JohnnyK

I'm in the process of installing new kiln elements in my old Cress kiln and I've seen previous mentions of doing an empty kiln firing to break-in the new elements. I would guess that @neilestrickwould be the one most appropriate to chime in on the topic of a first-time firing process.
Thanks in advance for your input!

I do ALL my own work. Having been a remodeling contractor for almost 40 years, I've become skilled in almost all the building trades. On top of that, I have an innate skill for using my hands and mind to do pretty much anything. I just ordered a set of coils from Euclids for my old Cress FX23P and will be installing them as soon as I get them. I've also created a splash pan for my old CI wheel and have built an extruder for which I will soon be designing and adding an expansion box. I've also fabricated many tools that I had a need for like trimming and carving tools, banding wheels from old ceiling fans, etc. I also thought about making my own burnishing tools by creating useful shapes and glazing them as opposed to using random shaped polished rocks.
I guess I'm in the same boat with @Mark C., knowing how to do most everything necessary to make it as a potter 

If it similar to mine, the foot pedal can be taken apart by removing the pin that holds the top part of the assembly as shown in the photo below. That will give you access to the guts of the pedal. Your problem is probably with the way the white lever is acting with the gear on the potentiometer. Before you try to take it apart, MAKE SURE YOU UNPLUG THE WHEEL! These pix are of the guts of my pedal before I cleaned it up and got it working right. 

Good idea but Its taken care of.
I bought in 1983 3,000 pounds of Kingman feldspar in Kingman Az when it was going off market for for $300. in 100# bags. That lasted me until two months ago so potash feldspar has never been an issue for me . I still used some custar over that time as well. (I think I have a 50 # bag somewhere as well of Kingman with the az state map on it)
I had 4 bags of custar last week and bought out my local suppliers 5 bags so now have 450# of it and this next week I'm  heading south for a family gathering and will pick up at least 200#s from another supplier on way south  to Santa Barbara and My fall clay order of 3 tons of Pocrelain has another #200s of custar on the truck from Laguna and shows up Tuesday so I'll have #850 enough for my remaining days as a potter. Thanks for the idea but I covered my self on this one. Heck I may start selling grestly borate as I have a lifetime supply as well

For me it is the bottom of a plastic trash bucket that I cut and modified as a splash pan for my CI wheel, which was literally a "barn find" that I got from a friend. Another is the top of a plastic trash bucket that I use as a trimming shield for my Giffen Grip...another is an old ceiling fan that I turned into a banding wheel...

Check the manufacturer first. If they're super expensive then check Euclids.

The reason I asked for your firing schedule is I suspect a technical nuance is at play here. Cones deal in heatwork - time and temperature. Nothing new with that idea. If the ramp rate in the final 2 hours is aggressive (relative to the Orton table, which depending on who you ask, what book you read, or what kiln controller you have, medium speed to cone 6 is 120F/hr to 2232F), the cone bends at a higher final temperature, and vice versa, a slower ramp will bend the cone at a lower temperature. Nothing new with that idea either. Your ramp 5 is set for 200F/hr to 2200F, which is pretty aggressive. Putting that into the Orton cone calculation spreadsheet, that would give you a cone 5.5, and even the 20 minute hold doesn't quite get to 6. However, the nuance that isn't always seen is that as the elements wear with usage, the actual ramp rate attained by the worn elements falters (and in the most extreme case, simply can't heat the kiln in the final segment and the controller errors out). While the cone-fire programs in the Bartlett and Orton controllers have an adaptive feature that monitors the actual final ramp rate and adjusts the target temperature to produce a good cone bend, the custom ramp hold programs do not have that capability. In ramp hold, the controller will keep chugging until the programmed temperature is reached regardless of how long that might take (unless it determines the rate is futile and it errors out). As the elements wear, the final ramp rate slows down and the cone should bend at a lower temperature, but the controller keeps going until the programmed temperature, and now the cone is overfired. Going back to the Orton spreadsheet, a ramp of 100F/hr to 2200 with a 20 minute hold should give you a cone 7, which it did. So, my suspicion is that your elements are wearing out, the programmed 200F/hr final ramp rate is bovine droppings, it's actually only making 100F/hr, and from here, it will get worse. Check the resistance of the elements and be ready to replace them as they drop too far out of spec. In the short term, drop you final temperature to 2185F and that should give you a nice cone 6 when the kiln is chugging along at the best it can do.

I've got a waterproof heavy vinyl tile that is glued together. I installed it in the summer heat and in the winter it buckled on me in a few places. That's unusual because I would expect the opposite. When the summer came again, the floor flattened out. On the plus side, it is very easy to keep clean and mopping it is a breeze!

Before I transitioned to mixing my own from scratch, I used to order ART and Minnesota Clay glazes in 25# bags. This allowed me to mix what I needed from year to year, and not have problems with the glazes drying out or getting had in the bottom of a jar. This was long before Amaco came out with their Potters Choice line of glazes. I noticed that they offer these premixed and bulk bags also. If I were still using premixed glazes they would be a good option.
 
best,
Pres

I would have told myself to get involved sooner rather than waiting until I almost retired...

I am a brusher...that's how I first learned to glaze, and I've been doing so ever since. I don't produce enough to warrant the expense of the dipping glazes, nor do I have the space to store all the buckets. Granted, the brushing process is tedious and time consuming, but I couldn't get the Glaze FX that I produce by dipping. I primarily use Amaco's Potters Choice and Celadon glazes, and for the colors I use the most, I buy gallons, but I am starting to venture into mixing my own glazes. While buying glazes by the pint is relatively expensive, it gives me the opportunity to experiment with colors and layering to determine if buying gallons is feasible. Amaco has an excellent collection of layering outcomes with virtually all of their glazes and I use the works of other potters to help with layering endeavors. If I see something I like, I try to reproduce it initially with glazes I have in stock. If I find it particularly intriguing, and I don't have stock, I'll buy what I need to experiment., usually with positive outcomes...

99% Dipping, with some squirt bottle use on pots of a certain size. I don’t have the facilities or equipment to spray, and dipping gets a quick, easy application. I make enough stuff that brushing would be very impractical.
 

I am a brusher...that's how I first learned to glaze, and I've been doing so ever since. I don't produce enough to warrant the expense of the dipping glazes, nor do I have the space to store all the buckets. Granted, the brushing process is tedious and time consuming, but I couldn't get the Glaze FX that I produce by dipping. I primarily use Amaco's Potters Choice and Celadon glazes, and for the colors I use the most, I buy gallons, but I am starting to venture into mixing my own glazes. While buying glazes by the pint is relatively expensive, it gives me the opportunity to experiment with colors and layering to determine if buying gallons is feasible. Amaco has an excellent collection of layering outcomes with virtually all of their glazes and I use the works of other potters to help with layering endeavors. If I see something I like, I try to reproduce it initially with glazes I have in stock. If I find it particularly intriguing, and I don't have stock, I'll buy what I need to experiment., usually with positive outcomes...

some general ideas
If you fire with cones then you will minimize the chance things are severely over or under fired. So first question do you use cones and have you placed them in more than one location to get a sense of how evenly the kiln fires. What cone did this fire to?  The other thing that comes to mind is application thickness and the color of the clay body and it’s similarity to the glaze application examples. Did you apply similar to the manufactures recommendations? And not to forget to mention …….. reduction. Good reduction is an  acquired skill which usually takes some time to master. Reduction usually affects a handful of metals so glazes are usually formulated specifically for the reduction effects and then the firing is done verifying visually whether med / strong, early / late reduction was used for a desired result. So a reduction firing can muddy things up a bit but usually only affects specific characteristics of a glaze. In the beginning It’s rare just to fire to a schedule and succeed as intended at all these things simultaneously. Finally, test tiles - always use test tiles to confirm and dial in your desired look  / firing.
Many of these things require testing, isolating the result, and ………. experience. Seems like you are in the experience stage which unfortunately takes time. Tell us more about how you fire to cone, what is your schedule, maybe post a picture or two of the item(s) fired. How are you reducing and when do you reduce, why, etc…. Do you have successfully fired test tiles?  Folks here can help troubleshoot and hopefully decrease that experience timeline or at least decrease the bad experience timeline.

I have also found that a small coffee grinder works pretty well.

I have 2 of those that I picked up at a thrift store for $5 apiece. I also use a small coffee grinder for turning hardened glazed into powder, also around $5...

I have 2 of those that I picked up at a thrift store for $5 apiece. I also use a small coffee grinder for turning hardened glazed into powder, also around $5...

I have 2 of those that I picked up at a thrift store for $5 apiece. I also use a small coffee grinder for turning hardened glazed into powder, also around $5...

Make sure the Kiln Sitter timer is not at zero.

Well...try as I might, there was no way to remove the wheel head without doing major damage to the assembly. Since the wheel head is some sort of plastic (almost like Bakelite), I took a sander to the high spots and attached a Corian bat to it. Now the wheel head runs true.

Well...try as I might, there was no way to remove the wheel head without doing major damage to the assembly. Since the wheel head is some sort of plastic (almost like Bakelite), I took a sander to the high spots and attached a Corian bat to it. Now the wheel head runs true.

Well...try as I might, there was no way to remove the wheel head without doing major damage to the assembly. Since the wheel head is some sort of plastic (almost like Bakelite), I took a sander to the high spots and attached a Corian bat to it. Now the wheel head runs true.

Instead of using a porcelain I would use some of the raku body made into a slip then sieved to get the grog out of it. (60 mesh sieve should be fine enough) Get the slip on the outside of the pot as soon as possible to avoid issues with the slip shelling off or cracking.
edit: I looked up white raku clays in Australia and a quick search brought up this one, might be worth a try if the one you are using isn't white.

I went from firing three manual kilns to,  a LL with Genisis controller,  a Paragon Caldera test kiln with a Genisis controller and a small Duncan manual kiln.   I decided to go with the controllers because of my age and my MS,  I was afraid I would forget that I was firing.   The last couple of months I have had trouble with my memory and concentration,  I managed to get through a manual firing and a controller firing.  It really scared me how fuzzy my brain was,  it was a MS relaspe.  They can last several months or never clear up,  my brain is clear now .   I am so happy that I have automated  my home and studio.    Denice

Check to see if your new digital timer has the capability to develop User Programs. My after-market Orton does, and I've set up a couple of John Britt's programs as well as a couple of my own. You should be able to do so with yours and incorporate all the steps that you used in your manual firings...