Bill Kielb

Yep, Just confirmed - pg 17 of the manual. If set at 56f it needs to be 100 f. @High Bridge Pottery is spot on. Not sure how long it took to error so 100 degrees from setpoint would give it more time to make temp without the error. What ramp speeds have you been programming or are you using cone fire mode?

They look pretty decent, cleaning and retightening ok but if you can measure the elements as accurate as possible that would tell us a whole bunch. If I understand it, they all glow so if you have the means measure first and let’s see if they are in reasonable range is my thought. Put that issue 100% away at this point.

Can you just measure their resistance? Curious if any are open?

What cone are you firing to. When I used Palladium successfully it needed to be applied heavily and above cone 5 had random pinholes / blisters. Amaco called it a float glaze which needed enough thickness for things to float to the top as they said at the time. My experience, it needs the thickness, so gravity is not your friend. Maybe test tiles at cone 5. I can say it seems to tarnish over time as well. The family bragging rights Super Bowl trophy looked way better ten years ago.

If I read your timing right, I am guessing about 300 f per hour on average, which likely would be hard to achieve on only half the elements. If elements aren’t visibly glowing at about 1000f something is generally wrong especially for single zone so hopefully you are in good shape.

Way to go! Thanks, fingers crossed.

Might be crazy but probably could figure out visually and confirm with strain gauges. It might be a big flop or wildly successful at removing bubbles or even influencing glaze surfaces, textures and the way a glaze breaks in a unique way…….. interesting!

I would suggest buying kiln rigidiizer and following the instructions for best application. I looked at Axner / Laguna but believe it is available many other places. Quick video here: https://youtu.be/ncGdQvYf4gY - not the greatest video actually. Like the food coloring idea though. Instructions for kaowool rigidizer here: https://www.soundingstone.com/products/kaowool-rigidizer Looks like spray, dip, roll, pour …… hundson sprayer probably a good choice. Dont forget to use your mask for sure.

Sounds like low power ultrasonic applied at the right time might be a mobilization and coalescing vehicle. Just need to make sure the kiln doesn’t turn into vintage vibrating football / soccer game. I am thinking the mass of the ware is much greater than the molten glaze

Not much to convert - new orifice sizes ( smaller) proper regulator for the propane. The question is which is more convenient and cost effective for you? If natural gas is available in sufficient quantity, why would you convert?

I was thinking her optimum silica and alumina observation are consistent with your findings actually. For clear glazes, thinner just a common sense pottery practice really. Any thoughts of enhanced removal mechanically by ultrasonic excitation.

The difficulty we noticed and actually humans have to navigate, are the very small pressures to monitor and interpret. Linear movement of a damper changes area / draft exponentially. Minor gas pressure changes that vary the output again exponentially by nature and valves are not proportional while the kiln dynamic losses increase. Reduction was a bit difficult as well. In the end we settled to build and program a monitor that could help folks fire manually. Seeing the effect of minor changes and managing a firing rate definitely helped folks learn the techniques. Interesting project, remote monitoring and reminder timers ended up to be an important tool that got a lot of use, plus folks learned real firing rates, minimal adjustment and consistent reduction strategies. A monitor ended up a far better teaching tool than pure automation.

I wouldn’t stretch it. The Pacifica video shows them soaking in hot water though - not boiling, but hot tap water. Are you certain you have the right size would be my thought.

Providing it’s the right size, has anyone showed you how to roll a belt into place? At just 1:00 minute in the instructor rolls a fan belt on. https://youtu.be/cSeRBFtMLIM Careful though, keep your fingers away from being pinched. Here is a Pacifica video https://youtu.be/Iw5cpbXNc24

This may be of interest to you. Not scientific nor entirely about bubbles but an interesting way to dial in best clarity. Just some studio tested methodology which focuses in on the perfect silica and alumina levels for best clarity. Anyway, other interesting aspects as Sue seeks some practical ways to obtain the clearest. https://suemcleodceramics.com/getting-clarity-with-clear-glazes/

You may find load splitters practical. With EV chargers becoming possible most load splitters will delay one load while another load is in use. Not saying it fits your need, but might be something to explore. A popular load to delay would be an electric dryer - if you have one.

Did you establish automatic damper management as more fuel was introduced ?

Maybe, a kiln that doesn’t climb, center elements that are dark, relays tied together to operate in parallel. The test button is an easy test option as well as amperage tests and voltage confirmations…... Seems to be a reasonable probability it is a relay. Other things definitely can occur on occasion though. For the thirteen - twenty bucks or so for a relay, I think it’s the most reasonable choice actually.

Also, Pool supplies (ph adjustment) also known as muriatic acid, or dilute hcl.

Just jump the red to yellow at that switch to remove its function from the circuit. Supervise the firing for sure though. If it is wired as fail safe then the kiln will fire. If it triggers a lockout, then it will be locked out to start.

I don’t think there is much risk here, your relays are parallel wired to activate and the connections look good so both relays fire together. You waited until 800 degrees so I would expect anything not glowing is just not operating. You can test each relay by pushing and holding the test button in. Unfortunately doing this with power applied can be tricky. Instead you can tape over the push button manually engaging it and observe the operation. The problem with doing this is your elements will immediately turn on and stay on without the controller calling for the machine to run. So turn off power to the machine, tape the relay test switch down firmly and then energize the kiln staying away from any open wiring. The elements will begin to glow for the relay that has the test button depressed. In this way you can test which relay goes to which elements. It’s not 100% foolproof but fairly close unless there are burned contacts inside the relay. Nothing on the back of those relays indicates the contacts have overheated so at this point it appears to be a relay coil that is not working. Hard to address all possibilities remotely but the logic thus far, indicates you likely have a bad relay.

Yes I do mean that blue wire, but it is for later. If the feeds are aluminum as the blue one appears, it will be something prudent to change in time. Aluminum for kiln feeds is just not good practice anymore. Not something for today, maybe something for the near future if they turn out to match the neutral and are aluminum also.

Most gas kilns can be fired by hand regulating the gas valve periodically as you climb. Also regulating the damper as well. Automatic gas kilns that can do this effectively are generally very expensive and automatic reduction gas kilns generally even more so. In the end, not difficult and a good skill to have. Gas kilns generally need to be supervised for the whole firing. Set it and forget it electric style firings not so much.

In the very end, after this is all working, let’s take a look at the old power leads that came with the kiln. The blue wire in your picture which would be used in EU wiring typically appears to be aluminum. If the old power leads are aluminum (as was common for a time some years back) I would suggest changing to copper eventually. If it’s just plated wire, then likely ok. Something, maybe to plan for inthe near future if in fact aluminum.

It does, not sure that is the shape of a diode though so want to double check. She has a remote controller and these power relays are a decent inductive load and take very little current to activate (I used to use them) so protecting the relay in her remote controller a really good thing. Just want to verify how they are doing it, hopefully it’s a diode to which it’s permanently crimped in the circuit so polarity likely not an issue as long as the wires go back. Just double checking, not something often found in kilns. Edit And yes, my interpretation is top and bottom on one relay, middle on another so really likely one whole relay out.