Hulk

Ceramic Shop lists this part: SBCBWHA From Clay Planet website: "14” wheel head with sturdy steel structure and long lasting polypropolene[sic] composite surface "

Check to see if this Operating Manual matches your unit? There's wiring diagrams at the end. Note the thermocouple spec, page thirteen. See also the current/power specs... Topworker P59750 P59760 P59770 P59590 manual A.pdf (wsimg.com)

Might get more than ten years! Post part number(s) if you have them Pluton, please. That rack and pinion potentiometer brings back memories! ...many instances of "come with me" to point out a failed potentiometer - some were gear driven, some had a cable that wound/unwound a reel - providing position data on sheet steel production lines in the steel mill where I once worked*. When automation failed, just finding the fault/problem/cause wasn't enough, no, there "had to" be concrete proof. *the mill is fully closed now. The 87 acres "under roof" to be converted to a Ama*** warehouse!

Hi Nawaf, Welcome to the Forum! I'm not finding a wiring diagram for that kiln. The cut wires (third and fourth images), each color is unique, that could help?

I'm-a start saving for lightweight shelving!

Hope you can get the set screws loosened/removed without damaging the threaded holes. A drop of LiquidWrench might help - it dissolves rust/oxidation. We've used heat to loosen threaded fasteners*; warming the surrounding metal causes it to expand. Tap-tap, some light percussion - a hammer*** - can help loosen the oxidation/rust. Repeat the heat, the taps, the time while the LiquidWrench soak in thar... Stubborn/broken threaded bits sometimes respond well to screw extractor type tools. I've had better luck with the straight tapers, e.g. over the spiral type. Be careful to drill the stuck part without damaging the threads in the surrounding material(s)! Added: if the threads are damaged, "chasing" the hole with a tap might save it, else, if there's room to drill it out and cut new threads to the next largest size - that could save it. *One must be very careful when using heat! Not burning oneself, others, the shop, its furnishings and tools, check. Add: beware generating fumes; beware changing the surrounding metal's temper; beware cooking any seal, bearing, grease, paint, etc. ***Tap-tap! Careful there, so easy to allow frustration to boil over and over-hit, heh.

How the boards hold up, and how well the paint withstands the wear and wet/dry cycles, tbd.

Update on the cement siding board* bats. I recommend sanding them smooth, painting/sealing them so the working surface is less abrasive, and trimming the edges with a tile saw (wet saw). The bats are very stiff, not heavy, store nicely, are easy and not terribly expensive to make, even if paying full retail for a plank or two. The material is somewhat brittle; I'm curious to see how they hold up. Per prior, sanding with the powered random orbital sander gets them smooth enough to use; I used 120 grit discs. ...smooth enough, yes, but I didn't use them - my other bats are smoother. Also, I can choose between a bit absorbent (powder board), not absorbent at all (plastic), or very absorbent (plaster). The cement board bats are between "a bit" and "very" absorbent - which I haven't been interested in. So, I sanded off the six demo bats more, washed and dried them, then shot them with aerosol can "epoxy" paint (I found Krylon appliance paint at the local box store). The new cement board is "pre primed," hence, two coats seem sufficient. Between coats, allow to dry, sand off the gloss, clean (!important!), then apply next coat. The bats made from older cement board - that isn't pre primed - three coats seem sufficient. The fibers stick up when wetted by the paint but are easily sanded off once the paint is fully dry. Above are a few of the second batch of bats (after one coat of paint). The wet saw cuts are smooth and tight - almost polished. I've knocked the edges off with the sander and rounded off the 45° corners as well. Clipping the corners at 45°, I recommend that, for even a rounded off 90° doesn't feel good if/when it whacks your hand; besides, the clipped corners are tougher. In the shot, there's a kitchen squirt container, very handy for glazing; a cut in half sponge; a corner of a sponge, and some greenware. Here's two of the first batch of bats. I'd cut the corners and lengths with siding board shears. The shears leave some crushing along the edges, which is fine for siding hung on a building, but not so much for this application, for little bits will eventually work loose and end up in the reclaim, so these edges were cut back a bit more with the tile saw. I'd tried for a rounded corner, eeh, they look a little ragged. In the shot is a Skutt wheel, cut in half sponge, a one gallon plastic bucket (coming up on forty years, that bucket), and clothespin chamois keeper. *Cement siding - HardiPlank here - has embossed wood grain pattern on the "show" side, mostly smooth on the back side. We're using the back side, which is somewhat smoother than tile backer board's back side, per my assessment... The plank thickness seems perfect, just enough to cover the bat pins.

Hi Mak, Welcome to the Forum! Are you more interested in application and techniques or theory, materials, recipes? Both? For theory, material and recipes, I've found Tony Hansen's website DigitalFire.com to be very helpful, also threads on this Forum. I'm using a few recipes from Bill Van Gilder's book, Wheel-thrown Pottery. See also Hesselberth's website (archived here: Tested Glazes | Frog Pond Pottery (archive.org)) and the book he and Ron Roy wrote, Mastering Cone 6 Glazes. There are many threads on recipes here as well. I'm still grateful for the help with my liner glaze that regular members offered... I've a copy of Peterson's The Craft and Art of Clay, which I found very helpful, generally, and particularly for the explanation of "Unity" and discussion on materials. Software can be very helpful; there are several choices. I'm using Hesselberth's GlazeMaster. For pouring and dipping, adjusting the specific gravity and thixotropy of glaze has been super helpful to me, see Thixotropy and How to Gel a Ceramic Glaze (digitalfire.com) ...which made glazing fun!

Yep! See also Craigslist? ...widen your search to include metro areas within several hundred miles or more...

Although the market for used pottery gear may have softened a bit, looks to still be very strong. My only suggestions would be a) peruse recent listings (new & used) - same as buyers would do - and price accordingly, and b) keep the wheel, if you've a place for it to wait

Have done very little in kiln repair/maintenance ...so far, just disassemble, move, assemble a used kiln; rebuild used kiln's sitter; design (credit to several diy postings) and build powered vent; design and build overhead vent; install wiring for new kiln; assemble new kiln; minor troubleshooting of new kiln, aaand periodic vacuuming. So, low rating for Hulk. My siblings and I grew up in a diy household. We took apart just about everything ...an' put most of 'em back together as well. "Learn by doing" is. So is learn from mistakes (which is, imo, thoroughly baked into, endemic in Learn By Doing...). Know a lot? Good-oh, likely a lot of mistakes associated with that knowledge. A problem with knowing, as knowledge grows/widens/expands, so does the unknown - the border, the edges, the area, the vastness of the unknown expands right along with the known - so says the pundits, eh?

Spreadsheet maybe? I use one for updating my Wordle average each day, another for the running list of used words. ...another for bike miles and bike related metrics. Another for bookkeeping, with a page/tab for each category. Several with pottery related stuff. They can be handy for repetitive maths. I'd learned to appreciate Excel through work - so handy for analysis (protocol, messaging, transcription...) as well as repeat stuff (students' grades, energy calcs...) I like the recycle idea! We've thrown rocks and cement chunks into fence post holes to save on concrete...

Tiny tips one may have never seen, read, or heard 'bout before. Flexible metal rib, ideal (almost) for moving insects on the surface of water/glaze/liquid to outside the Studio. Tiny spiders, gnats, et cetera land on the surface tension - timely removal can prevent a tiny insectoid blob (and the bug can live on!). The rib's edge, just on the surface, allows the bug to change footing without wetting, nor harming them. Step outside, blow the bug gently off the rib, onto a rock, plant, or somewhat. Note the tiny antennae nod of thanks. Using actual real chamois leather chamois*? Is it floppy - stretched out - slimy and soft? When next you pour hot water into your throwing bucket, note that your chamois, when exposed to hot water, will shrink and "tighten up" considerably! ...maybe too tight? Don't worry, it will loosen up after while... It's not rainy today! *We have an actual leather chamois that was a gift promotion from an auto parts store, decades ago. I've been trimming strips off of it for pottery use over the last six+ years...

Perhaps Per B Sundberg, per image search Per B Sundberg | Objekt med hål (2013), Available for Sale | Artsy | Ceramic art, Pottery sculpture, Sculpture art (pinterest.com)

Double check that chromite! ...to be sure, what, exactly, is it? More to the point, is it a stable and fairly safe material? Is it a somewhat toxic material? Is it a highly toxic material? If there's any interest in mixing glazes, keep'm!

Yep, that's loud! My Skutt (Stephen Hill model, bought "used" in 2018 - preowned, not actually used) is loud; it has quieted down some with use. It was much louder clockwise than counterclockwise, at first, now opposite (I run clockwise). Commutator clean-up and polish helped, a lot at first, but the racket ramped back up some - not as much as afore tho'. I've often thought to do some sound proofing, but then I just turn on the surround sound and get throwing! We have some Elastilon (closed cell foam floor underlayment with a sticky side) scraps that might help. I'll report back when, err, if I get around to it. If soundproofing/dampening, be sure to avoid blocking the motor's cooling - keep it cool. added: You might reach out to Skutt support; they have a solid reputation for responsiveness... Several Forum regulars use Skutt wheels; check back for updates...

Hi River, Welcome to the Forum! Good questions, check back for updates from those experienced with porcelain*. Meanwhile, here's an excerpt from this thread Handle cracking question - Studio Operations and Making Work - Ceramic Arts Daily Community: "I produce tons of handled mugs in C 10 porcelain (Daves-from Laguna ) with very little cracking-about 100 a week currently. I make my slip from my throwing slop off my hands and splash pan add a very small amount of vinegar now and then I score the join with a serraeted tool and add the slip -join-then cover the 5o mugs with plastic for the night. Uncover them next day and dry. if I have any small cracks I just rub it out when dry with a sharp wood tool." *US Pigment carries an Aneto Porcelain: Aneto – White Porcelain – US Pigment Corporation

Fingers crossed!

An electric heater may help. We use electric "crock pots" to melt wax for bicycle chains, e.g. New, this type of unit starts at $20+ (US dollars), however, we found used ones at local thrift stores for less than $10...

Nearly empty kiln, likely that cooling is significantly faster than kiln loaded with ware and kiln furniture (shelves and posts, heavy). As Bill has pointed out, the cooling rate can be slowed (difficult to speed up, however, other than reducing mass). With less mass, heat up could be faster, the second ramp, particularly, if not the last ramp up, which you've capped at 100°/hour... The smaller marks are "healed" over; the bigger pits/holes are the problem, ah! The close-up image, looks like stubborn chunk of off-gassing stuff in the clay, and you're already holding a full hour ~1500°F. With kiln vent running throughout? ...ah, yes, EnviroVent, check. If it is stubborn bits in the clay, long side glance at other batch/source of clay?

The circled defects (posted image by OP, above), is the bare clay visible? Are the other(smaller) spots also defects? ...looks like tiny pits in the glaze. The circled spots look like what I've called "large particle defect" - where something in the clay was off gassing, something that wasn't burned out in the bisque. I'd added a hold at 1500°F to the bisque when experimenting with black and dark red clays*; it seemed to help, a lot. One full hour, or half hour on the way up and again on the way down. Since, I've left the bisque hold, against the occasional "large particle defect" which seems to happen more or less often, depending on the clay... Running a powered kiln vent - supplying oxygen - should be helping with the burnout*. Are there more defects where the clay is thicker? More defects in thicker/heavier pieces? The blue and green glazes aren't showing any defects? *credit to Forum member GlazeNerd

Rainy today, good, err, ok for glazing! "Good" on account o' I don't bike or yard work in the rain, hence more time to glaze. "OK" on account o' no midday sunshine to warm up the Studio and no setting pots out in the sun to dry faster*. Was doing seven to ten glaze loads/year, however, an accident (October 2022), then moving, some projects, and a few other things came up ...one glaze load in the new kiln at our new (to us) home since Fall 2022, glazing for the second load now. Hope to get back to filling the kiln every month or so. Before, I felt like there's a volume/time threshold where improvements ramp up, where there's some longer sessions and higher frequency, bringing along established "standards," and making time to explore variations, new shapes, sizes, forms, clay ...new stuff as well as moving along with the most familiar. I like having a seven (6.7) cubic foot kiln to fill. There's enough repetition to get rhythm, but not too too much. *I'm letting the pots thoroughly dry after liner glazing before glazing the outside - sunny weather is faster. ...add on that I wax, cut the transition, sponge for a sharp line - there's wait for the wax to dry, wait for the sponge-away moisture to dry, that's three waits. Getting part of the load to the next step asap helps march them all along, like pipeline processing, heh.

Kiln glasses against harmful rays and superheated flying bits! Flying bit risk is extremely low, yes, however, harmful ray risk is, is.

We've tented frost sensitive citrus (dwarf variety, in containers) trees with a light tarp to get them through freezing nights - a short string of xmas lights to add some heat makes a big difference...