neilestrick
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Posts posted by neilestrick
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6 minutes ago, sunil6784 said:
Interior height is 18 inches, plus 9 inches for the top ring.
Most likely the 45 amps is for the entire thing, as that would be a typical amperage draw for a 23x27 kiln. To be 100% sure you'd need to measure the resistance of the elements, but I'd be pretty confident that the entire setup is 45 amps. So you'll need a 60 amp breaker, 6 gauge wire. It's a 3 wire system- 2 hots and 1 ground, no neutral. Should have a NEMA 6-50 plug/outlet.
How's the condition of the jumper cord that connects the two sections? If it's the old cloth wrapped stuff or the plug is looking corroded I would change it out. You'd need a 12 gauge cord for that 15 amp section. Put some insulating sleeves on the wire ends inside the box. If the plug is corroded I would also replace the outlet it plugs into. That would be a 20 amp 240 volt outlet.
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@sunil6784 Also, what is the total interior height of the kiln sections? 27" base plus a 9" ring, or a 18" base with a 9" ring?
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Post a pic of the serial plates.
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Can you please define draft angle? And will this be sculptural or will it serve a function? A drawing, maybe?
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Looks like typical thickness blowouts to me. I've seen them in that location before. I'm surprised that the preheat didn't prevent it, but that could be related to the location in the kiln, stacking, and how quickly the firing ramped after the preheat.
- Babs and Kelly in AK
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26 minutes ago, davidh4976 said:
I was working on the kiln this morning and found that the bolts holding the power cable to the controller were a bit loose and the insulation at the end of the cable next to the lugs were a bit charred. Does not appear to be shorting out to anything. Would that loose connection, at the kiln end of the power cord, cause intermittent tripping of the breaker?
Usually when connections overheat like that it reduces the power draw, however if it it arcing then it's possible that it could cause the breaker to blow. I would cut back the power cord to fresh wire and reinstall it and see if that solves the problem. If not then replace the breaker.
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15 minutes ago, menasco said:
Thanks for the explanation. I found the post by Dana Stripe with great step by step details.
Billy
Dana's build is really nice, but it doesn't have to be that complex. They used solid state relays, which are sexy, but don't give you any real benefits in terms of firing. SSR's also complicate the build because they have additional cooling requirements. If you're familiar with SSR systems then by all means go for it, but otherwise I would just do a mechanical relay that can handle the amperage of the whole system (usually needs a pilot relay, too), and make a simple single zone setup.
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There are 2 elements per ring in a Skutt kiln. Each element loops twice. On low the switch sends power through both elements in series, creating 1/4 the available power. On medium it send power through one element, so 1/2 power. On high it turns on both elements in parallel for full power. The controller regulates the temperature by cycling the relays/elements on and off. However you can't just swap the Sitter with a controller and put some relays in the box. The existing box is not made to house a digital system. It's not vented well enough and there's no heat baffle. If you want to convert it to a digital system you'll need to build a separate box and mount it to the wall. The kiln plugs into the box and the box plugs into the outlet. Look at the Skutt KM-1 wall mount controller as an option. That type of system uses one big relay to run everything rather than individual relays for each section. Or you can buy a complete new digital box from Skutt, with their controller. For the money I'd replace the whole box so you don't have to deal with having the manual system and the digital system.
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I've had good luck with the connectors you show above, and ConeArt uses them in all their kilns. Are those tinned copper? I usually use raw copper, as does ConeArt. Not sure if that matters or not. One tip, make sure you're putting the wire at the bottom in the V and the element at the top, so the bolt pushes on the element. That'll give a tight connection. You may also need to re-tighten them after the first few firings just to be safe.
Bending the end of the element into a circle and putting a bolt through it is a great connection. Use stainless steel, put a washer on each side, use a lock washer, and connect the feeder wire to it with a high temp ring terminal. Totally old school and very good. I'd use a 10-24 bolt.
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Lots of great discussion here, but we still don't know what the blowouts look like, where they were on the piece, etc. OP has abandoned us. Personally, I've never considered compression to be the cause for blowouts. They are typically caused by foreign bodies in the clay or moisture. I don't see why compression, platelets alignment, etc, would cause a section to violently separate from the piece.
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GFCI outlets are not recommended for use with kilns. See HERE.
- Bill Kielb and SolidCitizen
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@THW Aha! It's not an 8 tab, it's a 6 tab with a double connector. Okay, so that all good then. We just couldn't tell from the photo. In that case double check all the crimps and see if that helps. A bad crimp could definitely cause the relay to overheat and fail.
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6 minutes ago, Jameshayward said:
I’m tryimg to upload pics, but having tech difficulties, apologies.
Try again. I approved your account.
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@Bubba The plug definitely needs to be replaced, but I would go ahead and replace the entire power cord. Could be that they didn't have it on the correct size wiring, which was causing the outlet and plug to overheat, but who knows. Plugs wear out over time, so it's not all that unusual to have to replace it. If the kiln is very low priced, then even if you have to replace some stuff you'll be coming out way ahead over a new kiln. As long as the bricks and lid/floor are in good condition the rest if it is relatively easy and inexpensive to fix compared to buying new.
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44 minutes ago, THW said:
Here are a few more pics.
The relay in these pictures is different than the relay you currently have installed. The 6 tab is the correct one, not the 8 tab that's currently installed. I would hook up the 6 tab, following the wiring diagram.
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9 minutes ago, JohnS said:
Hi Neil, yeah, that's not the problem here. At risk of repeating everything again basically the kilns elements aren't cycling when it's turned higher than the ceramic setting.
On hi they probably won't cycle, they'll just stay on. If they're staying on but it's not hitting temperature, then the elements are probably worn. Are you sure the switches were installed properly? If I remember correctly they are installed upside down in these kilns.
The best solution to making these kilns work well is to simply gut them and replace all the switches with infinite switches wired directly to the elements and sitter, no relays or timers.
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1 hour ago, JohnS said:
Ceramic is at 3pm and hi fire is at 1pm which makes me think that it'll never reach the high fire temps and that this was the problem.
Yep. If you put it on Ceramic it's basically just staying on medium. You need to set it to hi fire.
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@THW Can you tell us where each pair of wires on the relay connect to? The single pair at the end should go to the controller. One set should go to the relays. The other sets should come from the power cord and connect to the transformer. Can you make a diagram that shows which terminal pairs lead to which parts? Also, can you tell us what the part number on the relay says?
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Hi @THW, welcome to the forum!
I'm not familiar with the controller, but has the relay actually burned out every time you've replaced it? If it's burning out, then there's a bigger problem, like either the kiln is pulling too much amperage and it's overloading the relay, or there's an issue with the wires connected to the relays. A relay should get at least 150 firings before it burns out, so there's definitely something else going on. Are you sure it's the correct relay? Post a pic of the kiln serial plate if you can.
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No clue, but it should fire similarly to the modern Olympic round gas kilns. There's a lot of information here on the forum about them that you can find with the search bar.
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There's a lot of stuff pulling power from that box, so like Bill said, if you're firing a 50 amp kiln you're going to have to make sure you're not using some of the other things like the dryer, stove, and maybe even the A/C. If you can afford it, the best thing to do would be to upgrade the main service to 200 amps.
In regards to the wire size/amperage issue, kiln manufacturers typically recommend the 60C ratings, so #6 for 50 amps, and safety inspectors usually want it done to manufacturer's specs.
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It's probably due to the insulation. Looks like they're using several types, including the micropore stuff, which can be placed between the bricks and the metal, preventing the metal from working like a heat sink.
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2 hours ago, Christine Belt said:
I am assuming the wire used to go out to the kiln can’t go any higher even if we had more power from the house and breaker box.
Higher amperage requires larger wires. If they ran conduit out to the kiln shed, you may be able to pull larger wires to accommodate the larger kiln. I would also double check on what they mean by not being able to do more because of the breaker box. If they mean the box doesn't have room for more breakers, that doesn't matter because you'll be replacing the old kiln breaker with a new one. If they mean you've used up all the available amperage, it may be that you can fire the kiln, but you can't run the clothes dryer or AC at the same time or something like that. How big is the main box- 100 amps or 200 amps?
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@Christine Belt Welcome to the forum!
The bigger the kiln, the higher the amperage. It takes a certain amount of watts to heat up every square foot of kiln space, so more space equals more watts. Watts= amps x volts, and since the voltage is constant, you have to increase the amperage to get the watts.
When you say the fuse box can't handle the 50 amp, is that because you don't have space in the kiln for any more breakers, or because you've maxed out the amperage? Have you had an electrician confirm this?
Cast pipe battery without draft
in Mold Making and Slip Casting
Posted
@hotzn I'm still not understanding. Is this a sculpture or is it functional in some way? What will the final product look like? How many pipes will there be? Why is this draft tolerance needed? Can they be joined after forming or do they have to be formed together? What are the dimensions of each pipe? How large is the grouping? What shape is the grouping? Are they all connected at the bottom, top, sides? What are the total dimensions? The function of the final product will determine which type of clay you need to use. There's also issues of warping in drying and firing, etc. "Normal pottery equipment" is not really good for things that require precise tolerances since things move. Is clay the best material for this project?