Lola Rosier

There will always be some leakage around the lid. Totally normal. Best not to mess with loose fiber unless you really need to.

Good point, the previous owner said she stuffed ceramic fiber in the rim actually - I think heat was coming out by the handle. Ty again! Also thank you for the questions you’ve answered in another thread I found about troubleshooting this kiln - I see I’m potentially in for it…  

The hole in the lid is probably bigger than you need. Plug it. Most kilns are leaky enough that they don't really need holes in the lid, so I would try it without making any holes first, you can always add them later.

I got tired with going down to the basement to make sure my kiln was working properly and running on schedule so I started (forked) a project to control my KS-1018 using a raspberry pi. With this I can:
monitor my kiln from anywhere using any device that has a web browser (phone/tablet/computer) easily create new schedules, edit existing schedules, including infinite ramps & soaks accurate PID control get schedule cost estimates and actuals If anyone is interested, here is the github link... https://github.com/jbruce12000/kiln-controller
The cost for everything I bought was under $200.00, but my time investment has been high.  Again, this is for geeks that were born with a soldering iron in one hand.

@Lola Rosier If you need to vent both heat and fumes, then go with an overhead hood, like the one Vent-A-Kiln makes. If you have a low ceiling get the wall mounted swing arm. If you're only worried about fumes then get a downdraft vent. The Orton vent is really cheap on Amazon right now. I'm not a big fan of the spring mounted cup since it can be difficult to get it to sit evenly against the bottom of the kiln and can easily be knocked out of alignment, so I prefer to screw the cup to the side of the kiln near the bottom. From a safety standpoint either one is a good choice. If you have a window and a fan that can bring cool air into the space, get the downdraft and use the window for cooling since the downdraft will be half the price of the hood.

Can confirm the flat bit is where the centre is, mine doesn't have a knob either and I used a temperature gun to work out the heat output at different positions. 
Flat at 12 o'clock is "off" 

Ha, no problem, after all the help you guys gave it's about time I reciprocated! I've actually got temperatures for each "clock position" for this model that I should post as well, might be useful for people with this same model. 

Read carefully through the threads above. If you bisque fire to cone 7 your ware will be rock hard and you will not be able to glaze it very easily. Page 11 explains that when you use cones to monitor how the firing went (witness cones) to use the three cone method. Guide, firing, guard. So if one was glaze firing to cone 6 they would use cones 5,6,7. The guide is 5, the guard is 7 and the firing cone is 6. Just for reference this kiln just isn’t really automatic by today’s standards. For most firings you will need to turn the infinite switch(s) from a lower setting to a higher setting during the firing to provide enough time to bisque or glaze fire.  I would suggest while you have time to wait for your kiln parts or cones google and read the what’s and why’s of firing schedules. 
 For cone 6 glaze firings- cone 6 bar for the sitter and cone 5,6,7 witness cones. Firing should take let’s say  approximately 7-10 hours.
For cone 04 bisque - cone 04 bar for the sitter and cone 05,04,03 witness cones. Firing should take let’s say approximately 9-12 hours to burn out all the organics. Remember for cones that start with zero (0) they are a bit backwards as cone 03 is hotter than cone 04. So a bit backwards from what is intuitive.
The issue  most folks complain about with these kilns is generally they fire too fast and the resolution is often to have them learn how to turn things up gradually to get an acceptable firing speed.

Years back I had one of these and as luck has it I found the images I used to sell it on Craig's list.
Ignore the the decal markings on your kiln and take a look at the image. If you look closely you will see some pencil marks and notice the top decal markings is slightly different than the bottom markings
Bisque firing (^04)
1) Set your dial to 9:00 (Low) for one hour
2) Then set your dial to  around 5:30 (Med) for 2 hours
3) Next set your dial to around 2:00 (High) until the sitter drops
Glaze firing (^6)
1) Set your dial to 9:00 (Low) for one hour
2) Then set your dial to  around 5:30 (Med) for 1 hour
3) Next set your dial to around 1:00 (Hi-Fire) until the sitter drops
As you get to know your kiln you will fine tune your firing settings

@Catatonic The switch is just an infinite switch. According to the Duncan manual, when you turn it on, it will go on low for 2 hours, then switch over to whatever cycle you've set the dial to. Overglaze is like medium, Ceramic is like med-high, High Fire is full on. Try this: start with the switch off, push the power button on the sitter, turn the switch to Overglaze and let it go 4 hours, then switch to Ceramic for 4 hours, then to High Fire until it's done. It may shut off on the ceramic setting.

All the knob for "overglaze, ceramic, hi fire" does is set an intermittent timer.  A super expensive timer to boot.  I have helped two people get these working and both had a bad timer.  Seems like people use the kiln until the timer fails, and then sell it on Craigslist and pretend it works.
Anyway, think of that knob as firing rate, and from what I remember, duncan wants you to use the ceramic setting for bisque and stoneware glaze firings and the hifire one for porcelain glaze firings.
The end temperature is determined by the kilnsitter.  I wonder if what he meant is to use the same setting for bisque and glaze, not the same cone.