New Kiln

[Silver State Studios]

I have a new kiln and the way you turn it up is very different than my last kiln.  I want to bisque fire to cone 04 but how do i turn the kiln up? Do I raise it a little at a time? Should I do like a low...medium...high? I'm not sure how high to raise it to get to cone 04. Can anyone advise me? I put a  picture of the controls.  Having 2 controllers is very confusing....I'm not sure if I do them both the same

[oldlady]

what brand name is on the kiln itself?

it does not look confusing to me because i am ignoring all the smaller numbers.  lo, medium and high are the important things.   

the sitter is not a controller at all, it is a shutoff device only.   many were made without the timer included.  the sitter goes off when the cone inside melts at the correct time.  if you want to reach cone 04, use a cone 04 in the sitter.  as a safety measure, you can set the timer to shut off the power in case some weird thing happens to prevent the sitter from working properly.     if you set the timer for a very long time and the sitter works as it should, you have no problem.   the timer is just showing extra hours you set.   after a few firings you will learn approximately how long your particular firings usually last.

  if you have read something that tells you a firing should take x hours and you put that on the timer, you may not fire the work to the correct cone.   the size of the work and the tightness of the load will be different in you kiln from the ideal firing that made someone say it would take x hours.   so, relax, use the sitter as it was intended, set a large number of hours and make notes on each firing.  you will learn it in time.

the most reliable cone for the sitter that i have found is the straight ones, triangular or square, rather than the tapered kind.  

[neilestrick]

That's a Cress kiln, and Cress has lots of manuals and info on their web site. Find yours and it will tell you everything you need to know, for the most part.

Are you familiar with how to use the sitter (in the middle)? That is just a shutoff device. The top and bottom switches actually control the elements. If those are normal switches, then an hour on low, and hour on medium, then high till it's done. 

[Silver State Studios]

I will try doing low,,,medium,,,high,  All those markings in between were confusing to me.  I have used sitter kiln in the past so i'm familiar with that part. But my old kiln only had the option of low. medium. and high. Thank you so much

[Mark C.]

Cress gives you the same three setting but also adds whatever you need in-between the settings as well. More choices depending on what you are trying to do.