suck the flame in. I also do a smoke test and nothing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So I just went around my entire kiln with a burning paper towel, putting off tons of smoke. only in 1 place did it barely pull in any smoke. I would say ok, my vent is broken or something, but when I hold it like 6 inchs from the vent adjustment it sucks it in that far away. Also I used to smell tons of stinky stuff burning, now that I have my vent I smell nothing while I am in my garage when my kiln is going. So I know my vent works, the problem is it just doesn't have enough airflow. I have a crapply made video that shows this. I could post it.

 

I found Neil's post here : http://community.ceramicartsdaily.org/topic/7267-diy-downdraft-vent/?p=69262

 

 That said, I did have to drill a single hole in the lid of my E18T-3 because kilns that small tend to be tighter than larger kilns and it just wasn't getting enough air to vent properly. 

 

 

I have this same kiln.

 

Here is the crappy video: I know its not the best but it just shows an example of how nothing goes in. http://tinypic.com/r/15mhjyh/8

 

Before I recorded this I went around the entire kiln doing the same thing and no where did the abundance of smoke go in. At the vent box on the bottom it went straight in from as far as 5-6 inches away. Also when I took out a peep hole it sucked it right in. 

 

AFK to take a shower now, I smell like burnt paper towel.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So I am reading L&L's manual they say the following:

 

Holes may be drilled in the lid brick at any time if later found necessary. If you decide to drill holes in the lid start with a 1/4†diameter hole drilled about 4 inches in from an edge of the lid (and then add other holes as necessary in the back of the lid and then on the sides). BE SURE NOT TO DILL ANY HOLES WITHIN 6†OF THE THERMOCOUPLES. You do not want cold air flowing onto the thermocouples.

 

 

 

Does that mean Drill them 4 inch's down from the lid on the first part of the kiln body.  No! that's not in the lid.

 

 

 

 

My kiln has a hole (and appropriate plug) the same size as the peep-holes on the side at the centre of the lid, in your situation I think I'd be inclined to fit one of those rather than be drilling random holes all over the lid.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't want to drill random holes, that was just a diagram asking which place was correct cause I was confused as to their description. But the Skutt manual cleared it up. I know where I will drill my 1 hole now. I am going to smoke test again today one more time before I do it.

 

The size of a peephole seems way too big to me, but I don't know. Thanks for your help.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Instead of drilling a hole just leave the upper spy plug very loose and see if that helps your bowling issue.

You can do this without drilling that hole in a new kiln lid.

My guess is your dark clay body which is full of colorants which is bloating will still be an issue. Make sure you are not stacking this body tight when bisquing. These saturated dark bodies can cause issues as they over saturated to begin with.

Mark

Link to comment
Share on other sites

this is a great forum.  it has lots of people who have lots of ideas.

 

 B U T !  you have a question whose answer is readily available through the source who knows it all.  use the telephone to call L & L.  talk directly to the technical expert who knows exactly what to tell you to do about putting holes in your kiln.  

 

you also said you have seen the black clay done correctly.  find out who did it and talk to them. electronic media is now so prevalent that talking is out of fashion.  sometimes it is just better to go to the source and talk. 

 

the world is heading toward an electronic tower of Babel.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The smaller L&L kilns are quite tight. I had to drill the lid on my e18T-3. You want the hole(s) in the lid out near the edge, about 4 inches in so it clears the wall brick. 1 hole should do it. You can also adjust the draw of the vent by moving the sliding damper on the vent box under the kiln.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Step 1:  you also said you have seen the black clay done correctly.  find out who did it and talk to them. 

 

  Step 2.:  when in doubt refer to step 1

 

I'm not convinced holes need to be drilled.  Are you drilling holes to allow air in? or out?  Either way you're

exchanging heat for cold air which is going to slow down the length of firing time.

 

To find out more about bloating, I went to the Ceramics Monthly Book of Questions and answers.  It basically said,

that bloating is caused from many variables and its up to the potter to find out which variable to change/alter to

fix the problem.  When we had bloating problems at the college, we changed clays and the bloating went away.

 

If I were having this problem, I might: change to another black clay.

                                                         make a sagar and fire inside

                                                         mix some good clay into the Raven clay

                                                         Refer to step 1

 

Maybe its just me, but it sounds as though you have a clay issue and you're trying to fix the kiln. :)

Good luck,

Alabama

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Alabama,

 

I am trying to fix my kiln, my kiln isn't working properly for the clay that I am bisqueing. When you are firing a bisque you need fresh oxygen coming into the kiln. Particularly when firing clays that are full of junk such as black clays and dark brown clays. Right now, I am sucking out all those gasses, but I don't have any oxygen coming into my kiln. I have tested numerous times with smoke and direct flames all around my kiln in every location that air could go in. I have had 0 success getting smoke to go into my kiln, which means fresh air isn't coming into my kiln for the chemical reactions to take place for burnoffs to occur properly. 

 

I could just change clays, I have plenty of different clays none of them bloat except the black clay, but the thing is, I want to work with the black clay, not the other clays, so changing clays really isn't an option for me.

 

I have read about every source I could find on the internet about bloating, and almost all of them say you need to have the kiln in a very saturated oxidation during the bisque firing.

 

I have emailed L&L about the subject and this morning they replied with: we reached out to some people who fire dark brown/black clays. Their source said that they fire with peepholes open/peeps out with the vent on during the bisque firing process to rid their clay of bloating. Some even drilled multiple holes in the kiln lid and left the peepholes open because their clay was so full of junk that had to have fresh oxygen coming in to cause the reactions to burn off correctly. After doing this their bloating went away.

 

They also stated that they had to adjust their TC's in some circumstances because of all the fresh air cooling the TCs and the kiln over firing because of it.

 

I thank everyone for their support in helping me overcome this problem. I am going to try firing with my peepholes open first and go from there. 

 

I have a lot of testing to do. = )

Link to comment
Share on other sites

>> I have tested numerous times with smoke and direct flames all around my kiln in every location that air could go in. I have had 0 success getting smoke to go into my kiln<<<

Hey,

I don't know alot about electric kilns, but its unlikely any smoke will go into a kiln unless it is drawn in by a

draft.  I think the principle of latent heat transfer says that "hot goes to cold".  So if the kiln is on and the

heat coming from the inside is hotter than the smoke, it can't go inside.  If you want to see how sealed the kiln

is I'd throw some pinestraw inside and fire it up, then look for smoke coming out.

Be prepared to clean up a mess.;>)

Alabama

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The thing is I am testing my vent with the kiln off at 80 degrees and no smoke goes in.

 

Find a small crack and put a smoldering match right there. You have to do it with all the peep hole plugs in or it will spoil the draft. If it's not drawing in, the I would check that the holes in the bottom of the kiln are not blocked, then adjust the slider on the vent box on the bottom of the kiln. It shouldn't need to be closed more that about 60% on a kiln that small. Also check outside to make sure the vent is exhausting properly. If it's smelly while firing, put one 1/4" hole in the lid and try it again. You shouldn't need more that 2 holes in a kiln that size.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.