HenryBurlingame

That looks just like mine, no differences in temperature between the different sections until cooldown and the cones show differences in heatwork between sections. So it has to be from slower cooldown in the middle (and bottom to a lesser extent) section. I think I am just going to try loading the top and bottom more than the middle (and try a kiln shelf on top) to see if it evens things out with the 3 zone kiln. Doing a slow cooling cycle from the very top temperature is hard to time right without adding too much heatwork or having the kiln throw errors at you if you try to go too fast... its a lot easier to do 9999 drop to like 1900F and then start your slow cooling, but it might be better to try and figure out the best rate for the former for more uniformity between kiln loads. After I get it as even as possible via loading methods I'll probably end up doing a thermocouple offset to really nail it down.

Yeah, this last bisque fire I loaded the kiln with more mass in the middle, with lowest level set tall, etc., etc. following all recommendations I could find from L&L and Skutt etc. But my kiln has three zones and a downdraft vent, and with a three zone kiln everywhere seemed to reach the final temperature at once but then top and bottom cooled off faster so I think middle got more heatwork. So I don't think the recommendations really apply to three zone kilns. The top especially cooled off faster since I think it loses a lot of heat through the lid and probably the downdraft vent that I have makes it worse up there since I think most of the air comes in around the lid. Hence me thinking maybe a shelf at the very top over everything could solve this issue (and probably NOT following recomendations to load up the middle more and instead just keep everything even everywhere would help as well). Only drawback would be then I wouldn't have one glorious kiln-post-free shelf at the top lol.

Does anyone here put a kiln shelf at the very top of their electric kilns over all of the ware? I am wondering if this would help add a few degrees to the top of my kiln. The top of my kiln is just a tad cooler than the rest of it and I am wondering if there is any way to heat it up a bit without having to resort to thermocouple offsets. I would rather not have to mess with offsets if I don’t absolutely have to.

Hi all, I was wondering if anyone else with a DiamondCore cink might be able to answer some questions for me. Let me know and I’ll shoot you a PM, thanks so much!

So a little update in case anyone else is wondering about what size slab roller to get... I ended up with the larger bailey (30" wide and 69" long) and after a couple of months of use I can't imagine it any other way. Just gives you plenty of room to work comfortably and not be worried about pushing the limits of a smaller one. The extra length on the table is soooo handy for working with slabs after rolling them or for doing other things like setting ware boards on to hold extrusions or whatever. Totally happy with the size, and I think I would have regretted a smaller one. Also, slabmats are amazing, so much easier and nicer than using canvas, I highly highly recommend them!

The manual for my L&L specifically says to not use silica sand in the kiln as it will attack the elements and thermocouples. Says it can migrate in the kiln from expansion and movement due to heat 🤷‍♂️.

I will try the bucket method and see if that is any different from just adding water to the bag... I have always just added water to the bag, rotated it a few times, and in a few days the clay seems pretty consistently softer. Most of the clay I got from them in my last order was about 6+ months old, with one bag over a year old according to the date on the package. Had to add about a cup of water to every bag to just be able to wedge them comfortably, and a little more to be able to extrude or slab roll without issues. The year-old bag was acting really strange - super short and floppy so I just gave up on it, water wasn't going to save that one lol. Maybe just bad luck on my part, but I have liked almost every other clay I have tried more than the SPS stuff, but I am still going to use it all and see what I think as far as finished pots look, how absorption turns out, etc. before I make any final decisions.

So this is my first time using an extruder. I finally bit the bullet and got a Scott creek 4” extruder mainly to make a lot of test tiles. However, I keep getting tearing along some of the edges of the forms (usually where there is a curve, see attached image). What is the best way to prevent this? Do I just need to use softer than normal clay? Thanks!

Hi all, so I was wondering how common this was. I have been trying a lot of new cone 6 clay bodies from various suppliers and I am finding that a lot of the time the clay is too hard to wedge or throw straight out of the bag, sometimes waaay too hard even though the manufacturing date was only a few months ago (I’m looking at you Seattle pottery supply!). Is this pretty common? I guess I’m going to have to spend today adding water to bags and flipping them every few hours, but man it is making me want to just decide on one clay body and get a pugmill lol.

Perfect, thanks Neil!

I was wondering if anyone knows how the genesis 2.0 controller determines the status of output 4 (either vent on or off) after a custom program ends. Does it stay on or off based on if it was on or off during the last segment of the program? Does it automatically shut off? Does it depend on if you have option A, B, or C set in the settings? The manual is very vague here...

Yes, that would work. I think the consensus is I should just be lowering the max temp and not messing with offset unless I really need to 🙂. Thanks for the thread links!

Awesome, thanks for posting, this is exactly what I was looking for! Thanks Hulk! So it looks like the middle of your kiln (basically same as mine, I have the eq2327-3) is cooling off at about 200F/hour when it first goes off. Wonder if there would be any benefit to setting the the cooling rate to 200 instead of 9999 so if would keep all the zones even as it cooled... "crash cool" segment of the program would also be consistent between firings independent of kiln load if you set the cooling rate to match the slowest zone of your most fully loaded kiln too...

@neilestrick, I have been thinking about this recently (i.e. cooling with 9999 vs a fast rate but slow enough that I wont get an error code) and just saw your post. What do you think is the approximate fastest drop rate that is slow enough so that the kiln can actually keep up and the controller will keep the sections even? And do you think having the downdraft vent on during the 9999 cooling segment would help with eveness or make the uneveness worse?

I bet the slight overfiring is something like that. My thoughts were that the elements shut off when the kiln reaches top temp, but they are still hot so probably while they (and the rest) of the kiln cools off it is kind of like a little bit of a hold up there. So thermocouple reading is correct but it over fires anyway. Do you happen to have any graphs of exactly how fast your kiln is cooling for you up there once it goes off?