Imu

Brilliant answer, exactly what I was looking for. Thank you I did have my suspicions that a flux would be needed. I really don't mind spending time experimenting but working with gold has obvious drawbacks. I have allocated a few grams of scrap for this purpose. I've ordered Greg Daly's book so this will be a good starting point. Hopefully I'll have some positive feedback in the coming weeks. Sounds like you've been down this particular rabbit hole yourself with success?

Hi guys, I'm new here, I seemed to come across this forum a fair bit when researching things so figured it was about time I signed up, its given me some pretty useful tips over the last year or so. Happy to give back what I take, I have more of a technical history than ceramics but there's plenty of overlap. Anyways, my first post I'm looking for a bit of guidance on creating my own gold lustre, there is very little information floating around the Internet and any books I've purchased are more geared towards using lustres than making them so I've been fumbling in the dark. Now I know commercial lustres are available but I have a working project that requires me to make my own to give provenance to the finished piece Now as far as I can work out a gold lustre is simply either elemental gold in a nano/powder form or gold chloride mixed with a carrier oil, lets say pine oil, would this be a correct assumption? I would then use toluene, turps or similar to thin this to the right consistency? Would I pretty much just mix say 10-15% gold with the oil, then boil to ensure it mixes well? I already have some experience in refining gold and do have the necessary nasty chemicals to produce my own powder or chloride so its really just the last step that im fairly vague on Thanks for any input, like I said, information on the process seems very patchy, even a pointer to a decent technical book would be appreciated.

If I were to guess I would say this may have been caused with dry solder joints, as small cracks appear on the solder ring around the component pin it begins arcing If I were to guess I would say this may have been caused with dry solder joints, as small cracks appear on the solder ring around the component pin it begins arcing and eventually burns the whole joint out. But as you mentioned, its quite tough to see the tracks in the image, if you can give a clear image of both the top and underside of this PCB I would have a better idea on what actually popped. In electronics you will find most PCB designs have common weaknesses and if you replace like for like then chances are you will find the same fault reoccurring eventually. If you opt to replace this whole board then I would recommend giving all the solder joints (Especially the burnt one) a reflow with some good quality flux cored leaded solder.

There is a ton of things that could cause this but the most intriguing part is you mention the kiln draw is half its rated value. Power draw conversion to heat is very predictable so if one metric is wrong then all will be wrong. Depending on how the elements are wired you may find only half are actually doing their job. If you can access where the actual wiring harness attaches to your elements you should check here first, the AC vibration will easily loosen these connections over time. Next could be faulty/aged contactors. If I were in your position and you don't know much of the history of the kiln I would just go ahead and replace the elements and any contactors in there, these would be the number one cause of low power draw, as these both have a lifecycle then its wise to start your own journey with this kiln with the clock/count at zero.