Bill Kielb

Maybe, I think a clear picture and model number lookup likely answers the questions. Max temp generally means absolute top or design limit so firing to 1945 f (cone 04) probably hard to do if not brand new. A lookup of the model on Paragons website possibly provides the best info.

Generally a registering agent can be you, a company or a professional individual that meets the requirements of the state. Here is a good LLC guide to give you a better idea of the steps. Years ago I was an LLC in NC, among other states, very similar actually. https://howtostartanllc.com/south-carolina-llc

If it’s not making 60c per hour at the end then definitely check them. Actually no harm in knowing how to check them. Again though, make sure they are ALL glowing.. if one set is out because of a relay or connection it can also be a reason it slows down excessively at the top temperatures even though it was an empty kiln. If what you saw on camera and have been confirming with cones is correct, it appears under powered right now. How fast it goes in the beginning can be less material indication. If it cannot achieve its end firing speeds when it needs to have all power available, that is very material. The task is just to confirm why. Loose wires and bad relays, improper wiring are a thing. Make sure all elements are glowing as well, one of the simplest of things to check first.

Really interesting find and firing to cone 5 with a 15 minute hold gets you to cone 6 so firing with the equivalent of a slow rate, very likely gets you cone 6 or more. If that’s the issue, then the elements will continue to degrade and it will be very hard to get it to fire properly. Since your kiln was lightly loaded, If all this is true, fully loaded would make it worse. Generally when elements wear by 10% they need replacement so measuring to see if their resistance has risen by 10% or more from their new value is a good way to confirm. we are not sure all the elements are working though, so be sure they ALL are as well to rule that out.

I would suggest following the cone chart and firing the last 100c at the rate shown in the column or 60 c for the center column. If it fires too hot you can always drop to the cone 5-1/2 peak temp, still maintain the last 100c firing rate and dial that in. this is easy enough to do until you test a solid cone six. Oddly though things begin to over fire when the kiln fires slower than that rate. As kiln elements wear out, this does happen as their final segment where glazes mature actually is slower than the prescribed speed. Your calculations for the time are spot on, but is that what it is actually happening in real time? Finally thermocouple offsets are made for the occasion so it is possible that the thermocouple is incorrect. How accurate is it at room trmperature?

My vote: Katz class is great, and he is a derivative of Alfred University. Sue is a derivative of Katz, really like her as well and she has always provided a good deal of free content that I have followed for quite a bit. It’s hard not to support her, and she has taken the Katz model and added studio components to it. I believe Jessica Putnam Phillips still has a Zillion videos on you tube, participates in Clayshare and has developed some very ornate pieces, always pleasant to watch. She may have paid classes these days. John Britt still has a great online presence. Digital fire is still a great free resource. Old knowledge is still valid such books: Cullen Parmelee, Hasselberth and Roy, John Britt …….. all are valuable learning tools IMO. The Katz class in clay and glaze chemistry definitely is good to get early, it tends to help in perspective in my view as there are many many theories that run through the clay community.

There are a number of things that come to mind, but I would start with looking at results of strontium crystal magic and see if that fits the look you are trying to achieve. Here is a nice video with some samples https://youtu.be/56QFPsF2T04 you may find appealing.

Just some thoughts Sort of out of order and likely won’t stay put on cone 6 stuff. When things are bisque fired they sinter and not fully melt. They are a bit sturdier but not that great. Just curious if you intended to fire to cone 6 and get a very matte finish with your process. If yes, I am guessing the under glaze or in this case the stained body may have lightened up after firing hotter. If the guess is a yes, this is not uncommon and many manufactures provide some relative direction on what will happen to various colors as they fire higher. Some darken, some fade, etc…. Many sculpture artist I know fire their colors progressively hotter on test tiles to see where it no longer is artistically acceptable to them.

Yes, pretty rare but little critters have a habit of causing havoc, especially gas pilots where they often crawl in and make folks wonder what’s wrong with my gas kiln? Only way to figure out is with real stepwise troubleshooting. Good thing Bro was there!

Depending on height that might be a tough shape. As a practical matter though I would say first find out how much power you will need in Btuh. So let’s say if we start by taking all the watts it’s rated at now and multiply by 3.41 to convert watts to btu. A 10,000 watt cone 6 kiln in theory needs 34,100 btu to heat equivalently to cone 6. But wait, gas kilns need a flue and likely lose 50% or more of their heat through the flue. So in the example above you could size it at 150% - 200% or more to get burner sizing as the gas is infinitely adjustable so getting less heat just means dropping the gas pressure a bit. Then once total btu is known work backwards for number of propane bottles likely needed. As I said, this might be a tough shape to design in gas, I would refer to similar kilns already converted and see how many burners they used. Once you have a total energy needed it is easy to divide that up amongst smaller burners. If you intend to fire to cone 10 then that will cost you a bunch more energy. I think Olympic makes a round updraft prox 30” tall that uses 2 burners about 250,000 btu to get to cone ten. You likely will be in this range for energy but 4 small burners at 30k-50k each may even things out and a minor change in orifice size makes this easy to start conservatively at 30k and ramp up to 50 k or more. More small burners will provide better control at the beginning of firing when very little energy is needed and more consistency when oxidizing or reducing. so approximating all that above, 1 gallon of propane yields approximately 92,000 btuh. Pick a low and high consumption per hour, let’s say 50k btuh (low) to 150k btuh (high) means 0.5 gallons to 1.6 gallons per hour for let’s say 8-12 hours. A 20# grill type tanks hold 4.6 gallons full. A 40 pound tank is 9.2 gallons and so on. As your firing progresses you will consume more gas and the tanks will cool or ice which often means you will want to err on larger than smaller or have spare tanks ready as iced tanks will have reduced output just when you need it most. Double check my math.

Careful, would rather enlarge around your burner first. Any hole cut ought to be 90 degrees to the burner and on the same centerline or elevation of the burner. Flames will begin to emerge as you go into reduction so if this is not low enough it will hinder how you can reduce. Some pictures below to maybe give you ideas. Ignore the upper hole it is for soda injection. Also. Pic of Example of shelf as your bag wall as well. Just some ideas. The goal would be to get you enough secondary air so your damper could be closed as customary or even a bit more to help retain heat but make sure your flame is oxidizing still. You can always close the damper more to drive it into reduction pressurizing the kiln from top to bottom. Enough pressure and flames start to jet out your lower spyhole. This tiny pressure also hinders secondary air from entering so the mixture becomes very rich and reducing. Often really really small damper adjustments are made, like 1/16” at a time to fine tune this back pressure.

Double check the numbering on your cones. If five was tipped then 6 and 7 are hotter and will not be bent. If you are firing to cone 5 then a popular stack would be 4,5,6. Or guide, fire, guard if you will. The operator would see 4 begin to go down which was a guide or warning that things are close and observe until 5 goes down. That should leave cone 6 still standing. IR rated glasses can be purchased online pretty easily and IR 3 or higher are often suggested. Regular sunglasses won’t cut it kilns produce infrared not UV rays. Protect your eyes.

The last picture has the model number on it. A bit blurry but max temp looks like 2000 degrees (cone 01) so probably not a kiln for clay. Search paragons website for the model number ….. or post a clear picture of the equipment tag. The DTC 800 is the model of the control. Is it tropical where you are located? If the craftsman is still with us, I would ask him what he used it for as well.

Put the headphones on and sounds like a worn bearing or belt. The squeak when turned on and off is a bit odd as well. I would definitely get a better video and audio before the drive. A steady one showing smooth operation from zero speed to top speed using the foot pedal. Maybe they could turn off whatever is blaring in the back ground as well.

Could be but my guess is pore water migrates with time as the surrounding air becomes very dry and the kiln will will go through 240f at some rate anyway. In the end whatever you have success with, but I do remember the benched firing schedule with the quartz inversion hold. After probably millions of firings automatic controllers seemed to have made a good case that quartz inversion just happens, clay Is tough stuff.

I am with Neil, but maybe use a shelf on spacers instead of the brick to give yourself some space. The target brick can be 1/2 target and the Coanda effect will make 1/2 the flame wrap around the 1/2 target so a nice way to still get about 1/2 the capacity to the rear wall and get some energy and turbulence towards the front of the kiln. Since you are reducing so easily, it indicates not enough secondary air. The opening around your burner might need enlargement, general practice or to bell these or enlarge them so about 50-60% of your air comes as secondary air. Oxidizing firing would be 10:1 air fuel ratio. If you get your hands on an oxygen sensor you could tune this much easier.. Old Alpine designs used to include additional secondary air ports in the rear of their flame trench(s). It did even things out as their burners were fully imbedded in the kiln restricting the secondary air opening so it was sort of necessary. Just some thoughts for experimentation.

No I think I agree with pretty much everything said thus far. What I was asking specifically was : the vapor pressure of the water will be positive with respect to the local pressure, hence vaporization and it leaves by pressure, not necessarily quietly sits there evaporating. Calories are interesting also, but tying that to temperature presents it’s own issues.. My concluding question was how do we use this in a practical way? As far as understanding it with any precision I believe it is beyond practicall pottery which includes: measurement precision, local boiling point, pure water, porosity of the clay, thickness of the clay, energy available to heat, and so on …. It’s too difficult an issue for me so to candle below boiling is conservative IMO.

Hmm, interesting stuff so If I don’t start at freezing does it take less calories? …. And as it “vaporizes” is there any particular pressure associated with the vaporization? And finally how can this be used practically when drying wares?

Stain and clear matte likely should get you close and can be adjustable and repeatable. There are lots of clear matte glazes out on Glazy.

Like many machines that are rotation dependent and because of the type motor / power can rotate backwards for their use depending on the order of the phase connections. it’s customary to provide direction to the electrician on rotation and reversing it as appropriate so the machine is setup appropriately after it is wired. Reversing rotation is usually a simple matter of switching two wires which is noted on the machine. The manufacture often can’t predict the universal order of phase (a,b,c -r,s,t) so final commissioning is left up to the person connecting the machine. In other words being an electrician / mechanic also often requires latent skills. This is true for many industrial machines and even many air conditioning compressors. A backwards spinning scroll compressor just doesn’t work.

Sounds like a rebuild for sure followed by regular typical maintenance from here on. Interesting what the build up could be so pictures would be helpful. Hopefully not an insane amount of carbon else a change in firing habits may be in order to solve that problem. I assume these are natural gas or propane so please describe the fuel, model etc…. with your pictures as well as an idea of what the typical firing schedule entails (including gas pressure adjustments and damper operation through the firing) and how folks are achieving reduction without generating tons of soot would be helpful. Finally, there are still a few other things I can think of but pictures definitely would be a good step, include the burners as well if possible, maybe top down if possible. Last I checked Geil is still in business so replacement parts can be had. http://www.kilns.com/

Generally for typical domestic water type stuff loops, offsets, changes in direction allow the pipe to shrink and grow. Fastening specifications vary but generally allow uniform support and axial movement. Here is one of many guides out there: https://www.flowguard.com/blog/how-to-account-for-pipe-expansion-in-a-plumbing-system

Assuming these numbers are correct, when your element resistance rises by 10%, generally they are worn and need replacement and your kiln will not make top temperature. The design of many of these kilns (new) is 110% excess wattage to offset the shell losses. Wattage and losses drive the entire thing. Power or wattage = voltage(squared)/resistance. Power decreases linearly as resistance goes up but power decreases exponentially as voltage goes down. So a 5% decrease in voltage gets you approximately a 10% decrease in wattage. Add some shell leaks and you can’t make temperature. The numbers say your decrease in power is definitely a huge issue because of the depressed voltage. Is the wiring to the kiln adequately sized or does your mains voltage drop to 228v? Additionally, measuring the actual voltage and amperage at top temp accurately so we know the real hot resistance of the elements would probably reveal even less power is available as the kiln heats up. Your controller has interesting steps and droops in it as well which could indicate significant overshoot and under shoot while firing. The percentage on / off is all over the place so it’s PID parameters likely don’t match this load well. Seal up your kiln, but at that low of voltage I don’t believe you have enough energy. Your kiln is running on 10% less wattage to begin with.

Definitely not green as Mark said! Green is your chassis ground for safety. No point in livening up all the metal parts on the machine and making it a shock hazard. If the motor is an ac motor then not likely you will be able to simply switch any two wires. If it’s a dc motor then yes, likely. A definite call before switching anything though.

I get 6100 w and some change. Is the graph true and it’s heating at a decent rate and just stops at the magic 1080c? Normally the SSR would be pulsed on / off by the PID logic to maintain a heating rate. At 1080c can you confirm it is on 100% of the time and the kiln does not climb? Also would be curious of the drop across the SSR just to understand how much power was being consumed by it. Easy enough to just jump this out and see what the firing temperature rate of rise ends up to be for real. Its hard to believe it’s moving upward in the hundreds of degrees c per hour and just quits at some point.