neilestrick

When I graduated from college with my ceramics degree my professor said I should buy a test kiln  for my glazes.   Cone 6 oxidation glazes were fairly new and would need testing on different clay's.   My husband said to consider it a graduation present.   I recently bought a new Paragon Caldera XL test kiln to replace my old AIM kiln.   My old one doesn't have a computer  and the walls are on the thin side.   It cools really fast which can change the glaze.  The need to test glazes is even greater with the substitution of different ingredients in a glaze formulas today.   The best compliment  on my glaze work was from another potter.   I was dropping off  a load of pots at a gallery,  another potter was there watching me.  She came up to me as I was about to leave and said to me that I really paid attention to my glaze.   She said each pot had the right glaze for it, if it had two glazes they were applied at just the right level and the glazes were perfect.   Her comments to me were so much more valuable than anything I sold.  I didn't think anyone gave a second thought to the glaze, for me a glaze can make or break it.   Denice

If you plan to glaze fire to cone 6 (2230F), then you want a kiln that can fire to cone 10. That way your elements can wear quite a bit before they need to be replaced. A cone 10 kiln will get about 40% more element life than a cone 8 kiln when firing to cone 6.
You order the kiln according to the electrical service in the building. You can run a single phase kiln in a building that has 3 phase service. You cannot run a 3 phase kiln in a building that only has single phase service.
There is no good reason to buy a manual kiln. Get a digital kiln, and get the new touch screen controller. They're easier to program than the old controllers, are more user-friendly for custom programs, and make diagnosing problems a lot easier.
It's not a bad idea to have a small kiln for testing or small batches, and a larger kiln for producing work. You have to have the proper electrical circuit run for each one, though, so buying a small kiln now and a larger one later can get expensive in electrician costs.
I would not buy anything until you know where you're going to put it. The electrical requirements are different for every kiln, so you first have to make sure that the electrical system in your building can handle the kiln you want.
 

Finishing the bottom of a pot is a necessary step in the process, just like throwing and glazing, and all three steps are equally important to the success of the work. Finishing the bottom can be very involved like trimming a fancy raised foot, or it may be very simple like just rolling the foot on the table to smooth out the corner. Whatever method you choose, it needs to be done well and the results should enhance the pot. Too many people see trimming as an annoyance that has to be tolerated rather than mastered- everyone wants to put all their effort into mastering throwing. Mastering trimming  will make one a better potter just like mastering throwing and glazing, and to me that means mastering all aspects of trimming, including centering and anchoring your pots. The Giffin Grip works great for some types of pots, but not so much for others, so learning other techniques is absolutely necessary.
As I said in my original post, if you want to use a Giffin Grip then go for it. If it works for you, great, nobody is stopping you! But I do not allow them in my studio because it is my job as an instructor to lead my students to mastery, and that does not involve using a GG. And I can assure you that my students appreciate that and are making beautiful work despite my tyrannical methods. If you would like to open your own studio and rent Giffin Grips to your students, then by all means do it, and good luck.

What clay body are you using?

The last 200F degrees are all that matter in terms of heatwork/cones and your glazes. Prior to that, you really just want a program that your pots can handle, and that your kiln can keep up with. My kilns can only maintain 325F/hr up to about 1950ish and still maintain evenness before it lags. But that's plenty fast. I do a simple 3 step program going up:
200F/hr to 200F, hold as needed
300F/hr to 1975F
100F/hr to 2175F
That gets me to cone 6 in about 8.5 hours. It's a schedule my kiln can keep up with even with heavy loads.  I do the same ramps for bisque.
I don't think there's any reason to add a hold midway up. If things are going to even out, they should do it in the last 200F degrees. With single zone kilns, how you load it is going to have a huge effect on how evenly it fires, probably more than the firing schedule. Pack the center tight, pack the top and bottom lighter.

Interesting. How would the 350F/hr ramp affect the next segment, 150F/hr slowing, and why should that matter if the final ramp up is the more important? 
The 500F/hr was a paste error. I ran the schedule with 9999.  
Confirmed set to type K.  Also, I found the Genesis tech manual.  I'm now armed and dangerous.

I'd use  a waster slab. Put some alumina wax on it so they don't stick together. The waster doesn't have to be very thick at all, and it doesn't have to be in one piece, so don't worry if it cracks.

Yes, hard wiring does eliminate a possible weak point in the system, but from a maintenance and repair standpoint I prefer plugs to hard-wired because I don't have to work around a fixed cord that may or may not allow me to easily open the control box(es) and work inside them. More often than not, with hard-wired kilns I end up having to either hold the box open with my knee while I work in the box (uncomfortable and not as safe), or remove the box completely. With a plug I can just unplug the kiln and move the cord wherever I need it to be. I work on a lot of kilns with plugs, and every year I do run into a couple that need the outlet to be replaced due to corrosion and/or arcing, so it does happen. However those are almost always kilns at schools where people are not regularly inspecting the system. If you have it hard wired, use a long enough whip that you can open the inner box all the way without the whip being a nuisance, assuming a whip that long is allowed by your local code. At the very least it needs to be long enough that you can open the inner box far enough to pull the wires through so the box can be removed.

Nope, no worries. What you're seeing there is the outer insulation fraying where it was stripped back, which is perfectly normal.
Welcome to the forum!

If the heat is at the outlet, and the cord is cooler where it connects to the kiln, I would replace the plug and outlet. Also inspect the wires in the cord and the and wall, and replace them if they show signs of having overheated. If the cord is hot where it connects to the kiln, then replace the cord.

Thank you for sharing!

I would remove the wheel portion and mount it onto its own little support structure like a small table, and just use a stool to sit on. A simple table built with 4x4's and 2x4's with a plywood top (seal the plywood) would work just fine. Or even put it up on cinder blocks.

Yes, you can use paperclay and regular clay together. Paperclay is very useful for patching greenware, and you can make small batches using slip and toilet paper. The weight savings in paperclay is negligible. 

So it seems like they became Firecraft Kilns who was then bought by Pottery Supply House.  
 
Hope this helps anyone else out.  I've contacted PSH and will post any info I get.
 
Cheers
 

 

The program finished and I just unloaded the kiln this morning - everything looks good (hallelujah!). Hopefully I'll get the new thermos in early this week. Thank you again so so much for your help!

Let it run and see what happens.

I don't think we need to be looking at the Cress relay setup at all. The elements run on 240 volts, so just connect the element connection wires to the Electrositter accordingly. 

You won't have to do anything inside the controller. It already has a 50 amp relay wired to the four screws on the back of the Electrositter. All you need to do is wire the power cord to the correct 2 terminals on the Electrositter, which you've already done, and wire the elements directly to the other two screws. You'll just have to make sure the elements are wired correctly. I don't see a wiring diagram for that specific model on the Cress website, but there are several that are probably similar, and it looks like the top and bottom elements are wired in series, and the middle elements are wired in series? If that's the case in your kiln, then piece of cake- one lead wire from the t/b and one lead wire from the middle will connect to one screw on the Electrositter, and the other two leads will connect to the other screw.

Hi and welcome to the forum!
There’s not really any awful brands in North America, so that isn’t an automatic disqualifier. Buying a used kiln is more about the condition it’s in, how difficult parts are acquire if necessary, and if you can get tech support for it. Cress is definitely in business still, and although I personally don’t have a Cress distributor nearby, I still got good customer service over the phone when I needed it, despite being in another country.
In terms of not wanting to waste money on a used kiln, you want to have a look at the bricks and elements to make sure they’re in good condition. Elements shouldn’t be lying down, the brick should be clean looking, with few or minimal cracks/chips. No burnt wiring, that kind of thing. Unless you’re buying it from someone knowledgeable, they probably won’t be able to tell you the number of firings on it, but that would be nice info if you can get it. But even if you bought the kiln for a few hundred dollars and had to  replace the elements and relays, you’d have a brand new kiln for less than brand new prices. It just depends on how into diy you are.
I looked on their website and couldn’t find an e1418, although they have both an e1414 and e2418.  The difference just seems to be size. The 1414 is a test or jewelry kiln, and wouldn’t be suitable for making anything much larger. The 2418 is a nice small starter kiln. You can download manuals and specs if you need.
 
 

New kiln. It’s part of the joy. I’ve taken pictures of the insides of many people’s kilns, a lot of them similar to your design. The majority have a target/deflector brick (usually near the end of the the flame trough). So, in addition to the bagwall height, and adjustments to burners, that’s another arrow in your quiver.
My initial reaction was, “Oh, downdraft too hot on the bottom? Lucky.” I’ve had much easier time fixing that problem than the other way around. For me raising the bagwall 4-1/2” went from a cone too hot on bottom to even. It almost felt unnatural how even it fired after that. Also, though you’re already keen to this, hurrying things tends to expand the differences.

60 amp circuit? Shouldn't that be 30 amps?
Assuming the thermocouple is good, the only other thing I would expect is a relay that's sticking when the kiln gets hot. I'd start with changing the thermocouple, though.
At 18" wide and 22.5" deep, and pulling 24 amps, I'd say that kiln is not a very strong cone 10 kiln, more like maybe cone 8/9. But it should still get to cone 6 with the elements in spec.
I would change that rate to 9999/hr.  At 500/hr you're in the realm where we often see problems because the kiln can't cool that quickly.

I recommend Fast Bisque to all of my customers. It's not really very fast, plenty slow for good burnout.

I recommend Fast Bisque to all of my customers. It's not really very fast, plenty slow for good burnout.

If they have gaps you could try closing up the gaps.  Otherwise just a couple inches will probably make a difference.  Slowing down the firing at the end can also help, like for the last 2-3 cones.
Given that the kiln is built and you're not going to be adding insulation or moving the burners, at this point changing the bag wall and/or target brick and making adjustments to the burner settings are your only options. And honestly, if you're within one cone, then there's no reason to make and significant changes to the kiln design itself. Bag wall and settings should be able to dial it in just fine.

The air going through the vent shouldn't be more than 140F degrees, but that's pretty hot to the touch. Make sure the cup that attaches to the kiln isn't clogged in any way so that it's not pulling in room air. The vent pulls a little bit of air from the kiln through the holes in the kiln floor, and and mixes it with a lot of air from the room through the holes in the side of the cup. As long as that's all good you're probably fine. Those motors typically fail due to everything corroding or the bearings wearing to the point that the motor can no longer make it turn. I've never seen one overheat to the point that it melts down or anything like that. They usually run very loud before failure.