MFP

Yes.....I have all the glaze samples numbered and also coded for which clay body it is, The clay bodies are all marked.  There are three or four tiles of the same glaze. I also have those three materials that I tested.  Min suggested using my easy white recipe without the white. Pretty simple.....50% Colemanite and 50% whatever the other thing is. (Yes....I have Colemanite). Those are all marked as well. I also did the glaze PeterH suggested with the three materials as well. 

I have a three part new glaze book....cone 6, cone 10 and "other". All cone 6 recipes and labels are RED.  All cone 10 are black. Other is blue.  I am a very methodical person. 

I did a two hour open lid pre-heat on low. Then an hour on low. Then two hours on 2, 2  hours on 4 and 2 hours on 6....when I turned it up to High, it shut off about 15 minutes later.

I am really looking forward to seeing the results! 

Tea, eh?   

I am just paranoid. This is a really old kiln and I am not familiar with how it fires. Min warned that these little guys want to try to ramp up too quickly. And Neil has warned that the shorter time your elements are on full....the longer they last. I have no idea if these elements have ever been replaced. It is a 20 year old kiln.  The prior owner only fired to 04.  And this is my first glaze fire in it.  Just being cautious.  The only other electric I ever used was bigger than this one.

I also have an experiment going on in there besides glaze tests.....it is in a covered jar in case it decides it wants to explode.

I got some of those new fangled stand alone cones to place on the shelves to see just exactly what temp things are at the end. I still have boxes of the ones in vermiculite! They are  010,  5. 9. 10.

Thank you....they sure look weird.....and you have to break them apart. 

Yes....I have noticed that that little kiln wants to take off. I put it on low for about two hours, then close the top for about another hour, then go up to 2.5 for about two hours, then to 4.5. then to 6. and then high. It has been taking about 8 hours to do a bisque.. Usually it is only on high for about an hour before it turns off. I am thinking I will stretch out the time it is on 6 for the cone 6 fire or add another stop at 8. 

I have been hearing Neil about being kind to your elements.....I don't know if these are the original elements. This is a 20 year old kiln that has never been fire beyond 04.  I also have six different clay bodies in there and 18 different glazes.  I put an extra coat of kiln wash on the shelves holding the tiles.  I have been to this glaze test rodeo before! 

I used one of those black glaze pencils to code everything....I have a notebook that numbers the glaze and clay body it is on.  I had also coded the clays when they were wet. 

I used larger pieces to test those materials. I did 1, 3 and 5 in the LOI ignition bowls.  I did Peter's glaze for 1, 3, 5 in the inside of little cups. I figured a tile would not show up the whole glaze effect as well as being on a piece. Maybe we can finally figure it out. 

It looks like it has a new cord and plug in. I had my electrician install the receptacle for it and the breaker. He looked it over and did not detect any problems.  When it is on low, it does make a popping noise sometimes.....so I watch that.  I don't see any sparking. 

I am loading the glaze fire now. These small cone 6 cones are weird...kind of hot pink.....is that right? I should finish loading tomorrow.  How long is a cone 6 fire generally?

Thank you for getting back to me!  Finished the bisque last night. Unfortunately blew out my knee again and have to stay off it today. I am hoping to finish glazing tomorrow and starting to load. 

Since this little electric is so old, I have been closely monitoring the fires to make sure it shuts off...and so far it has been just fine....with two 04 fires. Any idea how much longer I should be paranoid?

I did as you suggested and made up three samples with 50 colemanite and 50 of each sample. The colemanite had more chips from the can than I realized in it--so there will be some brown spots but that won't change the major chemical reaction significantly. I also made up three samples of that glaze PeterH posted. The reason I have to do another bisque is because I did not have all the clay samples for testing glazes ready. I had gotten some more  cone 6 bodies since I did the original bisque. So, should be very interesting.  I had also made a lot of little bowls and cups to test things like those above that I thought might make a mess.  I bought some kiln wash from a local vendor....it disturbs me....it's not the silica/alumina wash I am used to. So I didn't want to risk having to grind shelves. 

Thanks for all your input. As soon as I have those fired samples, I will post them! 

Thanks Denice!   Now if I can find a cone 6 stoneware body that I like, I will be all set. I find it ironic that finding porcelains was much easier.  I just posted the loss of ignition test results from the bisque.....one of the samples fused solid and left pittle green spots. 

Great!  I didn't see this post before I answered the other one.  I am really hoping #5 is talc....I have a lot of it. I also contacted the Us geological service for you. There are six mines in the US....I told them the problem about the grey talc and asked where I could get the white kind. We will see if they answer.