missholly

its reclaimed.

the molds are flipped and drained, and almost immediately, cracks all the way through form. i made the slip. ive used this slip before with no problems. ive tried adding water, taking all the water out. i havent used the viscosity cup or hydrometer.

when my slip molds are drying, the clay cracks all the way through the ware. i tried lowering the water content and adding sodium silicate, but it didnt help. help?

well, i got the tool today and it places the rod exactly where it was. this means, it isnt going to fire incorrectly for the 9th time. can i give up now?

thanks so much for the advice, neil. i will try again!!

nielestrick, it did the same thing before i changed out the elements. my kiln isnt that big, so not filling the top and bottom to capacity frustrates me. i was hoping the new elements would change that. when i do load the middle full and not so full on the top/bottom, its still guesswork. things still come out incorrectly. rockhopper, hi fellow ohioan. where are you located? im in zanesville, an hour east of columbus. my 3 cone in the sitter was severely bent. i also replaced the sitter rod mechanism, so thats new. (im not sure what its called) and the 5 switches dont have a high/low option. just on/off. and i do stagger. bottom switch, wait 1/2 hr, up one switch, wait 1/2 hr. i tried firing it top/bottom switch, wait 1 hour, 2nd one up/2nd one down, wait 1 hour, then middle. that did nothing. and yes, it was a cone 3 in the sitter. perkolator, i spoke with a tech at evenheat (where i got the elements) he was pretty confused and didnt know what to say for awhile. he then suggested the trigger plate adjustment, which i did, but wasnt informed of that tool dealio. ill try that. i appreciate everyones thoughts. thank you for your time!!

do brand new kilns offer even heating? im so fed up with losing work that im ready to give up. how are you supposed to get an accurate temp when the difference between testing an empty kiln and a full kiln is HUGE?

ok, so i test fired with cones 2, 3, 4 and a 3 in the sitter. 1 set on top, middle, bottom. i put a few pieces of broken pottery around so it wasnt firing empty. the only cone that bent was the 2 in the middle. its obviously a huge difference in firing a kiln full or empty. so do i have to sacrifice an entire load of work just to get an accurate test?

it is a gare 1822 with 5 switches. it didnt matter where each of the 5 elements went, this is the info the manufacturer gave me. i know its over firing because its doing exactly the same thing as when i fired in another kiln (that was overfiring) so i just dropped another $30 on 3 boxes of cones, so once i test fire and see that it is overfiring, then what? all i found on my own was that you can slide the triangle shaped kiln sitter cone to adjust for temp, but along with everything else, its a guess.

hellooo again.... i FINALLY got all of my elements replaced and now the middle of my kiln is overfiring. just enough to crack the bottoms of things. is there a way to adjust anything? something? somewhere? i tested a ^06 firing empty and the cones bent perfectly. now im firing to ^3 and things are coming out slightly warped and the bottoms are cracking. ive been packing the kiln as full as i can. i havent tested the ^3 firing with the free standing cones yet to see how off it is. any thoughts?

great! thanks!

thanks for the info!!

so, is it possible to retro fit an electric kiln to be used via propane?

ooh, i kind of like the generator idea. or maybe just connecting to the grid for kiln purposes. the propane might work too. thanks for all of the ideas. its a really good thing i have a very good friend who is an electrician! i guess i have some homework to do!!

im planning on building an off the grid sustainable home. can an electric kiln be run off of solar power?