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I just bought a used kiln. As far as I know it’s in decent shape for it’s age. The downfall is that the bottom has many cracks that go all the way through! The band on it holding it together is rigged, holding it together with wire. I’m assuming that as long as the band is tight there isn’t any way for the bottom to give out and collapse, or maybe it will I don’t know. The bricks are pretty fragile and flake off so I don’t want to mess around with it to much. I’m new to kilns and maybe just over thinking. Should I replace the bottom? Is it safe to have cracks that go all the way through the bottom? If anyone has any feed back please let me know anything helps. I’ll post photos later when I can.

What am I doing wrong?

Posted just now Hi, wondering if anyone can help I have a large bowl with a small 2cm crack from the rim, it has been bisque fired and what can i do to repair? I have a similar problem, but longer on another bowl. thickness of sides and rim all ok, it is hand built so i do try to compress as much as i can around the rim. Also where I’m having the firing down my work (and I guess others works) are coming out with black marks like dots on them, just wondering what that could be. Many thanks/‘

Hey all, using white cone 6 stoneware- B-mix 5 WC-401 I have been making some little 8-inch coral wall hangings- I throw bowled plates and fill it in with coral looking bits. They dry slowly and they usually make it through the glaze firing fine but then I like to add some glass (I bought some stained glass and mosaic glass pebbles- photos attached (the ones I bought are different colors but same type)) and put them in for another glaze firing and then they often crack at this step. I try not to use too much glass since I know that can cause cracking and often they just crack a little bit in the back but sometimes it goes all the way through (photos attached since Im not good at describing this) I have 2 questions: 1- after they're bisqued, can I put the glaze on them, let it dry and then put the glass on top so that I just do one glaze firing or is there any cost/benefit to doing it separately? - I did it separately this time because I decided I didnt like how they looked just with the glaze. 2- I've heard you can put sand underneath pieces to be like a shrink slab but I fire in a community kiln and they dont seem to be open to that; would making little clay coils or rolling out cylindrical strips and putting them under the corals when I do the glass melting help to prevent cracking? -I figured they were cracking because of friction getting caught on the kiln shelf any other thoughts/suggestions on how to do these? I just made a few more and trimmed the back of the bowled plates to add a little foot thinking that might help since there will be less surface area touching the kiln shelf but they are still drying thanks!

I'm having severe cracking problems on large 20 inch platters. I think it's from hairline cracks developing during drying. The platters were dried upside down for about four months inside large plastic bags. Every week or so I would open the end of the bag and flush some fresh air through to clear out some of the condensation on the inside of the bag. Some of the platters were thrown in the traditional pull a cylinder and spread it out technique. Others were made from a slab laid on the bat on the wheel head. It doesn't seem to make any difference which way they were made. Attached are pictures of various styles of cracks. Suggestions please