neilestrick

That's a rare wheel! I have no info, but have you tried just thumping it with a dead blow mallet to get it to seat?

I agree with Callie, I'd be really surprised if it didn't warp. 14" is a long slab and needs more support to keep it from moving. I don't think a different clay body is going to help much nearly as much as improving the engineering of the piece. Add more feet, curve the sides, make it thicker, add a lip to the walls, etc.

Do you roll it with a brayer? That seems to be the key with the rice paper I've been testing.

On bisqueware, yes. On greenware it works fine right on the clay.

@Art By Iggy If it's only pulling 15 amps instead of 30 then half the kiln isn't working, that means you either have a dead relay or a dead element (wired in series, if one goes out they both do). Have you tested the elements for continuity? Have you confirmed that the relays are working? If you're not comfortable doing live tests inside the control box, then put a little piece of paper on each element and start the kiln and see if they smolder. Where are you measuring the amperage draw- from the circuit box or in the kiln control box?

It's totally normal. The stand will rust a bit over time since it's not stainless steel. Also, there are steel plates underneath the body bands by the hinge and handles to give the screws something secure to grab onto, and they will rust over time. It's not from the humidity in the environment, it's the moisture in the kiln that burns out during firings. No worries. Nothing you can do besides vacuum up the rust. I've got an L&L e18T-3 with 2,200 firings and it has finally reached the point where I'm thinking about replacing the hinge (different hinge than on your kiln, not stainless).

Those are by far my least favorite kilns to work on. Amaco still shows elements for it on the website. The big question is whether or not it's worth putting money into a kiln that old. Open it up and see how the bricks look If they're pretty beat up then I wouldn't mess with it. Usually replacing wall bricks is impossible because all the framing is too rusted to get apart. Also see if the lid bricks are still secure in the lid. They tend to come loose from the lid frame over time. Also check out the wiring in the control box. If it's the original wiring then you'll want to replace it if it's brittle or if it's the old waxy cloth wrapped wiring. If you do decide to replace the elements, be prepared to have a difficult time getting the old ones out. Amaco made the element grooves very narrow. Combined with the fact that element coils expand as they age, the old elements will probably not come out without a fight. In order to avoid breaking the element grooves, you'll want to pull the elements upward as you pull them out. They'll chew up the top edge of the groove, but that's okay and won't hurt anything. Breaking out the bottom of the groove is a problem.

Can you post a picture, top and bottom? The feet are probably the biggest culprit, but any time you have long flat sides like that they're going to warp. On solution is to put a slight curve in the sides, which makes them less likely to bow inward. Any clay body that vitrifies is going to want to warp in the firing. The lower the absorption, the closer the clay is getting to its melting point and the softer it gets at the peak of the firing. Have you tried firing them on a waster slab? I wold also try going thicker as they get larger.

Warping during construction or during firing?

It depends on what type of glaze it is and how much is in the glaze. I'd run a test first.

It's the breaker. Change it out to a 60 amp, and make sure the wiring is appropriate for 60 amps. Since your kiln is running on 220 volts, it's actually pulling closer to 48 amps. The elements are wound to work with your specific service voltage, so with elements wound for 208 volts it pulls more amperage on 220.

I don't think that 'work' in itself is the issue. Rather, it's the type of work. Some people can work for hours and hours with spreadsheets on a computer and have no problem with it. Some folks install shingles all day or frame houses. Some teach kids. I can work hard all day in the studio but I would hate other jobs. It's a matter of finding the work that you enjoy, and if you're not totally into clay then it's not going to be work you want to do all day.

Hi @Daniel Molina, welcome to the forum! By 50 amp relay do you mean the 50 amp circuit breaker in the building's electrical panel? Your 45 amp kiln should be on a 60 amp breaker, so that may be the problem. How long does the kiln run before the breaker trips off? If it's instantly, then something is not hooked up correctly in the kiln control box. If it runs for a short while then it's the breaker. What voltage is your electrical service? Can you post a picture of the kiln serial plate?

I spent a couple of hours yesterday morning running some screen printing tests. I'm using a 110 mesh screen, Speedball underglazes, and raw Xuan paper. My findings: - Speedball underglazes come fairly thick in the bottle, so with no modification they actually print pretty well for 1-2 prints. However, by the third print the underglaze would stop going through the screen and it would just print water. The thicker the underglaze the worse it got. If I washed off and dried the screen, then it would print again. I think the underglaze must be sealing up the screen. - I don't have any guar gum or dextrin in the studio, but I do have CMC gum and Veegum T, which together are fabulous for suspending glazes and making them brushable. Typically I would make a syrup out of them, but I didn't want to add too much water to the underglaze so I mixed it up like thick snot- 2 tablespoons of CMC and 1 tablespoon of VGT to 1 1/2 pints of hot water (normally would use 1 gallon of water). Let it soak (overnight if you have time), and mix it with a stick blender. I added 1 teaspoon of the snot to a pint of underglaze and ran a dozen prints without any problems. I also thinned out the underglazes a bit and was much happier with the thickness on the paper. No need to let them stiffen up at all. In fact, Speedball underglazes are a bit too thick in the bottle. I'd seen people say it should thicken up to a toothpaste consistency, but I didn't find that to be necessary or desirable. - I was concerned that the CMC gum would make it more difficult to transfer, since in a typical application the gum makes the underglaze hard and resists water (which is why I always recommend applying underglazes to leather hard and bisque firing before glazing if you're working with dipping glazes). With the transfers they worked much, much better with the added gum. Great release from the paper. I lay the transfer on the leather hard pot, dab it with a wet sponge, then lightly roll it with a little brayer. I'm doing some bold patterns, not thin line work, so it's easy to control how complete the image transfers by how long I leave the transfer on the pot. - The raw Xuan paper is very fragile when wet. You have to be very careful about rubbing it when it's sitting wet on the pot. I've got some half raw coming and I'll see if that holds up better. EDIT: Forgot to add- I have tried making the transfers with newsprint before, but I don't like how much the paper wrinkles as it dries. The underglaze was also more likely to flake off when dry. I'll try it again with the new gum-added version later this week and see if it behaves any better. The good thing about the newsprint is that it's much more durable than the Xuan paper.

On the topic of your body being able to do the work: There's a very real possibility that one's business model will have to change (or even stop) well before you reach retirement age. I am at a point in my career where that is happening to me. I'm 51 years old, and after 30 years of making pots my hands hurt way too much to continue wheel throwing. It's nothing that surgery can fix for the most part, and I want to be able to use my hands when I retire some day, so I am now a hand builder! If I was making my living 100% from making pots, that would be a severe change in my production output and my business may or may not be able to survive that kind of change. Luckily for me, selling pots is only one of 4 income streams I have. That said, kiln repair work is also really hard on my body and I'm starting to see signs that I will probably have to stop doing it well before retirement age. None of this was an issue when I was 40, I'm just worn out. Once it starts happening it seems to build quickly, so you have to plan ahead for those changes. There's a reason you don't see many 64 year old guys framing houses or installing roof shingles.

The switch is probably not specific to the wheel, so take it off and do a google search for the part number on it.

You can get bat pins in any length at Ace Hardware or any store that carries a decent selection of nuts and bolts. They're called hex cap screws or socket head cap screws. You need 1/4-20 size in whatever length.

Thanks for the link! I can't remember where I got the heat sink I'm using. I've got a 50 amp SSR and 10 gauge wiring in the box so nothing is having to work very hard to run the 13 amps. It's been a nice little system. Yeah, this kiln replaced a little Paragon that I'd been using for years. The element life wasn't great, plus the bricks were getting pretty worn out or I would have just rewired it. I was lucky to get the Evenheat at an estate sale where I was buying a 7 cubic foot Evenheat. The big kiln was in the basement, which was a little bit of a hoarder situation but they had already cleaned out a lot of it. While digging through all the kiln stuff I found a couple of small kiln shelves that would fit a test kiln. I asked if there were any other kilns in the house and they guy said no, but while I was moving stuff out to my truck he found the little one buried in a corner. I offered him $100 and he took it! I just took a peek at the firing, and at 2000F degrees and a rate of 325F/hr the kiln was at 71% duty cycle. Plenty of power!

I picked up a little Evenheat test kiln last Fall and finally got around to getting it up and running this week. It was in brand new condition, only fired a handful of times to low fire temps, but it was a cone 8 kiln, not ideal for all the cone 6 firings I'll be doing in it. So I talked with Euclids and had them make me some custom elements that bumped it up from 2000 watts to 2700 watts, a 35% increase in power. It should have great element life now. It was originally set up for 120V service at 17 amps, and with the new elements it's set up for 208V 1P service at 13 amps (wired in series). I gutted the control box, removing the Kiln Sitter and wiring, and installed a terminal block that connects the elements directly to the power cord. I don't need the sitter since I'm using a wall mounted digital controller. The controller has a Genesis Mini controller and a solid state relay- you can see the heat sink on the left side of the control box. I've been using this box for a few years now and it works great. It was originally an Orton Auto-Fire, but I modified it a couple of years ago to work with the SSR. I also put the thermocouple in a protection tube. I had a successful bisque firing yesterday, and I'm running a cone 6 glaze firing today. I don't expect any problems, but it's still a bit stressful since it's a new setup. Fingers crossed!

I finally got a couple of pieces made with the new 630 glaze fired, and they look great! The new formula is a little warmer in color than the old. A little more creamy rather than gray. The glazes look great, I really have no complaints at all. In fact, overall I'd say the new formula is wonderful, possibly even better than the old one.

@Morgan I noticed the color change in 365, too. It's a little more orange in raw form. It reminds me of a porcelain body I used to mix that had VeeGum-T in it which made it orange. I asked if there were any changes and they said no, so it's probably just a change in one of the raw materials. It still fires out the same color.

Is there a vent system for the kiln, either a downdraft vent or an overhead vent of some sort? Is there anything inside the clay that would be burning, like paper used as an armature?

I use Medex bats. They've lasted for 20 years and they're still going strong. Medex is an exterior grade MDF, absorbent but wont' degrade like masonite. I got mine from Northstar, but there are others on the market now.

Every decision the controller makes is based on information from the thermocouple. If it's not reading correctly then the firing can't progress normally. I would change it, it's cheap and easy. Typically when kilns stall out at 1850-1950 degrees it's because an element is out or a relay has died or is sticking. I know you said you replaced the relays, but did you replace the wiring in the control box? If the power wires going into and out of the relays are worn then they can cause a relay to overheat and stick or fail. I've seen brand new relays die on their first firing due to the wiring.

Hi @Art By Iggy. Welcome to the forum! Have you double checked the voltage of your electrical service? What firing schedule are you using? Have you replaced the thermocouple? What size wiring did you run, and what size breaker is it on? Are the power cord and plug in good condition? Does the plug get hot when firing?