neilestrick

Definitely. I made a lot of mistakes when setting up my business. I received all of my training in the university system, which at the time (1990-1997) was heavily focused on cone 10 reduction and selling in galleries.  So when I set up my gallery/studio/classroom in 2004, I did it the only way I knew how: I built a gas kiln, found galleries to sell my work, and taught my classes with the same methods I had learned in school. None of that worked out very well. Galleries were closing left and right, the gas kiln was not at all practical for my business, and students weren't interested in the rigorous class structure I was trained in. So after 4 years in my original location, I made the decision to radically alter my business model. I moved to a location that was about 1/3 of the size and got rid of the big gallery space. I stopped selling other artist's work, bought a couple of electric kilns, and changed the way I approach my classes. I also started doing art fairs, which were a big problem in the academic world I was trained in- they were the realm of hobby potters, not serious artists. I also started really advertising kiln repair services. Finally everything started to fall into place with my business, after 4 years of struggling.
So my big regret is that it took me a long time to see past my training and consider other ways of running my business. To be fair, it was a difficult time to open any small business. When I opened in 2004, traditional methods of advertising- print ads, phone books, etc- were on their way out and ridiculously expensive, but the internet hadn't quite picked up the slack yet. Facebook was just getting started, Instagram didn't exist yet, and DYI website builders were barely available and not very good. It was going to be difficult no matter what, but my  lack of flexibility made it worse. I should have started smaller, jumped into cone 6 from the start, and considered other methods of selling.
In regards to clay work itself, no regrets. I've focused on a lot of different techniques over the years, and every one has made me a better potter.

Definitely. I made a lot of mistakes when setting up my business. I received all of my training in the university system, which at the time (1990-1997) was heavily focused on cone 10 reduction and selling in galleries.  So when I set up my gallery/studio/classroom in 2004, I did it the only way I knew how: I built a gas kiln, found galleries to sell my work, and taught my classes with the same methods I had learned in school. None of that worked out very well. Galleries were closing left and right, the gas kiln was not at all practical for my business, and students weren't interested in the rigorous class structure I was trained in. So after 4 years in my original location, I made the decision to radically alter my business model. I moved to a location that was about 1/3 of the size and got rid of the big gallery space. I stopped selling other artist's work, bought a couple of electric kilns, and changed the way I approach my classes. I also started doing art fairs, which were a big problem in the academic world I was trained in- they were the realm of hobby potters, not serious artists. I also started really advertising kiln repair services. Finally everything started to fall into place with my business, after 4 years of struggling.
So my big regret is that it took me a long time to see past my training and consider other ways of running my business. To be fair, it was a difficult time to open any small business. When I opened in 2004, traditional methods of advertising- print ads, phone books, etc- were on their way out and ridiculously expensive, but the internet hadn't quite picked up the slack yet. Facebook was just getting started, Instagram didn't exist yet, and DYI website builders were barely available and not very good. It was going to be difficult no matter what, but my  lack of flexibility made it worse. I should have started smaller, jumped into cone 6 from the start, and considered other methods of selling.
In regards to clay work itself, no regrets. I've focused on a lot of different techniques over the years, and every one has made me a better potter.

Thanks for posting a pic. To me that looks like a coating of crappy kiln wash flaking off. Some cheap washes will start to fuse like that and eventually flake off. Unfortunately, you'll have to grind it off, although you may be able to scrape a good amount of it off first. When it's clean and smooth again,  re-wash them with a decent high-alumina wash.

Thanks for posting a pic. To me that looks like a coating of crappy kiln wash flaking off. Some cheap washes will start to fuse like that and eventually flake off. Unfortunately, you'll have to grind it off, although you may be able to scrape a good amount of it off first. When it's clean and smooth again,  re-wash them with a decent high-alumina wash.

Thanks for posting a pic. To me that looks like a coating of crappy kiln wash flaking off. Some cheap washes will start to fuse like that and eventually flake off. Unfortunately, you'll have to grind it off, although you may be able to scrape a good amount of it off first. When it's clean and smooth again,  re-wash them with a decent high-alumina wash.

Thanks for posting a pic. To me that looks like a coating of crappy kiln wash flaking off. Some cheap washes will start to fuse like that and eventually flake off. Unfortunately, you'll have to grind it off, although you may be able to scrape a good amount of it off first. When it's clean and smooth again,  re-wash them with a decent high-alumina wash.

Soda/salt does not attack silica on its own. Plain silica is quite resistant to salt/soda effects. It's the silica/alumina/salt eutectic that causes the glaze to form. We used to dust silica onto the shelves for salt firings instead of using wash. That said, I would use a high alumina wash as stated. I think a 50/50 wash is more likely to shrink away and flake off, though, so I would calcine half the kaolin.

fawn, there is something you can do to make your slab roller more useful.   look at my album showing a northstar, (i think) in the series on the florida studio.  there are 2 shots showing the extension on the slab roller to provide table space, something very important in a small studio.   to see it, go to my avatar and see a choice for Profile. click that and go to albums.   look for a title re florida studio and see the 2 pics showing the extended tabletop on one side of the machine.   there is another showing it in use in the album   2017 long lovebirds........   
if you notice the sharpie lines on the knurled roller, that was for a particular size slab width for cracker trays, one of my best sellers.   i am fortunate to have a 24 inch bailey here in wv though the one in the photos in florida is now gone.  i was also 24 inch.   it is about as large as i would want to handle,   30 inches seems a little big for me.

Thank you, that does help. I was a bit skeptical about the shimpo, but pottery is just a hobby for me, so the shimpo would do just fine with my home studio. 

The Shimpo 30" slab roller is made in China by Friendly Manufacturing Corp (FREMA). Over the years it's been sold by Ceramic Supply, Axner, and others. It's still currently sold by Pottery Supply House in Canada. It's a good slab roller. I used to sell them, and several of my students and customers have them and they've been good machines, especially for the price. For a home studio it's a great choice. I probably wouldn't get one for a studio where it's going to have a lot of heavy use, though. For a heavy use studio I would go with the NorthStar Super series or a Bailey.

Welcome to the overly-complicated world of Duncan Kilns! I can't get you any definitive answer on how to diagnose the timers on these old kilns. IMO, the best option is to do away with the timers completely and convert it to a standard manual kiln with either 3-way or infinite switches. Some of these timers are still available, but apparently some of them are not. There are a number of folks here on the forum who tinker with these kiln, so someone should be able to help.

The Shimpo 30" slab roller is made in China by Friendly Manufacturing Corp (FREMA). Over the years it's been sold by Ceramic Supply, Axner, and others. It's still currently sold by Pottery Supply House in Canada. It's a good slab roller. I used to sell them, and several of my students and customers have them and they've been good machines, especially for the price. For a home studio it's a great choice. I probably wouldn't get one for a studio where it's going to have a lot of heavy use, though. For a heavy use studio I would go with the NorthStar Super series or a Bailey.

The smell may come from the preservatives they use. All commercial glaze products contain a biocide to preserve the gum, and each company seems to use a different one, because each brand has a different odor. The underglaze transfers that are made by hand in the US use commercial underglazes, often the Amaco Velvet line.

If it's a good porcelain or otherwise vitrified tile it can work well. In your climate you want to avoid any type of tile that is porous, as it can absorb water and freeze, resulting in cracking.

@glazenerd can you post a picture of what you're talking about here? With the ceramic TC blocks typically used in these kilns, I don't see how the exposed ends of the wire could possibly be touching each other since they're attached to the block a good 1.5" away from each other, and the rest of the wire has insulation on it. Were the wires stripped back really far?
@AMO only the very ends of the TC wires should be stripped back, just enough to fit into the holes in the block. Also, fold over the ends of the wires so they're double thick under the screws. I highly doubt your thermocouples are actually worn out, but clearly there's a problem in the system. Was the original TC you replaced clearly worn out, or did it still look okay? Since you were in there changing the elements, it's possible that there's a kink or break or loose connection in the thermocouple wires. The test you ran only checks that the controller is reading correctly, which is rarely the problem. Check to make sure there's not a break in the TC wire under one of the screws on the block. I see that happen a lot, and it will give you spotty readings or random fails. If everything looks good there, take the two ends of the TC wire out of the block and hold them together. It should read room temp, or the temp of your fingers. Then wiggle around the wires while they're together and see if the reading changes. If it does, then there's something wrong in the wires themselves.

If it's a good porcelain or otherwise vitrified tile it can work well. In your climate you want to avoid any type of tile that is porous, as it can absorb water and freeze, resulting in cracking.

Still intact, but a much harder angle that requires a couple pins to keep it from coming out of the channel at the bottom turn.

Thanks for the update! Are you going to do some more tests at different temps to see how hot you can go with the bisque? I feel like the hotter the better to ensure good burnout? What's the melting point of your frit? 
I love how they did the transition element groove on your kiln. It makes so much more sense than the hard angle the US kiln manufacturers like to do.

In my experience, these black bodies do well with glazes that are opaque and relatively fluid. Amaco potter's choice series, layered, tend to work pretty well.
For the apply-and-wipe method you want to do it on bisque ware, otherwise you'll mess up the texture when you wipe. Since you need to apply slips at the wet or leather hard stage, it's not a good choice. Commercial underglazes are a good way to accent texture with the apply-and-wipe method, and generally easier to use than making your own colored slips.

Are you slab building the mugs or making molds? PVC pipe works great, you just have to wrap a paper towel around it so the clay doesn't stick if you're using slabs.

Hi Wayne, welcome to the forum.
Everyone, here is the C6IRED schedule he's referring to.
Step °C °F Hold Time   1 138°C/hr to 121C  250°F/hr to 250F  60min 1:42 Evaporate all mechanical water 2 194°C/hr to 1148C  350°F/hr to 2100F  0 6:59   3 60°C/hr to 1204C  108°F/hr to 2200F  10min 8:04 Slow down to even out kiln chamber 4 555°C/hr to 1148C  999°F/hr to 2100F  30min 8:40 Heal blisters, pinholes here 5 555°C/hr to 960C  999°F/hr to 1760F  50min 9:51 Grow iron crystals here The Genesis controllers have been known to have a problem with the Wi-Fi module. You'll need to send it in to have the module replaced. The new modules appear to work fine. You'll need to contact them to get a repair authorization number.
That module may or may not be the cause of your firing problems, but it's probably not. The only time I've seen the wifi module create problems is when it totally freaks out and gives a 'soft watchdog error' code.
As for not following the schedule exactly, I'm not surprised. Most kilns can't keep up with a 350F/hr rate of climb, especially up to 2100F, and especially when you're running a kiln with zone control. It can't go that fast and keep the sections even. Plus your 9999 cooling times are going to be different depending on the size of the kiln and the amount of mass inside it.
It's possible that you do have a thermocouple problem. Have you checked the logs to make sure they're running evenly? If one is consistently out of whack with the others you should see that. Also check the thermocouple wire connections, especially on the ceramic block where they connect to the thermocouples. The wires can break under the set screws and cause jumpy readings. The second, 14 hour firing leads me to believe you're either getting a jumpy thermocouple reading or you have a relay that's sticking periodically. Again, if you look at the logs you should be able to see if a section is lagging.

In my experience, these black bodies do well with glazes that are opaque and relatively fluid. Amaco potter's choice series, layered, tend to work pretty well.
For the apply-and-wipe method you want to do it on bisque ware, otherwise you'll mess up the texture when you wipe. Since you need to apply slips at the wet or leather hard stage, it's not a good choice. Commercial underglazes are a good way to accent texture with the apply-and-wipe method, and generally easier to use than making your own colored slips.

I remember doing a technique like that in my silkscreen class way back in the day, only we just used paper instead of cricut vinyl. You adhere the stencil to the outside of the screen, the part that goes against the thing you’re printing on. Flood the screen with your printing “ink” and adhere the stencil to the screen with that. It’s good for simple images and mono printing, anything that doesn’t need registration marks for subsequent colours.

Yes, it would have to be connected to the wifi to get the firing logs. Sorry about that, I didn't think that through.
When controllers have problems it doesn't typically manifest as a firing problem like this. It's always something a lot more obvious like buttons stop working, or one section of the programming won't respond to inputs (cone fire mode won't work, for example), or you get some random error code that's specific to a mother board problem. Slow firings and such are almost always caused by the stuff connected to the controller (thermocouples system or relays), or even some sort of electrical interference. Since your controller was working fine before this, I expect it's not a controller issue. That said, I would definitely get the wifi module repaired and update to the most recent software just to be safe.
 

I don't know if this was already mentioned, but I just saw a video of someone who made their own screens using a store bought screen, but instead of using emulsion she used her Cricut machine to cut peel-and-stick vinyl. She then adhered it to the screen and it functioned like emulsion would. She was screening on fabric, but I don't see whey it wouldn't work to screen onto tissue paper to make your own stencils. She could then peel the vinyl and re-use the screen for another design. I'm sure there are limitations to this method, but if you have a Cricut it seems like a good option. I'm going to give it a try if I can find the time.