kylies.clay
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Posts posted by kylies.clay
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They're square toe, but they are pretty comfy! Ariat makes a good pair of boots for a long day, got them to work construction with my dad. No hiking boots either. The kiln I'm going to in February is just on dirt so it's not quite as bad as concrete thankfully.
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2 minutes ago, Callie Beller Diesel said:
The best clothing is layers of 100% cotton you don’t mind getting dirty or wrecked. It should be not too baggy, so it’s not getting caught on things or subject to catching errant flames during a stoke. It should be loose enough to move comfortably in. The layers are so you can adjust to the changing temperature around the kiln site. It should be some form of natural fibre, because those will char, rather than melt like synthetics in the event of flying cinders or burns. Even the expensive orange canvas stuff will eventually get trashed, so get whatever fits that description that’s in your budget. I think a welding jacket is overkill, unless you find a comfortable one.
The workboots are a good idea, although I will say that the newer, lightweight “steel” toes (I think they’re some kind of mesh now) are much more comfortable, and it’s pretty easy to find women’s sizes. Unless something goes very wrong, I haven’t encountered burnt feet, but axes and wood debris are worth being mindful of. Get the steel (or mesh) shank ones if you’re working with things like pallet wood that haven’t had nails removed. No one needs nails through the sole!
Okay thank you! I definitely prefer all natural fibers just in general, synthetics are always stuffy and sweaty. I'll go around trying to find a good heavy work jacket I can wear that isn't too big, or full of fiber that will melt. I had wondered if a welding jacket would be overkill and I think it probably would be, but wanted to get others' opinions. Bandana is a good call as well. The boots I already have are just full leather cowboy boots, to keep me safe from embers melting through. Down the line maybe I'd look into ones with a reinforced sole, but not for a while.
And thankfully, yes, February will be better. Where I live it would be close to freezing probably, but as far south as we'll be it'll be 40s and 50s. So not too terribly cold! Definitely good weather to be up and moving around.
And gotcha on the soda! It probably is a gas kiln they're using. I've helped fire the one at my old school, but it was just straight gas firing. I do already have my own respirator from college thankfully. My first day of the class is tomorrow and it's 9 weeks so I suppose I'll find out more about what's expected from us then! Thanks for all your suggestions!
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Hey everyone! I'm hoping this is the best sub-forum for my question, I've searched this a few times but haven't found a comprehensive answer and thought a discussion would be good! I've done one wood fire in the past and was able to get by with two pairs of pants, boots, and a few t shirts (long sleeve) but toward the end I really felt like I was melting - the fact that it was September in South Georgia also didn't help with that.
I'm about to do another wood fire at the beginning of next month, I'm taking a soda fire class (not sure if we'll be helping with firing or if it's just gas) for a month and a half, and I'm also taking a wood fire course at John C Campbell in March! So I'm in need of some better clothes! I've got carhartt overalls and good thick leather boots, but I'm trying to decide what kind of jacket would be best while also still being workable. A welding jacket would be decent, but in the past I've always found them very stiff and extremely large (I'm a size small woman).
I often see people wearing duck canvas jackets and leather aprons, but wondering what the best options are. If there's another jacket that would be perfect please let me know. I'm hoping to continue doing wood fires so it would be a long term investment, but if I could also wear the items regularly that's a bonus.
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Howdy! About a week ago I had a thread going about getting my kiln up and running and wound up installing a Bartlett V6-CF. I ran one test load with just shelves to bake the kiln wash and only had self supporting ^6 cones so ran it with those. The tips touched the ground so I ran a test load last night after getting full cone packs and used a -15° cone offset.
So I put three pots in the kiln (one on each level) along with a kiln pack. All the glazes look good, but these were also new combos. The bend of my guard cones leads me to believe it may still be a touch too hot, but I’ve never worked with the large cones so I’m not sure. Would you leave it be? Or turn the temperature down a bit. The final temperature was 2242°, no hold. My cone packs in the picture are in order by shelf level. (This was also the first time I made cone packs… I’ll do better with getting them to not fall on one another next time)
edit: I added a photo of the schedule from the manual
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On 2/15/2023 at 9:02 AM, Callie Beller Diesel said:
You don’t mention the model of the mom wagon, but the Mercedes model E All Terrain has a listed cargo capacity of between 640 and 1800 L (ish), or about 22-63 cu ft for the Imperial users. My Pacifica has 32.3 cu ft just behind the third seat, and if I fold down both rows of seating, I can get 140 (ish) sq ft. My setup is very lightweight and compact, and because my 4 day sales are all indoor ones, I don’t need to pack a canopy. I have full use of my rear view mirror.
Yes she’s got the E350, it’s definitely not as roomy as a minivan but it got the job done. I’m still quite new and those were my two first markets, I’m only growing a bit this summer. I’m 22 and just don’t think I can stomach the minivan life at this point… I also have to commute to school for at least another semester. Currently looking for a VW tdi wagon for the mileage and because the capacity is just enough for my set up at this point! Pretty much everything I’ll be doing down here I. Georgia is outdoors and requires a tent.
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4 minutes ago, Bill Kielb said:
I hate to say this but my best idea would be shielded cable for the thermocouple lead. This is all very speculative as a relay is worn enough to create lots of arcing noise and the guess is the noise is getting into the thermocouple circuit. Almost all circuits have noise suppression built in on board to combat this.
So if I had spare relays, I would swap them out just to see if I had a particularly noisy worn relay. Even so, how to guard against our new relay contacts from wearing and causing issues in the future? Sort of a total random thing actually if true. The shielded cable is my lowest cost idea that all kilns could benefit from but are almost not necessary due to onboard filtering etc…
This is really hard to figure out without some really good test equipment and as such is very speculative. If you have a spare relay, change it. Try and route your thermocouple leads as far away from high voltage wiring as possible to decouple potential noise sources. Good grounding always helpful, especially the circuit board ground, however that is developed. It might be one of the screws on the board that fastens the board to the metal case is corroded and is designed to be the ground but no longer is a good ground because of the corrosion.
Alright. I will order shielded wire for the thermocouple as well just for preemptive care. I’ll check all the screws as well for corrosion, and do my best to route thermocouple wire as best I can but there’s not much room in there.
I don’t have any spare relays sad to say, but I’m going to wait on ordering new ones to replace my current ones until I see an issue arise, or if my current issue continues… the whole concept of electrical noise is a bit above my head, I won’t lie. I can somewhat understand the concept but don’t really have a clear idea of how it would impact the workings of other parts. My electrical knowledge is limited to how to run wire and install fixtures and switches, I never have to deal with the issues that come after that.
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I also just say I’ve learned so much about kilns in the past week on this thread! Way more than I learned in my college ceramics overview of kilns haha
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4 minutes ago, neilestrick said:
There are electromagnetic fields (or something like that) coming off the kiln, and they get worse as the kiln gets hotter. The two kilns I've had to add a ground wire to didn't have any problems until about 1900F. I remember talking with an engineer from Skutt once and he said the bricks make all sort of electrical noise as they get hotter.
Interesting about the 1900°, that’s around where my issue started as well. While I of course didn’t really want to let the $380 go for the controller, I figured that it would give me greater reliability and longer use of my kiln. I got the kiln from a friend who bought it off the original owner and only paid $300 for it so it’s not like I’m out a whole bunch of cash. Still under half the cost of a new one.
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Well I stopped at Olympic and got the v6-cf. Sarah in sales that helped me was super handy, she said that this issue is normally because of the thermocouple but since that didn’t fix it, it’s almost always the connections on the back of the board after that. When I get home I’ll be wiring it up and throwing on a test fire! Or maybe wait until tomorrow, so I’m not up til 1 watching it!
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I’ll be honest, I’m not sure how I would check the ground. I know the panel to the kiln has good ground. Also when you’re talking about the transformer, do you mean the 240 to 24 transformer?
I’m in Georgia so I was about to go head to Olympic and pick up a V6-DF as I’m only 40 minutes away. Should I hold off?
i don’t believe it’s shielded. It seemed like just regular old two stranded wire.
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Okay… the thermocouple wire is definitely connected correctly, tight connections, and the casing is intact along the whole length. One manual for the controller said it could be a ground interference and to rearrange, but the wires been moved around like 10 times from me opening and closing it so I don’t see how it could be that. I’ll try a grounding wire and see if that helps at all.
I was really hoping I wouldn’t need a new controller. But I guess if that’s what it needs it’s what it will get. Could it not be an issue with relays at all? Just hoping for a cheaper solution than a controller. I felt it was odd how they kept clicking but no buzzing like at lower temperature. -
Okay hey guys. The thermocouple did not fix my issue. I took a video to include of what the kiln is doing. It seems really odd. The first time I ever did a ^6 firing And it did this, everything overfired - cones totally melted. This time the cone 6 cone wasn’t even bent. I’ll include a picture of it later once it’s cool enough
Here you are, it only starts up high around 1900°, but I did not catch it right when it started.
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Absolutely I'll email y'all! I live in Northe Georgia, but my best friend is from Kalona and she might tag along - roadtrip!!
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The two markets I did last summer, I was able to pack my set up into my mom's Mercedes wagon. I only have a sedan but I'm looking to sell it and will be getting a wagon of some sort for myself so I don't have to borrow mom's car all summer long!
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This sounds like an amazing opportunity!! Y'all will see me there in July
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Thank you everyone for all of your help! I wound up finding one from Euclid and a few other things that Bailey didn’t have. It was 14gauge, 6”, no block, and only $18! I wouldn’t have known what to find or look for if it weren’t for y’all. You’ve made a little potter like me super happy! As soon as I get the thermocouple and replace it I’ll be on my way to making tiles.
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Okay y’all so I need your direction on which thermocouple to buy. It seems there is not a 5” long 14gauge thermocouple without the block that you can buy. I found one 14ga at Bailey ceramic that’s 7” long, according to @Bill Kielb I should be able to trim it to the length I need, correct? Then bend the leads and put them in the block.
I would buy straight from evenheat, but there only options for 14gauge are too short (4” tip to end of block) and the 5” tip to block one is 8 gauge, which would be too large. They also don’t sell them without a block.
Sorry if these are silly questions, this is my first time around! But I’ll know forevermore after this. Also I took the thermocouple back out and checked it again more thouroughly - the weld on the tip is definitely bloated. It’s worse on the side you can’t see in the picture.
This is the generic 14ga one from bailey and then these are all of evenheat’s options.
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Oh I also meant to add the kiln itself is only rated up to ^8 and at this point I only ever do ^6 firings so the 14gauge will definitely be sufficient!
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2 hours ago, Jeff Longtin said:
The kiln manufacturers suggest replacing thermo's after 60 firings.
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Another example of an old thermo is a bloated end. Rather than seeing two rods welded at the end it appears to be two bloated wires side by side. (With a bloated/bulbous tip.)
Yes it’s definitely not as bad as Bill’s pictures that’s for sure! It has a protective ceramic tube inside the kiln and when I pulled it out I did remember thinking the weld looked a little funny. This wasn’t based off of thermocouple knowledge, but just a bit of regular welding I’ve done in the past (basically all bad welds… ha). I didn’t take any of the tube sections off to check past the tip, but I figure a thermocouple is only $45 and this kiln is likely older than me and I’m not sure how many times it’s been fired so I may as well go ahead and replace it.
It’s definitely 14gauge and I found a 5” one on evenheat’s website that seems to be about the same, but the block is different. All the ones that are sold now have the oval base like in Bill’s picture, but mine has a square block. I’ll attach a picture of how it’s mounted to the kiln. I’m thinking I may just have to remove the thermocouple from the new block and rewire it to mine?
Y’all have been awful helpful and I thank you! I’m about to do a big project that would be too big for the studio I go to so this kiln is going to be getting a good workout once it’s fixed up.
- Bill Kielb and Jeff Longtin
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Okay y’all good calls. I just got home and took the controller cover off to check out the thermocouple. The other day when I was checking things out I did do a quick test fire after up to ^06. There was no jumping around. I’m considering trying a ^6 test fire maybe tomorrow so that I can monitor it and see if it starts jumping around and if it does, where in temperature.
There were also no loose connections anywhere on the relays, thermocouple, or controller board. The wire from the thermocouple mounting block does go up to the controller through an open space that’s bordered by a metal sheet (the yellow wire is the thermocouple wire) so I wonder if that may be the issue, but that’s also the heat protection so I’m not sure.
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Howdy y'all! Last time I posted I had an old Paragon that was pretty rough; I never got it to work and recently bought a newer kiln from a family friend. I got an Evenheat kiln with a DTC 100C controller, bricks all in perfect shape and hardly ever fired. My first bisque fire went as well as anyone could hope for and when I attempted my first ^6 glaze fire, that's when stuff went tricky. I noticed toward the end of the firing that the controller was reporting the temperature erratically -- jumping hundreds of degrees each click, displaying a range from 1700F to 2000F. I turned the kiln off and it had wayyy overfired. The ^5, ^6, and ^7 cones I'd put in were a puddle on the kiln shelf and all my wares were bloated and ugly.
Today I opened up the controller, tested the resistance on all the elements (just in case), checked all the wiring, and did a "paperclip test" on the thermocouple terminals which reported back room temperature. A Paragon branded troubleshooting guide for this controller says this indicates I need a new thermocouple.
What brand thermocouple do I need? Since this kiln/controller is no longer made I'm not sure what replacement I need. Will any Evenheat Type K thermocouple work? Thanks!
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I (finally) went and rented a gear puller from auto zone, took me all of about 2 minutes to get it off! I couldn't get the key out first, but it didn't seem to give me any issues. Maybe the PB Blaster I sprayed the other day helped loosen it up, but it definitely seemed like it hadn't been taken off since it was assembled. Thanks for your help gents. I'll be taking the wheelhead to my small motor repair guys in the morning. Hoping they can replace them! Thanks again y'all
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Thank y'all! I did attempt to push the pulley farther on, but it didn't seem to want to budge. I will see if my dad has a wheel puller and if not check out HF. I'm hoping to get it off soon so I can start making again!! I'll let y'all know how I make out.
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Hey y’all! Last year I got an older Brent Model C wheel. It has ran really well, but there’s a humming when it runs and after watching Brent’s fix it video I’ve diagnosed it as needing new bearings.
I’ve read every thread I can find that relates to this topic, but I can’t find one on how to get it off. I’ve removed the belt, the flange’s screws are loose, and I removed the square headed stop screw that’s on the pulley but the pulley won’t come loose and it’s preventing me from removing the wheelhead. I sprayed some PB blaster but it still won’t budge. Any one have any tips? I’ll post pictures of the pulley and also the controller.
Also I Know the wheelheads are all one piece so you can’t replace the bearings yourself, but I’m going to stop by a great local small motor repair and ask if they could figure it out. TIA!!
Best atire for a wood fire?
in Studio Operations and Making Work
Posted
Yes I hadn’t even thought about something for my head so I’m glad it was brought up! Wouldn’t want to lose my curly locks. My friend said he was bringing gloves the first wood fire I went to but boy am I glad I had got my own pair. I may even get a heavier duty pair for this next go around.