Mark C.

I would sand blast it for sure to get down to clean metal. You can weld (have a shop do this) a patch on any hole spot from the outside or inside and grind smooth all the inner welds(take the auger out,fully taking the unit apart). You cannot have holes in any opart of the barrel

Composite? John whats your guess on that material ? I have only seen aluminum heads

I have had Brent wheels sit for a decade with zero issues on start up. Electrics same deal-I life ina mosit rainforest for winters but no summer humidity

sorry to hear you are out of clay making

Drilling is the very very last resort-the PB blaster soaking for days then varouis mechanical tools would be my go to. Never had that fail ,heat before drilling for sure as well drilling will screw up the threads so that means retaping to the next larger size. patience is whats needed here and I have little myselg except when it comes to the se situations . The easy outs are the ticket as Hulk posted above -. Drill only the center-then soak it for a day or two then use the easy our-You tube this to see how if you do not have experience with tham

(I fired the kiln up to about 2100 F by having my gas pressure as high as it would go with no standing flame from the vent) You say you are adjusting gas presure-is this with the meter regulator? after that you say you turn it up-I'm confused its already on max? you said Or a presure regulator somewhere else? Or is this just the single valve to kiln? and its full on In terms of reduction that small flame out top does not mean the whole kiln is reducing. I can get a flame out of my 12 cubic upodraft with hardly any reduction in middle or bottom. To get that I need the damper in some. The damper need to be part of the cycle. The only way to keep the bottom from overfiring is to use a damper It sounds like you are still just barley getting enough gas down that long 3/4 inch gas line. Can you adjust your meter presure with a manometer ?do you know how to do that?This is a 1/4 pound presure (7inchs on a monometer right)

When that 50k-ohm rotary potentiometer you may be able to source another one on Brandons site in above posts. The mounting may be different. Mine lasted about 10 years in professional use. The plasic can become brittle as well.If you don't mind what did you pay for this wheel? I bought and sold one just like this about 10 years ago-was working fine

Here is what an older potentiometer looks like (all white unit) .The whole unit these days is all Black plastic Brandon covered all this well and then older units do get brittle and like this one in photo is cracked but can be epoxied to get more life from it. You need to be handy a bit to repair unit or replace the potentiometer

Whatever you do do not powder coast it inside as it will all chip out into the clay. Yes on the de-rust paint OUTSIDE ONLY. Yes on the sandblast. If the barrel is aluminum it can be be welded at a shop if its steel its ever easier to weld This pug mill looks like a beater so pay very little for it. It pre vacuum I assume which means you still need to wedge the air bubbles out so plan on that They make nicer units and I have seen many a bluebird with the vacuum feature for sale used as well. This unit is pretty far gone and will take some big work to get it cleaned up -hopefully it's free to start with

The belts are small single V belts as I mentioned and that will last a lifetime-I mentione this in above pots This wheel NEVER had a belt guard underneath most likely. I do not see any trim pots in your post on Feb 17th The trim controls for wheel are in the bottom of foot pedal not on the control board-it has no adjustments for anthing take the bottom cover off foot pedal-you will see a red and blue wheel that takes a straight blade screwdriver one is high end one is low end. They work together to fine tune them The two holes in deck someone drilled to attach a splash pan is my guess and use silicone to fill them as they will allow water to get under deck and be a rust issue Just for you info Brent never made a model B in the early days-see the brochure at top of this post for all the early models.Your 1/2 HP motor means it was a model C . I have that same wheel only an earlier model that does not have the plastic deck but a formica flat top with no ridges around perimeter. Model Bs which came later all had 1/3 HP motors as they are today No one left at Brent knows this stuff anymore i feel-all the old timers are long gone I think. That foot pedal is one of the early models and Brent has no parts for them. They do wear out over time so baby it if you can. You can buy a cheaper potentiometer here and fabracate it into this pedal here . Your potentiometer is white as all the early ones where white and now they are all black. When your contol board stops working the oldest control board brent sells will work fine for you but you will need a larger control box to fit it into. These early boards fit into a shallow steel electrical box and used toggle switches not rocker as you noted.You can buy rockers for cheap when that control board stops working later.You may get lots of years still on that board or not its a unknown. I keep a spare board in stock in studio but I have 5 wheels adn like to keep tham all working well. This is down the road for you as I have been there and done that long ago in terms of the larger plastic control box and new controls and reaplacing the foot pedal as well with the newer style. I have a spare foot pedal that was just sent to me from a person on this board who replaced theirs if you need one in the future. Let me know if you need any other info just PM me

The wheels sell well-I would ask 1/3 off new as a starting point-quality wheels really went up in price so find out what anew one costs to start with The kiln well its all depends on condition-same deal-harder to sell than a both your other items due to size Slab roller is a easy sale as they are hard to find used-very hard really

I use and own all kinds of brushes in the ceramics studio .Some I had as a Art major in collage (oil /water color and ceramics use) .I'll never use them all up in my life as i collected way to many to over the decades. I had a brother who bought a bunch from Japan in the 70s for me and a mother who went to china in the 80s and brought back a bunch for me. Since then I have amassed way to many on top of those I already had. I was also given a few boxes of the flat wide ones that are white hair wooden japanese one. She had a case of them.Then somewhere in the 80s I started to make my own. Well now maybe its time to think about letting some go. I did sell a bunch of pottery tools on one of the pottery facebook sites last year when cleaning out a studio area. Time to do more of that.Doing that with camera gear now as its a winter downsizing I do every year.

You need a timer knob as yours is missing as well.

instead of me addding to the how to ,I suggest this kiln conversion site as its all covered here by many Its the kiln conversion facebook group just about these type of kilns https://www.facebook.com/groups/4124895130900261

Just for reference once I reach bisque temp in all my gas Kilns (I have 4) I usually leave the gas setting alone and just use the damper to contol kiln no need to micro adjust gas settings thru a firing past 1800-2000

I forgot to add use cones all over to see whats going on. I suggest going slow and not using to much gas. You need a digital pyrometer to make sure you are climbing when it stalls if it stalls adjust the damper 1st ,If this fail and you have a piece of metal (lightweight ) pipe add it to lid to increase draft as noted in above posts or use a few soft bricks to do the same deal with damper on top. Try not to over gas it (meaning more gas is better as this is often not the case. Since your burners like mine are fixed you only have the gas to turn up or down and the damper. My updraft is exactly like this with those only two functions. A little damper in makes it climb slowly Now if all this fails I would like to know how much more gas you have meaning whats left on the valve 1/4 turn or less ( FULL PORT ball valve only)

The slow blow fuse is in all Brent wheels and you can get one at a good electronics supply store or online The deck issue is this (I own the same wheel and deck exactly) the new under deck that Brent sells will work maybe only with major modifications . I think a easier better solution is make your own with thin plywood to protect cat tails maybe 3/16 Liaun plywood with reinforced corners stabled and glued the screw it to inside frame with prefilled holes on inside,if you buy a Brent one it may not fit at all and to make it fit you will have to cut it and modify it at the very least call them to see if they have done this before. I have 5 Brent’s and my old model c is not protected by the newer style pan as I do not let cats in studio. as to your belts they are neither what you described but two single individual belts and Brent did sell them so call and ask about them as well even if they are not on the website. I may know of a pair but it’s a long shot . Contact me if Brent has none ,these belts last forever did this she’ll have none when you got it?I replaced my wheel head on my model c long ago and it comes with a larger 3/4 shaft which uses the newer Brent belts and I also had to get a new motor pulley the that matched the new belt grooves. That all costs a bunch of money from Brent for this upgrade. The next big cost is replacing the old style foot pedal thar came with this wheel what does your foot pedal look like?. As this will aid me in determining what you have. now that the frame is stripped consider derusting the undersides and painting it if you are going to restore it mark

As I said I have burners like yours on asmall updraft. They are a little different but non adjustable all the same. Just make sure you have a good volume of gas to supply them . Pipe is large enough all the way from meter.With monimal restrictions. Yes put a shelve on top of load under the lid and use staggered shelve is possible on split levels. Uss a damper -you choice of material

Seems like a great deal for someone close by . I own the 30 inch electric with the long table and they are great machines. I also changed out that safety twoi handed switch to a foot pedal on off. I hated that two handed safety switch as a single user in my studio .

I ha ve burners like yours and you cannot adjust them much. I have seen to much gas usually can be a problem and not using the damper to gain temp can also be a factor. More gas is usally not goin g to help but it can hinder and slow down the temp. Finding the right mix .as Neil says maybe a small amout of stack (chimney) can also help.

Yes small metal pipe may help with the draft draw-great idea Babs

You need a damper-I suggets thin broken kiln shelve say 1/2 inch thick so that the weight is minimal -or just a soft brick which is light still Also I would run as the larger pipe (I thought you said it was 3/4) all the way to kiln. It looks like you necked it down somewhere in last 10 feet with smaller flex? Its usually not a pressure issue with natural gas its a volume issue, so keep the pipe as big as you can to the kiln. I have those same type of burners on an updraft . You cannot change your altitude so you need to have all the other functions perfect

When it comes to kilns (and I assume this is an electric only thread) I do it all myself. I have a manual electric skutt (no computer) I added a fire rite control that turns it up as fast or slow as I need. I do not fire this much anymore as most pots are bisqued in my gas kilns. I have rebuilt a few of these type of kilns. pretty easy stuff. Same with shelves I do all the maintenance . I never fire over bisque temps in my 10 cubic skutt.I have upgraded to better connectors (not crimps) and leave all switches on high (the fire rite turns the kiln on and off) I did replace some of the jacket a few years ago and have more jackets in a box but have yet to finish the job..I think I fired this once last year.Its cone sitter kiln for turn off with a safety timer.I did repaint all the contol boxes a non skutt color when the red color flaked off with rust. I have upgraded to real stainless screws as well so they do not rust. Any time I work on it I make it better with better materials when I can. Thees manuel kilns are pretty bullet proof and go for a long time without trouble.I have had 3 skits over time (all used) and if I bought new one it would be an L&L. I would hope L&L used better stainless screws and parts. My beef with electric kiln companies is they skimp on quaility on small parts to save a few bucks. The stands are to small and the controls get to hot from lack of space and insulation. The stainless can be of poor quaility as well and rust.Not sure if any manufacture has it all figurted out. I do like the hard element holders of top brands as well this feature alone is worth it in my view as the bricks break out every element change if there is not hard holder.

You can always add some alumina to it.Just remember to keep it this on the fiber so it does not spall off from its own weight

I googled this issue and you are not alone. Seems many are in your boat. I would try the phone and his direct email. That amount of time is Not ok to wait