neilestrick

What sort of controls does it have? Hi-med-lo knobs, infinite switches, digital controller? Post some pics of your actual kiln.

In the first instance, it should be able to handle the 108F/hr ramp just fine. I ramp my kilns at 200F/hr to 200F for preheating and it works. It could be that it overshot just a little bit but was still happy since it was still within the acceptable parameters, or more likely that you put in a hold time of minutes instead of hours. It happens. I've done it myself. It's hours to the left of the decimal, minutes to the right. In the second instance, it skipped the hold because you were already hotter than the hold temp. It will not cool to get to a temperature unless you program it to cool.

For anyone needing 10 gallon buckets, Brute buckets have always been my choice because they last forever and I could get them locally, but a few years ago they redesigned them and they are pretty awful now. The issue is not durability, but rather they changed the design of the bottom of the bucket and now they're really difficult to stir and get the thick stuff off the bottom. They used to just have a simple hump in the middle, but now they have 3 (4?) bumps on the bottom that make it impossible to maneuver a stirring stick and get the bottom stirred well. I was at one of the local community colleges a month or two ago and they had just purchased about 2 dozen of them and filled them with glaze before they realized the change and they were NOT HAPPY. Plus they couldn't justify the expense of replacing them all with different buckets so they are stuck with them. A friend of mine has some of the Carlisle Bronco 10 gallon buckets that are available on Amazon, and they have a good bottom and are priced much lower than Brute, and you can get them shipped for free with Prime. There are others available online, but the shipping cost is usually a killer since they're bulky. 10 gallon buckets are difficult to move around the studio, so unless you can leave them in one place I recommend putting them on a dolly. I made some simple dollies by glueing up 2 layers of 3/4" plywood to make a 1 1/2" thick slab, cut it into octagons that are just a bit larger than the bucket, and put 4 blocks around the edges to hold the buckets in place. For casters I got cheap 2" casters from Harbor Freight. They've worked well. With the price of plywood as high as it is right now I would probably use MDF or OSB instead. Whatever you use, paint it to protect it from the wet glaze. I have seen some dollies available online for as little as $25, but they appear to be pretty flimsy plastic that I wouldn't trust with a full 10 gallon bucket of glaze. Glaze weighs 11-12 pounds per gallon, so you want something beefy. Tipping over a 10 gallon bucket would be an incredible mess!

If everything works on high then it's not a Sitter problem or an element problem, so most likely a switch problem. Depending on how old the switch is, you may be able to find a replacement online cheaper than from Paragon. Kiln switches are not made specifically for kilns, so just do a Google search of the part number on the switch.

In electric kilns, anything under 7 cubic feet, so 18" wide kilns and short 23" wide kilns. They cool pretty quickly compared to the 7 and 10 cubic foot kilns.

I've got 3 of these in the basement right now ready to move to the studio. They're super beefy.

Congrats! It would be worth getting a cone 10 to build them from, as it will be less likely to bend at cone 6. You may be able to add more wires then.

8 sided? If yes, it's probably a 181. Those only pull about 22 amps, so you'll need a 30 amp breaker. It's only rated to cone 6, so not a good kiln if you plan to glaze fire to cone 5/6. You'll only get about 30 firings before you need to change elements firing that hot. You may be able to change out the elements with KM818 elements will pull about 26 amps and would bump the max temp rating to cone 9/10, but you'd need to double check that with Skutt first. That would also mean a larger breaker, like 35 or 40 amps. If you're going to run electrical for a kiln, put in 6 gauge wire so you can hook up a larger kiln in the future if needed and only have to change out the breaker, or at least run conduit that will handle at least three 6 gauge wires.

The air flaps are the discs that can screw up or down at the back end of each burner to control how much air is going into the burners. There's really not much you can do about wind other than block it off. As long as the burners have a source of air you'll be okay, so you can build some sort of wall around the base of the kiln that will block the wind but is far enough from it that it'll still get air. Was the previous owner firing with propane as well? If not, did you change the orifices in the burners?

It'll be fine.

If the kiln is working properly then you should not need to stagger the shelves. I've never fired a gas kiln with the bottom shelves staggered. I think the main concern is getting enough space around the shelves for the kiln to breathe properly. You should have at least 2" clearance between the shelves and any walls. My other concern is the the floor grid flu is so close to the burners, which could be pulling heat right out the flue before it ever has a chance to circulate in the kiln. If this were my kiln, I would set the bottom shelves up about 2" off the floor, and block off the space under the shelf along the burner ports.

If the controller is saying the firing is complete, then you've got a stuck relay. Not at all unusual. You'll have to unplug the kiln to get it to cool down.

I have never seen such a thing. I'm wondering if there's a grill cover or AC cover that would work.

Is the entire perforated portion connected to the flue? Like it draws in through that entire area? Thanks! I don't have an inventory at the moment, so nothing to load.

Are the burners blowing up under the shelf, or is there a space between the shelf and wall where they come up? What is the perforated floor? Is the flue under there?

If wind is an issue, all you can do is put up some wort of barrier to block it. You could put some cinder block along the base of the kiln to block whichever side the wind tends to blow from. You don't want to seal off the entire bottom, though. The burners need air, so just block a side or two. If it's not getting to temp, then you need to adjust the settings. Assuming everything is set up properly, a common cause of failure to reach temp is trying to use too much gas. More gas does not necessarily mean more heat. How is this plumbed- natural gas or propane? Where are the air flaps on the burners set- how far open? Is there a pressure gauge on the gas line?

Looks like silica fiber to me. As Babs said, it's not great for the lungs, either. If it's stable where it is, just leave it.

I find top loaders to be easier on my back than front loaders. I think it all depends on where your back hurts.

I have never had a 5 gallon bucket fail at the bottom. I have had them crack where the handles attach, though. That's lots of fun when you pick up a full bucket and the handle snaps off. It usually takes years and years before that happens, though. Plastic gets brittle over time. I've had lids collapse inward when stacking, too. But never a leaky bottom.

Can you post some pics of the kiln?

If you're using a white clay body, you'll find that many glazes are unaffected by reduction, or affected very little. With a brown clay body you're going to get more interaction between the body and the glaze, which will result in a different look even if the glaze itself isn't being affected by the reduction. Test, test, test. I've got a couple of glazes that I used at cone 10 reduction for years and years, converted them to cone 6, and they are indistinguishable from the original when used on a white body or a speckled brown body when fired in oxidation.

Far more glaze issues come from firing too fast vs firing too slow. Speeding up a bisque can prevent the burnout of organics, and speeding up a glaze firing can prevent good melt. If you were to speed up a firing, the final 200F degrees should still be kept slow to ensure good burnout and good melt, but below that you can really do whatever your clay can handle. I don't think crystobalite is an issue with most commercial bodies. I never slow down during quartz inversion and never have any issues with any of the stoneware and porcelain bodies we use in my studio. In an electric kiln, speeding up the firing will not save you much, if anything, in terms of firing costs. Yes, the firing will be shorter, but the elements will be using more electricity to fire faster. Plus the cost per pot of firing is really very low in most cases. Unless you have a small kiln, cooling times are where the real slowdown happens. Saving an hour in my big kiln won't make enough of a difference in the total cycle time to matter, because cooling can take 30+ hours.

The amount of gas used to get to cone 6 is roughly the same as the gas used to get from cone 6 to cone 10. So yes, you will use a lot less gas. I think there are two main reasons for this. First, there are far more people firing cone 6 than cone 10, so you're going to see more comments by them. Second, people come to forums for help finding solutions to problems. All the folks who aren't having problems are not posting about it on forums. If you fire at cone 6, keep in mind that most all commercially available glazes are formulated to fire in oxidation. That doesn't mean that they won't do some amazing things in reduction, but you'll have to do some testing to see how they'll react. Cone 10 glazes can be lowered to cone 6 with the addition of some frit, often as little as 3-5%. Brown clay bodies will take some testing, too. If it's a dark body in oxidation, it will probably not be suitable for reduction. Light brown bodies will go dark. White stoneware bodies may go gray, just like at cone 10. https://ceramicartsnetwork.org/daily/article/Five-Reasons-to-Convert-Cone-10-Reduction-Glazes-to-Cone-6 Georgies cone 6 glazes in reduction

It's not a great situation, but it may not be that bad, either. The primary concern is the control system, which definitely should not get wet. Once all the electrical parts dry out and you power it up you'll know what parts survived and what didn't. The bricks just need to dry out, assuming the mortar in the lid and floor slabs didn't soften up and come apart. You'll want to dry it out ASAP, and do it with the lid open so you don't grow mold in it. I've seen a kiln that was kept closed up for a few weeks after getting wet and the entire inside was black with mold, including between the outer body bands and the brick. Ideally you want to get it running and take it up to 200 degrees or so and hold there for a few days so it dries completely.

You can use anything that is the same size/threads.