Bill Kielb

Lots of leach wheel plans out there on the internet, plus I had heard one of his kids at the university of Wisconsin was trying to set up with Amish craftsman to build these in the states as well. Nice wheel, I think if I made one I would really have to go old school and hardwood and clear finish the hardwood just for show.

It was enough to just make an index to hold all the little arms!

Marcia and I are similar. We like to see folks excell and innovate so as long as it’s not bizarre we have fun with learning new things or watching each other try new ideas or just create something that ends up suitable when finished. (Both are severely critical of our own work) For the most part when either of us are in a slump we like to see that excitement and enthusiasm again when engaged in a successful project. In Marcias defense, I like to fix everything and make Mechanical / electrical things better so I am sure she gets tired of me never buyIng something new. Besides that old Admiral refrigerator has lots of life left in it!

Just giving you grief. What you ended up doing (whole project) turned out pretty amazing. Not All folks would have put in the effort.

I use routinely on Shimpo whisper and their lesser as well as Brent with no issues. Maybe check and fit up the mounting legs a bit, there has got to be a reason.

I have a fondness for grey rain tight electrical junction boxes!

You can count the original gearbox ratio pretty easily, bump that up with the original RPM of the motor and you will have an understanding of the torque multiplication the thing was designed for which would lead you to a better idea of replacing it. Seems like a bit of work to me though for an old wheel. Speed control with constant torque for newer wheels is pretty nice to have.

These are from 2019, maybe private message if he does not respond.

Lineman’s pliers! Piece of cake. All of Mine are 40 years old and I still cut 1/4” bolts with them in a pinch. Probably have four pair laying around after all these years.

No teeth marks, symmetry and equal lengths. It shows. Angle cuts might be the only issue but I think I like them. Authentic! For folks that have never tried it, it does take practice especially with heavy wire.

I believe alpine, a couple months ago. They were so cheap decided not to move the burners out at this point.

Hard to see the gas trane but it appears to have redundant gas valves so that is a later model. Someone should be able to make this work for hundreds not thousands. For free and the cost to pick it up and take it, Maybe a school or small studio. Interesting in that the radiant panel or make shift bag wall is blocked up about an inch so this was used for reduction firing. Nice kiln! As of a couple months ago I just bought the silly ceramic retention tips, super cheap actually (5-10 bucks As I recall) so this still can be put together and used as is. Hopefully the fire eye (red thing) is still ok with some surgery on the cover, else a new one cost about 700.00 for the part.

Nice bending! A bit of a pain as I recall. I think you can buy that size as well (maybe) pretty cheap online. Been a long time since I ordered them. Still have ten sets for mason jars around here somewhere.

My best idea. The top collar appears to have two set screws and no threads appear to be in the hole of the set screw already removed so I believe you will need to pull the wheel head. I would double check if two set screws up top, remove both and use penetrating oil as has been suggested. It will probably be easier to pull this head by rotating it to break the rust then pulling it once it moves freely. So something to try, remove all set screws from top collar and lubricate, block or trap the wheel head and rotate the shaft with a pipe wrench to break the rusty connection. Just in case it’s threaded you can test rotation in two directions. To block or hold the wheel head you might need to get creative if it does not provide enough leverage to hold by hand. Clamps, band wrench, etc.... you may have to pull the lower bearing if this has one. It most likely pivots on something. Whatever that something is takes the axial load so it could be worn as well.

I really liked chalk boards! Much more than white boards of today. It made writing (legibly) much much easier for me. When they converted to all white boards I was devastated and routinely would find some knucklehead wrote on one of the boards with a regular marker. Mostly instructors BTW judging from content and handwriting. Never screeched my chalk .............. unless I wanted to of course.

Couple bucks for mason jar pre made wiring and silicon gasket. Used to use them as a lesson in shrinkage and fabrication. Can you plan this project and all the parts and shrinkage required? Fun project to show folks, it’s not so hard and they get a very useable cool container when finished.

Just a suggestion add some decent pictures of the bearings and wheel head area. As good as you can get like we are seeing through your eyes. Not easy to do I know, but good pictures from far are probably far from good to see if some of this is pressed in place.

I would suggest using an economical mechanical switch, dual SSR are an ok idea but theoretically they will have leakage even when good. The definite purpose contactor is an industry established norm and cheap if you take screen shots of the video. Additionally no need for the copper heat sinks, although better you can get larger surface area aluminum for cheap. PM me if and when you decide and I can send you some sources that are very reasonable in price. Heat sink pic and a PLC teaser of what we build for under 1000.00 at this point.

Here is my take: Yes you can build and super insulate a kiln (compared to typical 3” brick kilns). It is most likely needed for your electrical restriction. Fiber is certainly king with respect to having to heat a bunch of brick mass each and every firing. Arduino or equal is fine if you have the time, lots of very nice temperature controllers out there though for super cheap (20.00 - 50.00 usd) PID, Fuzzy logic, auto tune, and I find their type K interfaces more industrial compared to Arduino. If you are contemplating the arduino then likely are anticipating solid state relays. They are very doable and will actually add some capacity to your kiln. They need to be done right though, so use the manufactures cooling data and design conservatively with protection for your SSR. I personally like using low cost PLC because it’s super easy and proven super reliable by industry but, it’s sort of old technology. Having said that even the most basic have web interface capability, standard k type inputs, data gathering, email engines, etc... without too much custom effort. And finally, this is a lot of design work with adaptation of available hardware so getting a used kiln to use as is, or to modify seems to me to be something I would seriously contemplate. Finally - finally, an economical Raku kiln sounds really doable and fun as a warmup step. At one time a few folks asked what does it take to design an SSR retrofit for an existing kiln, to which we made a very general video so folks could get a real feel for some of the thought that goes into just that part. You might find it interesting.

Sounds like a dead spot in the potentiometer.. post a picture of the inside of the pedal circuit board and we might have some doable ideas.

My best thought sooner than later. More testing is great but get tested today and catch it thirty minutes later so not the cure and can create false security. The raw problem, it’s highly contagious. I have high hope in treatments which I believe will be key until a vaccine so I would hope the economy ramps up albeit, slowly and differently over the next two months. Masks, social distance, self awareness hopefully will take hold for the next 12 months but provide some level of normalcy. Stay safe as you can, most folks seem to be pretty understanding and flexible.

Call Euclids. Since you are internet savvy https://www.euclids.com/ for elements

3 yards? Wow!

I’ve taken to make a point daily of a decent two mile stroll with weights on. 1 mile on the ankles, remaining mile on the wrists to give the knees a break. Not hard 5# each just enough to make sure I do something aerobic each day. Along with my regular slow mo (20 sec. reps to exhaust the muscle group) workout which has always been a habit. Probably adds up to 10000 steps or better of walking. Gets me outside for at least 45 minutes ensuring I don’t get stuck behind a computer. Throwing some stuff at home, custom requests.

Interesting! There are folks in the northern latitudes that swear as the snow disappears even while its technically too cold to do so is simply sublime!