neilestrick

It looks like the PLOG errors are all circuit board/software issues, not anything that is a problem with the actual kiln system. Call Orton.

@Kalen Welcome to the forum! Glad you got it to work!

Cone 6 is not necessarily the same in every kiln unless they have all been calibrated, which many aren't. Assuming you're using the same clear glaze and the same underglazes and the same glaze thickness, firing them cooler will probably stop the bleeding.

The epoxy will bond better if you rough up the areas to be joined. Like score them as though you're going to join them with slip. And yes, epoxy is pretty strong stuff.

Ignore the numbers on the damper. Go by what's happening with the kiln. The numbers wan be helpful for repeatability once you get things dialed in, but ultimately they're just approximate positions and will have to be adjusted according to the behavior of the kiln, which can change with every firing depending on the load, weather, etc.

A lot of folks in my studio, including myself, control the wheel speed by hand rather than by foot. We just put the pedal up on the corner of the wheel. I do it because I throw standing, my students do it because they find it easier to dial in the correct speed. When I teach beginners, I have them set the speed and take their foot off the pedal so that they don't accidentally increase speed as they lean into the clay, which is a common problem. So most of my students are used to not making constant adjustments to the speed as they work. I find it doesn't slow me down at all. You just have to get used to not making adjustments all the time. Set your speed and go with it. You can throw most pots with only 2-3 adjustments through the entire process. You could just cover your hand controller with a plastic bag to keep it clean.

Are you using the same gas and damper settings, or are you making adjustments based on the how the kiln is behaving? I wouldn't expect the same settings to work. When I put the kiln into reduction, I do a good heavy reduction for about 45 minutes with the kiln stalled out- little to no temperature climb. Then I open things up into a light reduction/neutral atmosphere and climb from there. At that stage the damper should be set so you get a big flame out one peep, and just a little puff out the other. That means you've got pressure in the entire kiln but you're not choking it off. It's going to behave differently with your design changes, to make adjustments as necessary.

I got my wheel first, but bought a kiln shortly after. In fact, I bought two kilns. The first was a big Olympic oval that was much larger than I needed, but I couldn't pass up the $300 price tag on a kiln that had only been fired a handful of times. The second kiln was an 18x18 Evenheat that I still have. Well, I have again- I sold it to a student who sold it to another student, who I then bought it from. Several of my students have wheels at home, which they primarily use for trimming and do the messy work and firing at my studio. IMO, there's not much reason to buy a wheel if you don't have a place to fire. It's a bit like making cakes but never baking them. You're only doing half the process.

How big are they?

@DTPotter

According to the data on Ward Burner, if the kiln is 9" IFB, it only needs 16,000btu per cubic foot, so about 256,000btu total.

That's really high shrinkage for bisque. A typical terra cotta body is going to be about half that. If it's starting to gloss up, then it's probably past vitrification and starting to melt. I'd test it again at cone 4, which is typically the max for low fire red bodies. A common terra cotta body is 80-90% red clay and 10-20% ball clay, so I'd start with adding some ball clay and see what happens.

Hi Lucia! I agree with everything said above, and will add that you want to increase the depth of filed to get the back edge of the lip in focus. Also crop them closer, and I wouldn't mind seeing them a little bit brighter (although that could be an issue with my monitor, not your photos). I tend to shoot a little bit lower on the pot, so the back edge is just showing a little bit. As you get higher above the pot the form can start to distort and look odd. Shoot at the highest resolution you can so that I can resize to whatever is needed. Always keep the original big file. You'll find that certain surfaces and colors make for better photos than others. Back when I had a much larger glaze pallet, I always used my matte glazes for show entries because they made for great photos. There's a lot more leeway nowadays for what's acceptable in show entry photos. You don't have use the old school gray fading to black, but it's always a safe bet. I have a hard time getting that type of image to look good with the very glossy pots I make now, so I've switched to a solid gray background with a natural wood foreground (so that my pots don't look like they're floating in a gray void). I get into just as many shows with that setup as I did with the gray-to-black fade. On instagram you'll see a lot of really nice images with a plain white background, shot in a light tent. Ultimately they just want something that shows the pot very well and doesn't distract from it.

Digital kilns don't always fire perfectly right out of the box. Some calibration is often necessary. You can either do a cone offset or try firing a cone cooler and see where that puts you.

I think that one of the most difficult things to do as a new business is to say 'no' to a customer. You're hungry for business and need the money, so you take on whatever project comes your way, including a lot of horrible projects that you shouldn't, but you feel like to have to if you're going to survive. Bit by bit the business grows and learn where your time and energy should be spent, and you start to feel comfortable with turning people down because you know that you can survive without trying to make everyone happy. It's a great feeling when you've got enough business that can pick and choose what you want to do. I LOVE telling people no because it's proof that my business is successful enough that I can run it on my own terms.

Take a look at the cost of a tabletop vs a standard wheel and you may find that it's worth just saving up for a standard wheel rather buying two wheels over time. I would also take more classes before investing in anything just in case the novelty wears off. If you do end up getting a tabletop wheel, the Speedball Artista is a good wheel. I've thrown 10 pounds on one before and it preformed very well.

A cone 6 kiln firing to cone 6 will only get maybe 50 firings before the elements need to be replaced. Once they wear even a little bit, the kiln can no longer reach its max temp. In a cone 10 kiln firing to cone 6, the elements can wear a lot more before they need to be replaced. If your cone 6 kiln is getting more firings that that, then it is probably under-rated. Brick thickness is often the determining factor on the max temp rating of a kiln. Kilns are either rated to a max temp or a max cone without holds. With holds all kilns would be cone 10. There isn't some government oversight committee that puts out rules for max temp ratings of kilns. Every kiln manufacturer has their own system for deciding, and there is a lot of variation from brand to brand depending on what they consider to be an acceptable speed at which the max can be achieved. I've often seen kilns listed as cone 10 with the same specs as other brands' cone 8. The general rule of thumb as a customer, though, in order to get maximum element life you should be firing 3-4 cones below the max rating of your kiln.

The size of the breaker does not determine how hot the kiln will be able to get. It's going to pull the same amperage whether it's firing to cone 05 or cone 6. Once it's on high it's pulling the max- it just does it for longer when going hotter. The elements determine how much amperage it will draw, and you size the breaker to that. So if it works at cone 05 then it'll work at cone 6 as far as the electrical service is concerned.

I think it depends on the glaze, and whether or not it is melting enough at cone 5. Why not just do it with a cone 5 glaze? It works with the silicon carbide, too. 7% is likely overkill. I've had glaze lava with less than 1/2 of 1%.

The thermocouple could definitely be the cause. It could be a bad connection somewhere along the TC system, or a split in the weld that's opening up as the kiln gets hotter, or just a bad thermocouple (it happens). @ShanRums Have you done a factory reset on the controller? Is there a thermocouple offset in the controller? Is there a protection tube on the thermocouple?

How far into the kiln does the thermocouple go? Is it in a protection tube? post some pics of the thermocouple so we can see what sort of condition it is in.

I don't think the kiln slowing down is going to cause over firing of 3-4 cones. If the elements are worn enough that they're slowing down at the end, it's not going to be able to slow down enough to get that kind of heatwork without the controller putting up an error code. I think this is a calibration issue or a thermocouple issue. I replace elements in dozens of kilns every year and over firing has never been a result with worn elements. Or if it was it was so little that it wasn't an issue. One time I even intentionally fired one of my kilns until the elements were so worn that they couldn't reach cone 6, and it never over fired. The cost of firing doubled, but it had no issues with accuracy.

With cones on the shelf so that you can see them from the peephole, run it at 150C/hr up to 1050C, then 60C/hr to 1250C, and watch the cones, When cone 6 drops, note the temp and shut it off. Then do another firing with the same program with the last 100C at 60C/hr to whatever that temp was and see if it works. It's really far off for thermocouple calibration, sot best to just figure out what temp you need.

Grolleg porcelain (no ball clay) dries quickly, because it is not very tight in raw form. Porcelain bodies are only about 50% clay, so they don't hold as much water as stoneware bodies, and give up the water quickly. Fine grained white stoneware and other bodies that are high in ball clay dry quite slowly because ball clay is very fine grained and makes for a very dense body.

Don't go adding any holes until you try the bag wall arrangement first. One change at a time. Plus the holes are unique to Alpine kilns, so they may or may not actually help you. I've never found them to be necessary in any of the kilns I've built. Plus updraft and downdraft behave differently.