Roberta12

So here’s the new plug, you can see how they shaved off the cord exterior. The original plug was obviously the same color as the cord, not black. Talked to the business I bought the kiln from and they agreed the electricians had no reason to do this and should take responsibility for it. The owner of the electrician business bought me a new skutt kiln power cord and is ordering the correct receptacle and will install both on Monday. Thank you for your insights, very much appreciated!! Still can’t believe they cut my plug off lol!!

Yes I second this -its unprofessional -Tell them its voids your warrenty and insist they make it right

I'd be mad. They should have installed the outlet to match your kiln, not modify your kiln without asking you. It's pure laziness, and because they modified it, they may have voided the warranty and/or UL listing. Make them replace the outlet with a 6-50 and make them buy and install a new power cord.

No amount of lead is safe, so says the WHO, CDC, State agencies, etc.

Hi Kelly and welcome to the forum! Congrats on your new kiln.
My first thought is there might have been a programming error. What temperature did the controller say the kiln reached with the cone 5 firing?
BTW- It's actually good that you did a slow firing with an empty kiln for the first firing as it conditions the elements. Building up an oxidized layer on the elements by doing an empty kiln firing will help with element life. 
 

Oooooo I know this one.  I had exactly the same issue when I used speckled bmix.  It's overfired.  That was part of my descent into the rabbit hole of "your kiln may be overfiring".  I fired to cone 6 as I normally had been and had the same result as you did. Lots and lots of little pimples.    My supplier had said that clay was cone 5/6.  I called Laguna.  They said that clay is only happy at cone 5.  I started putting cones in every single load and discovered cone 6 on my kiln was more like cone 7.  after more than a year of personal kiln research, I have happily fired speckled b mix at cone 5.  Your photo looks just like my overfired pieces.  As @Hulk suggested  cones on every shelf.  That will give you good information.  I have used Laguna Speckled buff for years.  It is a very forgiving clay.  It can easily go to cone 6 if necessary.  Speckled B mix is a different story.  Cone 5 only.
Roberta

I've had glazes with wollastonite agglomerate in the bucket over time, I usually find it had done this when I go to dip and pot and find a raised hard bit on the surface. The bits are little, about the size of a pinhead. If the first pot shows one of these then I re- sieve the glaze and usually find a few more. I would hazard a guess that they won't fire out but remain as a hard little pinhead sized bit on the fired glaze if they aren't removed.

Hi all, 
A quick update.  I sanded the pots and refired.  The bumps were white and hard in texture.  Somewhat difficult to remove.   I was able to cover them with glaze, but the finished results (where my brush strokes are visible) are not to my liking.  
I have put a fresh load in the kiln today (that I glazed a few days ago). I noticed when putting them in that there were some hard dots on one of the plates.  These wouldn't bother me in a dipping glaze (they would melt and blend in) but I'm wondering if in Stroke and Coat, with its lack of movement, these are the culprit?  Maybe they are bits of dry glaze that I've picked up during a long painting session? Maybe they are small pieces of dry glaze from the bottle (I do try and get every last bit out!) 
So, my working theory for now is that these lumps may actually be from the glaze. This time I've rubbed them out with my finger before firing.  Hopefully I'll see better results after this firing! 
K

It’s odd, for sure. The only times I’ve had something like this is when some material in my glaze was not ground fine enough or not dispersed well enough. Sieving it well fixed the issue. I’ve had tin and wollastonite do this. But you’re not making your own glaze, that’s what catches me off guard. For the people considering this problem, could materials agglomerate or crystallize in a glaze that’s sat around long enough and cause this? 

You definitely need to get some self standing cones and calibrate the new kiln. I bought a kiln a few years ago and had to go through this process. Technical, but not complicated. When you bought the kiln did you get the optional Genesis controller, or does it have the Bartlett controller? My solution to my problem turned out to be the kiln was overfiring cone 6 about 35 degrees. I put a -35 degree offset in the cone offset section of the Genesis controller, after 2 smaller tries working up to that. The cone offset is only for that cone, so I also set an offset for the 06 cone. This is different from a thermocouple offset as that is just when one area is over/under firing. I used self standing cones for my tests, as it was just easier. Since I was targeting only two cones, bisque and glaze I only bought a box of each.
Good luck, get the cones!
best,
Pres

My dog Bruiser is a blanket baby, being possessed of little fur. (He’s a boston/pug cross). So he doesn’t like coming into the basement studio unless it’s high summer and too hot anywhere else. He’s not much of a studio assistant.
This thing here, however, keeps trying to sleep on the reclaim bed that’s covered with a sheet, is deeply fascinated by both throwing and trimming, and keeps trying to go for a swim in my slip/glaze buckets. I present to you all my first-ever cat, Nippet. 
She would like to be deeply involved in all pottery processes, and has appointed herself official studio cat.

"...fresh air into the  house somewhere. A lot of it!"
Indeed; what provision for makeup air?

First idea that hits me, which model exhaust is yours and is it set up for 115 or 230v? I agree 1700 + cfm will seem to suck the chrome off a bumper.
The air gets sucked out of the spray booth so if all else fails if the motor is blowing in, you will need to flip it but I believe you have it right. Motor drive side is the inlet. Now to use this you will need to let fresh air into the  house somewhere. A lot of it!

+1 for what Rockhopper said.
Couple other points, I've seen 2 brands of commercial underglaze transfers rub off at bisque temps, these in particular needed to go to cone 6 either with or without a covering glaze to be stable. Also, unless you fire the underglaze on the pot the water from applying the underglaze transfer could well disrupt the underglaze layer.
Yes as long as they are fired to at least the cone the manufacturer has them rated for.
For cleaning purposes then yes I would liner glaze the pot, however a clay intended to hold liquids shouldn't weep / leak even without any glaze inside. I can't speak to non fired products used to seal the clay. If you only use a ceramic glaze on the inside it needs to fit the clay well or you can get dunting from the tension between the inside and outside surfaces of the clay surfaces.

Personal use ok. If can hold liquid, or food, and for sale you lose control of use so...clear glaze allover imo

Cool mixer,  I haven't seen one like that before,  it would be much easier to clean.   When I started working with clay at home,   I had a small table that folded down on the wall, folding chair, bucket, wooden thumb,  old steak knife and sponge  and a small paragon kiln.   I shared a single car garage with my husband who worked on cars in the garage.  Everything had to fold away  so he could have room to work.  My current abundant supply of tools has happened over the last 50 years,  I haven't thrown any of them away.   I think I'll give them to my son as his inheritance.  Denice

Even keeping the tools to a minimum it sure takes a lot of stuff to run a pottery doesn't it!
On a side note, I have used the metal paint mixers for glazes for quite some time but recently found some odd little shavings of plastic in my glaze. Guess I wore the mixers edges down enough so that they got sharp and started shaving the sides of my buckets. A few months ago I switched to one of these plastic octopus type stir whip ones, seems to be working well without cutting up my buckets or making air bubbles in the glaze.
 
. 

@Callie Beller Diesel Yes! The sturdy drill with a mixer. Indispensable tool. 

Heat pumps are great-I have installed two Mr Cool units and I'm putting in a third this summer. Not needed a studio one yet but might if it gets any hotter or Natural gas prices soar again. We use the Kitchen one daily in winter.

A drill that can stand up to grout mixing and a paint mixing bit if you’re going to do slurry reclaim. 

Well fitted dust mask (P100 by 3M in size medium), kiln glasses*, safety glasses.
OptiVisor (magnification), adjustable/desk lamps, spot lamps, and area lighting.
New studio will have a heat pump! !!
The weather here is significantly hotter and colder than where we were afore.
Insulation against cold floor/slab and alloy castings (foot control) - rubber mats, bubble wrap.
Shelving, pegboard, countertop/work surfaces...
Drill bits (twist), calipers (cheap plastic ones), ball point pens, many buckets (2.5 quart, 1 gallon, 2 gallon, 5 gallon), large sponges (big!), notebooks.
Home made trimming tools (from hacksaw blades), repurposed items as ribs, stick tools, pointer tools...
"Ditto" everything already mentioned, with extra nods to music/sound, mop bucket, dremel, diamond dust discs, clean rags/cloths, closed container for dirty cloths (anything with even the Smallest Amount of dried clay on't, in there, else wetted).
*protection against harmful rays when looking into the kiln via peeps, and, And, protection against any superheated flying bits.
Welding glasses of proper darkness/tint, with side shields, that's what I'm using, hence, not strictly a pottery tool...

I use my bench grinder all the time for glaze runs (green course stone) and then two small dremal tools to clean up with. 
My angle grinder for shelves and bricks
Rubbing stone to smooth pot bottoms
and yes on the surform for trimming  as well. 
300 disc CD player as well as Pandora piped into studio and kiln area -must have for me on sperate volume controls

I agree with everything stated. I would add surform.  I use mine a lot for trimming.   

I agree with everything stated. I would add surform.  I use mine a lot for trimming.   

I agree with everything stated. I would add surform.  I use mine a lot for trimming.