MissyLee5

@Dick White Ah that's right, I forgot about offsetting the thermocouple. Thanks!

@moonari Hi there! I've only done a few firings as I'm making my glazes and have a lot of testing to do still. I did end up buying several 6" posts, along with some 2" and 4" and some 1". I bought 3 advancer shelves (full) which have been wonderful, but quickly realized I needed an extra shelf or two so I also ordered a full size standard shelf, and will eventually get another. I do think half shelves would be too small to fit much with a kiln this size, unless you are making very small pieces. I ended up building my own vent system which was easy to setup & saved me a good chunk of money. I bought Skutts plenum cup kit and ordered a blower motor which were the two most expensive parts. The rest can be purchased cheaply at any home improvement store. I'm definitely glad I went with the 822 over the 818, as I didn't realize until using it how small it actually is. I'm thankful for those couple extra inches. If making larger pieces like plates or bowls, you'll only be able to do a few pieces per firing. I've only used the cone fire programs so far, but will soon be trying a custom program as the cone 6 firing program seems to over fire a bit for me. With you getting a 3" brick, you'll have even more insulation so you may have the same problem with overfiring if using the preloaded desired cone firing program. One nice thing though with the cone fire programs, is you can add a slow cool to any of the programs, which has to first be enabled in the settings. I think it was called R8. You also have the ability to add holds, preheat, and firing speed, so you can still customize the preloaded programs a bit. Overall its a great Kiln and doesn't take up much room. I do wish I would've spent the extra couple hundred for the touch screen controller, but the Kilnmaster controller is easy enough to use. Hopefully some of this helps. Good luck and congrats on your Kiln!

@Min and @neilestrick Thank you all for tips! I will take a look at the recommended websites & threads. @Pres Thank you for the detailed instructions, the sand pillow is a great idea. I'll show him your response and have him work on it when he has time. Just to be clear, are you saying we should add a hole somewhere from the outside line at the mouth through the wall to the inside once hollowed out, for steam to escape? If so, I think the nostrils would be a good place. We are both new to pottery & still learning a lot. I took many classes when I was younger while he's only played around a bit so I'm more serious about it, but he does want to learn more about the process and how the kiln works so I teach him as I learn. Firing is completely new to me, lots to learn there. My first glaze tests came out pretty good overall, but I think the kiln did overfire a bit. Cone 6 witness cone was kissing the shelf while witness cone 7 was closer to 3 o'clock. My brown bear test tiles almost all came out with pinholes & almost foamy looking areas of the glaze. Pretty certain it overfired this clay & maybe didn't have time to heal over after gasses escaping. A floating blue came out brown, maybe a mistake during weighing or not doing a slow cool prevented the blue from coming out. Here's some of my favorites:

Aw he's going to be very disappointed if I tell him he has to make a new one. If he hollows it out and tries to make the walls as even as possible, would a slow firing schedule with a 12 hour preheat be possible? I would need to look for a very slow firing schedule with a very slow cooling/holding on the way down? Going forward I'll make sure any sculptures are hollow. I certainly don't want an explosion in my new kiln. It makes me wonder how are large, heavy sculptures are fired. My studio has similar sculptures and one of their kilns is the same as mine, just a little bigger. Maybe they can give me a firing schedule. Thank you both.

Hello all! I am new to firing and have a solid sculpture my boyfriend made that will be fired soon. It was made over 2 months ago and has been drying for over a month, I would imagine it's got to be bone dry throughout. I'm concerned about firing it since it's a solid piece. I've only done a few bisque & test firings so far and have not used any schedule except the preprogrammed ones in my Skutt 822. I've read a little about firing thick pieces and it seems even the slow firing option may be too fast for something like this. Can anyone suggest a schedule for bisque & glaze (04 & 6) for something like this? I've attached a picture below. It's 6" tall and 2" thick at the head between the ears. The base is about 4" wide and 1" tall before it tapers at the neck. Is this too thick? Should we flip it upside down & use something like a dremel to hollow it out a bit before firing (of course outside while wearing a mask)? It's made of standard 225 clay, it does have grog, I read somewhere that it contains 4% but this was made from reclaim so not sure how much is actually in there. On the same topic, does anyone actually use the preprogrammed cone fire schedules? I'd like to manually program a few schedules rather than using the preprogrammed ones. Skutt makes it sound like they are very intuitive & a great option, but places like digital fire seem to say you'll end up with glaze defects & over/under firing unless you program & use your own. I just finished my first non-commercial glaze test firing, so once the kiln cools down I'll be able to see how everything turned out. Hopefully the preprogrammed cone 6 firing did alright.

That's great to hear, I didn't realize it could be in line at all. So I shouldnt have an issue as long as I get a few sizes of posts then. I wish I could've got some half shelves, but the full shelves didn't cost much more than the half shelves, and advancer is already very expensive so I couldn't swing the half shelves. I'm likely going to buy a few extra regular shelves though in case I do end making lower pieces, in which case I will go for the half shelves. Thanks for all your help!

@Bill Kielb Yes, you are right about the shelves being smaller. It's an 18" wide kiln, my shelves are 15" so that does give me space between them and the walls. I was planning on buying some 1/2" or 1" posts for the bottom, then a variety of 2", 4" and 6" posts to start. If I use a 6" post for the second shelf to sit on, that puts me right around 7.5" from the bottom (I have the thin advancer shelves) which may be right where the thermocouple is. I'm mostly making bowls and mugs right now, sometimes plates here and there. I may need to find some new shorter items to make. But mostly I'm making items that are 4-5" tall, which is why I'm thinking I'll be using mostly 6" posts. I apologize for my ignorance, is it 1" clearance I need on all sides of the thermocouple, or can the shelf be in line with it and 1.5" away is sufficient? I still have a lot to learn about firing before I use it, but I thought the shelves needed to be sitting above/below the thermocouple by at least an inch.

My first Kiln, the KM822 should be delivered this week (yay!). I'm in the process of buying posts for it and trying to figure out how high up the thermocouple is located so I can buy the correct post sizes to clear it when loading the kiln. I called Skutt, but they didn't have one available to check so they just checked the schematics and said it SHOULD be around 7-8" above the floor. I was planning on using mostly 6" posts, so depending where exactly the thermocouple is I may have to go taller/shorter. Does anyone happen to own this model, or have access to one that could measure it and give me the exact height of the thermocouple? I couldn't find the answer online. Thanks in advance!

@neilestrick thank you! This will be perfect as my existing vent in the wall is 4" and I'll be using 3" ducting. Costs a bit more than what I was hoping for but since it's what's used commercially I'm not opposed to spending a bit more. Still a huge savings over buying the full venting system! I thought about doing something like that for the cup, but I'll probably stick with buying the plenum cup part for simplicity & time sake, unless I can come up with something very easy & cheap. Thanks again! Edited to say: The outlet height & width of that blower are confusing me. Based on the specs, it seems the outlet is less than 4", so I'm wondering how it will cover the 4" hole in the wall venting to the outside? I've got a pre cut circular 4" hole in the wall. Second edit: I just spoke with Grainger. The outlet dimensions are 4 5/8" by 3 1/2", so I would need to find a way to modify my existing wall cutout for the outside vent, or find some type of adapter. As is, if I try to hook it up it won't completely cover the cutout. I'll see what I can come up with.

Hello all! I am building my own Kiln venting system. I've got everything I need except for the inline vent. Based on other vent systems I need around 140 cfm for the fan, but for the life of me I cannot find one with a reasonable price. I've been searching for 2 weeks and keep coming up empty. There are plenty of 100 cfm metal inline duct fans for around $20, and plenty of 190+ cfm (although these seem to have plastic housing and are shaped differently, marketed for Grow tent ventilation) for $40-60, but I can't find anything between the two, aside from one or two models that are $100-200 which I'm just not willing to pay. My kiln is 3.2 cubic feet (Skutt KM 822). I'm going with a 3" duct, but will use a reducer so I can use a 4" fan as these seem more readily available than 3" fans. I'm purchasing the plenum cup used with the skutt envirovent 2 rather than trying to build one that can move with the kiln bottom when it expands/contracts during firing. It's starting to seem like my only options are to either get the 100 cfm and hope it's got enough power, or get a 190+ cfm with an adjustable speed controller. I've got no clue how big of a difference 100 cfm is to 140 in this application. Would 100 cfm be enough to pull the fumes out of a kiln this size? Or even better, does anyone know of a reasonably priced fan around 140 cfm? Any recommendations are helpful.