Melting Plugs

[Johnmicheal]

I have an older Olympic kiln, probably a 2327, has a kiln sitter with the three interconnected boxes. My question relates to the plugs that join these boxes. I have seen them in the side of skutt boxes to join the boxes with each ring. Mine, on the Olympic, is in between the control boxes. Because of the heat coming from each joint between the rings, I eventually melt these plugs. After replacing several, and trying to block the heat with fireproofing, I removed the plugs and bypassed them. Is this a common problem, and is there a better way to deal with it.

[neilestrick]

Interbox plugs were common on most kilns at one time. On Skutt they were between the control boxes, too. One box had the male, the other had the female. When you stack the rings, the plugs come together to make the electrical connection. They have always been a weak leak in the system, eventually frying out and needing replacing. Skutt stopped selling them and started selling a hardwiring system.

 

If your plugs were actually melting out due to heat from the kiln, like there are gaps between the rings, then you need to loosen up the outer body bands and settle the brick in so they site flush and close the gaps. I have never heard of that happening to the plugs, though. Typically when they melt out it's due to an electrical issue, like the plugs aren't making good contact, so they arc and build heat and melt out. If yours were melting from the inside, then that's what was happening. Hardwiring the rings is the best solution, but you need to do it safely. Fist, make sure you're using high temp insulated wiring of the correct size. Second, you need to put plastic grommets in the holes so the wire can't abrade and ground out on the metal boxes.

[Johnmicheal]

The gap between rings looks a lot like the gap that forms between the top ring and lid. I don't see any gap between rings when the kiln is off, once it reaches temp, there is the glowing gap between each of the rings and the top

[Mark C.]

My skutt has latches that hold down the sections-you could jury rig this idea to your sections.

[neilestrick]

Yes, put latches to hold the sections together. Like THESE. You can get them at the hardware store.