neilestrick

I'm with Bill. Lock in the firing schedule so it matches the cone charts. That way you'll have a baseline to compare against. Start with firing all the way to the cone you're trying to achieve. Add holds after that to dial it in. Your 20 minute hold is equal to roughly one whole cone. Kilns often behave differently with new elements, but this is definitely a little odd. My gut says it's a thermocouple issue, but it's hard to say. Based on that link it looks like you have a type S thermocouple, so it probably does not need replacing unless you bumped it. Also check for loose wires along the thermocouple system.

It's small, not ideal for anything but mugs and small vases. It's underpowered for its size, too. I would put it at a cone 8 kiln rather than a cone 10 at only 21 amps, so element life won't be great. But you could always swap out with elements from Euclids elements to bump up the power a bit. Does it include a stand? Is the floor or lid cracked? The kiln is sitting upside down, so all those broken brick will need to be replaced or the elements will flop out when you flip it over. I'd pass on it unless you want to do a bunch of work and spend an additional $400 on parts.

18" is the safe distance recommended by many kiln manufacturers. The more the better, though.

What type of thermocouple? What firing schedules are you using?

Dark spots are probably just carbon, and they'll burn out. Too much wax can easily overpower a typical kiln vent.

That's a Fire Right controller, which controls how quickly the kiln ramps up. You can find a manual HERE. I have no clue how the Fire Right works in conjunction with the knobs, though. Maybe put them on high and let the Fire Right handle it from there? Does the switch under the white knob appear to be the same as the black knob switch? Have you opened up the control box to see how it's wired up? Is there a serial plate on the kiln that shows voltage, watts, amps, etc? That size Gare kiln is typically a cone 8 kiln, so it may be that your elements are worn and due to be replaced.

When the wheel stops, can you hear the motor continue to run, or does the motor stop? If it's the belt slipping, then the motor will still run. If the motor stops, then the problem could be caused by the pedal, motor, or controller, in which case talking to Laguna/Axner is the best way to go. Does the wheel only stop when you're touching the clay, or will it stop and behave erratically even when you're not touching it?

@davidh4976 Sounds like you got it figured out. For future reference, and for others that may read this: 1. When the breaker trips immediately when the elements turn on, then there's a short in the system somewhere. Usually it's in the kiln, like a relay has melted out or a wiring connection has fried and there's a bare wire making contact with the kiln body, or it wasn't wired properly when you repaired it. In rare instances the short could be in the outlet or the wires from the outlet to the breaker. 2. When the breaker trips after the kiln has been on for a few minutes (or longer), then it's a breaker issue. Either the breaker is the wrong size, or it's old and worn out.

Downdraft kilns are generally easier to fire, fire more evenly, and are more efficient.

Are you sure it has the correct burner orifices for propane? With venturi burners you should be able to set the air flaps and leave them, controlling the speed and reduction with just the damper and gas valve.

For starters, just use the pre-prorgrammed firing schedules in the controller. They work great. Medium is good for most things. Once you have your glazes figured out, then if you want to you could start playing with cooling cycles and holds and whatnot. For the glazes, make a whole bunch of test tiles and just test every combination, and at varying thicknesses. Remember that glaze A over glaze B may not look the same as B over A. Make sure your test tiles are vertical tiles, not flat, so you can see how they run. Fire the tiles on cookies (thin slabs) to protect your kiln shelves. There are also Facebook pages devoted to glaze lines like the Amaco Potter's Choice series, and many glaze manufacturers have sample photos on their websites of their glazes layered.

JenKen will be able to tell you what model it is and what elements you need. They'll also be able to tell you the actual amperage draw. By code, the kiln should be on a circuit that is 25% greater than the draw but no more than 50% greater. Judging from the photo it appears to be an 8 sided kiln, 18 inches tall? If so, chances are it needs a breaker in the 30-40 amp range.

It depends on how the sections are wired together. If there's a hinge on the side of the upper and lower boxes, you'll need to open them up and disconnect the wires that go to the middle box. If there are no hinges on the sides of the boxes (they're just screwed to the kiln body on both sides), then they have inter-box plugs in the boxes and the sections can just be lifted apart. Either way, you do not need to do anything with the Sitter, just leave it connected to the middle ring.

I can make out the name on the bottom plate I think. JenKen? They're still around, give them a call.

Not a Skutt..what's the plate at the bottom say? 50 amp circuit based on what info? The Sitter info is not the draw of the kiln, just the max the Sitter can handle. What are the dimensions of the kiln- how many sides and how deep?

The price of lithium has dropped by 50% since the start of 2023.

Glad it's working! The first digit of the display can only display a '1' or nothing, so the F scale is limited to 1999.

A speckled brown stoneware clay will give you that look with any white glaze.

In my experience, MgO only contributes to opacity via crystal growth causing matteness, which in my book does not make it an opacifier. I would only consider it to be an opacifier if it can make a glaze go opaque without affecting the surface qualities, like zircopax does. I have used several glazes over the years that will fire clear and glossy when cooled quickly, but matte and opaqe when cooled slowly, due to the magnesium in the glaze. I have also used magnesium-containing glazes that are perfectly clear no matter how they are cooled. It all depends on the percentage of magnesium and fluidity of the glaze. The clear I am currently using contains more magnesium than is recommended by limit formulas, but it's still incredibly clear and glossy.

Wedging grog or other particulates into the clay will certainly help, but working that thick really needs an adjustment to the firing and cooling schedule in the kiln, too. And grog may not allow you to work the way you're used to or allow for certain surfaces you want. The simplest solution is to just work thinner. Get in there and carve out the thick areas. Magic water is just the stuff you add to clay to make deflocculated slip, and deflocculated slip makes for a very strong joint. I don't think the cracks you've got here are a result of poor joining, though.

If the main hinge rod doesn't sit all the way into the bottom of the oval hole, the lid will drop down as you open it, crushing the edge of the wall bricks by the hinge. On all kilns of every brand, make sure you keep the body bands tight. They loosen up as the kiln ages, and when that happens they slide down and it affects the closing of the lid. If you notice that the lid doesn't close all the way at the front, it's probably because the hinge has dropped down in the back due to the body bands sliding down. This causes several problems. First, the wall bricks by the hinge get crushed or worn down. Second, the lid doesn't close all the way and you lose a lot of heat. Third, if you force the lid down and latch it, the lid flexes and could crack.

Check the side of the control box for the serial plate. It should have all the important info. Post a pic of it. 6 elements or 3 elements that each loop twice? The firing schedule on the instruction plate will work just fine. If you don't know how to use cones, then search Kiln Sitter on Youtube and you'l find a million instructional videos.

You should latch the lid on the L&L. If it needs to lift it can do that at the hinge side.

Orton makes a bunch of plug and play control boxes, but they're not cheap. See HERE. Building your own system with a Genesis Mini will end up costing you about $600 in parts. Commercial kilns controllers like the Genesis Mini run on 24 volts, so they require a transformer like THIS ONE to power them. It takes the 120 or 240 volts coming in and knocks it down to 24 volts. You'll also want a 0.5 amp fuse on the hot leg between the transformer and the controller. A basic panel mount fuse works fine. The Genesis Mini has one 12V output which you'd use to control the SSRs. There is also a safety output that you would use for the mechanical relays. The safety turns on at the start of the firing, off at the end. The mechanical relays should last forever since they're only switching twice during a firing. Run the hot leg through the fuse, then SSR, then mechanical relay. Run the neutral through the mechanical relay. The SSRs, as cool as they are, complicate the system. You could build it much easier without the SSRs and just use a pair of mechanical relays. It would eliminate the need for fuses and a cooling fan. There's very little benefit to using SSRs unless you're doing crystalline glazes that require a little more control than the mechanical relays provide. You'll get somewhere between 200 and 600 firings from the mechanical relays, and they're cheap.

The nice thing about mounting the box to the wall rather than to the kiln, in addition to it staying cool, is that it makes construction, maintenance and repair simpler. Simply unplug the kiln from the box and you can work on the kiln without having to unmount it or disconnect a bunch of wires from it.