srw Posted April 7, 2022 Report Share Posted April 7, 2022 So I stumbled upon this tiny kiln for free and I couldn't pass it up. It's proven to be a mysterious little thing. Disclaimer: I have zero hands on kiln experience and have only had my pots fired for me in a community kiln, but doing a lot of reading in hopes of eventually having my own. This little kiln is from sno industries and the internet doesn't seem to think it ever existed. The company Sno Industries is now out of business. I've found some other sno kilns floating around the web but nothing that looks remotely anything like this one, and the model and serial number yielded no results. I contacted a couple kiln manufacturers hoping one had bought it out, and no one knows anything. Contacted The Ceramic Store that sells elements for Sno kilns (not my model though), but they said they have no info on them and sent me to where they got the elements, Euclid. I'm now waiting on any leads from euclid. It's labeled model PMK serial # 1182 Volts: 120 amps: 12 It has a light that lights up when plugged in and dial that has high medium low. I don't see a kiln sitter or any other way to tell the temperature or control it besides the dial. There's a hole in one side that I think may be where a kiln sitter would be fed into maybe? Or maybe it's just a peep hole? I have scoured the internet and emailed many manufacturers trying to get any kind of info on this little thing. I would really love to try to get it working as a little kiln for me to play around with but I don't know where to start. I like that it can run safely on household current with standard outlets, but still scared to plug it in for long without more info. I plugged it in in my garage (120 v 20 amp breaker) to see if it would turn on and it did, and started to heat up. I have 04 05 06 cones to test it but didn't know where to begin. My tentative plan to get a feel for what it can do is Put the witness cones in and close top, leaving little peephole open, fire with dial on low for 3 hours, turn up to medium for 3 hours, turn dial to high for 2 hours. All the while constantly peeking in at my little witness cones to see whats going on. Is that a reasonable plan? Anyone have any advice for moving forward or wanna help me puzzle out what the heck to do with this funky little kiln? If my initial test shows it's functional and could reach those low fire temps I'd like to install a little kiln sitter and invest in a pyrometer. But for now I just want to figure out if it works at all. The previous owner told me it fires to 2300k and they slumped glass in it, but that's the only background info I have. I don't even know how they determined it fires to 2300k. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
srw Posted April 7, 2022 Author Report Share Posted April 7, 2022 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
srw Posted April 7, 2022 Author Report Share Posted April 7, 2022 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neilestrick Posted April 7, 2022 Report Share Posted April 7, 2022 The hole is tapered, correct? That means it's just a peep hole, not a Sitter hole. Plus the sitter would be connected to the main control box and I don't see any signs of that. It needs to be on a stand. A cinder block would work just fine. Installing a Kiln Sitter isn't the simplest thing to do, especially if you haven't worked on kilns before. In addition to the Sitter itself, you'll need a box to house it, and you'll have to run conduit and wires to the control box. It's doable, but you may want to consider an external digital controller. It's a bigger investment, but it'll give you a lot more control. You'll just have to fire it up and see how it it'll get. I'd get a cheap digital pyrometer and track how it goes. At some point the rise will get really slow. Once it's down to less than 100F/hr that's probably as hot as you'll want to fire it. Euclids knows their stuff. Even if they don't know that kiln specifically, they should be able to make elements for it based on the specs and brick groove size. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
srw Posted April 7, 2022 Author Report Share Posted April 7, 2022 Yes very slightly tapered. I had it on concrete when I plugged it in thinking that'd be fine but now I know that's no good! I'll use cinder blocks, I want air to be able to circulate under it too right? Does the tentative test plan I laid out sound OK, starting the dial at low and then increasing temp every 3ish hours? I'm anxious to pop in some cones! I only have low fire cones and its hard to imagine this really getting that hot, but the previous owner did say it got to 2300f. My thinking is that even if it can get up to higher temps, it probably wouldnt reach them in a 3 hr at each level schedule, but either way I'll be watching the cones super close to get an idea whats going on. For a cheapy pyrometer, I want one with probe right? Not one of those infrared guns? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
srw Posted April 7, 2022 Author Report Share Posted April 7, 2022 Euclid got back to me today! They don't have a manual for it but they did know of this little kiln, and even said they can fit elements for it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neilestrick Posted April 7, 2022 Report Share Posted April 7, 2022 17 hours ago, srw said: starting the dial at low and then increasing temp every 3ish hours? Every hour would be fine. No need to go that slowly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
srw Posted April 9, 2022 Author Report Share Posted April 9, 2022 On 4/7/2022 at 4:24 PM, neilestrick said: Every hour would be fine. No need to go that slowly. Really?! You'd even do every hour for bisque fire? Im so scared of something exploding, but I just based this off googling manual firing schedules. I suppose this could reach temps a lot quicker due to its size though. For glaze fire would you also do every hour ramp it up and then just keep on high for however long it takes to reach temp? My cones and pyrometer just arrived early today so I'll have more actual idea of what's going on in there next test fire.. But yeterday I was impatient and they weren't supposed to arrive for another week so I threw in a little bone dry pot made of earthenware and just peeked at it obsessively. I had it low for 3 hrs, med for 3, and then like an hourish at high because I was scared of it melting. No explosions, cracks or melting! I played around with filling it with water/brushing water on it to try to gauge how cooked it got, and to my inexperienced touch it seemed much less porous than when I get a ^06 bisque back from community kiln. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neilestrick Posted April 9, 2022 Report Share Posted April 9, 2022 9 hours ago, srw said: Really?! You'd even do every hour for bisque fire? Im so scared of something exploding, but I just based this off googling manual firing schedules. I suppose this could reach temps a lot quicker due to its size though. For glaze fire would you also do every hour ramp it up and then just keep on high for however long it takes to reach temp? Yes, 1 hour on low is fine even for bisque firing as long as everything is dry. If you're concerned about things being dry enough, put it on low with the lid cracked a couple inches for a couple hours, then close the lid for an hour, then medium for an hour, then high. Chances are you're getting very little temperature increase in that third hour on each setting. Because it's running on 120 volts, it may actually be slower than a larger kiln. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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