Anyone building their own kilns?

Hey, Byrd...

Might I suggest you surf on over to

and register there for the forums? There is a pretty active newbies forum there and more than

6,000 members. You might find someone who lives nearby you and could tutor you. Unless you have an insane desire to reinvent the wheel, you'll probably spend as much money and a lot more time in building a kiln as you would to buy a new one. You can buy controllers (or build your own) to run the kiln you have now. What brand is it and what are the power requirements and size (inside)?

While on the warmglass site, order the book by Brad Walker and (if you are $$ able), order the book by Richard LaLonde. Those two books should get you started. The LaLonde book has some drawings and plans for some big kilns that you might adapt.

A PC is not reliable for controlling a kiln. An industrial grade temperature controller with ramp/soak functions is what you need. Add a solid state relay, a thermocouple, a mechanical contactor, and some wire and you have a good controller. $300.

I built my own 3'x5'x1' bell kiln for $2200 including the controller.

best website for glass kiln working is Good luck,

Jack

nJB, what you really mean is that a computer is incomplete. It's perfectly suitable for controlling temperature change over time. You just need the ancillary hardware you mention and some software. Which is exactly what you get when you buy an off the shelf kiln computer.

Jack, I built my own electric kiln. Very different from what you're interested in, but doubtless you'll still find some usefull information. I diarized the entire project here:

for controlling it. I power pairs of serial wired elements withinfinite switches similar to electric range switches. The switcheshave stops at seven intervals. I wrote myself a very simple computerprogram that allows me to enter the current temperature of the kilnand plots the change against a desired curve. It allows me to knowhow/when to change the power to the elements. Since I'm unwilling toleave the kiln alone for an entire firing I don't see the point inhaving the computer do more than that.Best regards,

Mark.

Well, Mark, while I understand your desire to keep an eye on the kiln, if you are doing anything moderately thick, it must be really boring and interupting to your life to change the settings for annealling, that is where most of the automation efforts in kiln or annealler activity have gone, especially since, once you get over about 3/4 inch annealing takes more than overnight. Mike

No, that's not at all what I mean. A controller is much more reliable than a computer. Ever had your computer freeze up? Imagine that when you have a 300lb bar top annealing. You can get a program to have your computer give the program to the controller and then just monitor the results. If the computer freezes, the controller still does it's job.

As for controlling it. I power pairs of serial wired elements with> infinite switches similar to electric range switches. The switches> have stops at seven intervals. I wrote myself a very simple computer> program that allows me to enter the current temperature of the kiln> and plots the change against a desired curve. It allows me to know> how/when to change the power to the elements. Since I'm unwilling to> leave the kiln alone for an entire firing I don't see the point in> having the computer do more than that.That will work for smaller items. It also provides a good education for how glass behaves at certain temps.

Jack

If the computer freezes you're running Microsoft Windows[1] - stop it. :-)

[1] or the computer's too close to the kiln - move it somewhere cool.

Do whatever you like. My firings are much to valuable to even consider using a PC to control the kiln.

Jack

I've had PCs running hundreds of days without a reboot. Of course, by PC, I mean an x86 machine, not the common misuse of the term meaning a machine running some flavor of Windows.

My computers are far more reliable than my present electric company. We've had at least a half dozen power outages since January already, ranging from half-second blips to 23 hours... Computers: Not a single reboot that wasn't a planned upgrade, or due to one of the aforementioned blips (only 2 machines are on UPS) - the other is at the mercy of the power company.

hi byrd do you have Kijiji where you are? There are lots of free stuff for stained glass,and articals no longer needed for crafts,there is even a section as skills trade.where you could do something for someone else,and get them to build the kiln for you.worth a try.

One of those blips can cause a reboot, my controller will continue where it left off if I so choose. I'll take the controller any day.

Basic computer with kiln software... $700

Dedicated kiln controller..... $200

Not worrying about power bumps.... Priceless

Jack

What's Kijiji? I live in a very rural community. Not much in the way of any sort of resource, training, store, etc. within 150 mi and then just a very expensive university in a town with @ 15K population. its at least 200 mi to the nearest city and much available as far as glass goes, except windshield repair and window / door companies.

What I do have is several old 286, 386, 486 pcs that should be suitable enough to run a kiln controller after all what is a kiln controller but a self-contained PC with some sort of interface modules.

I thought I read an article someplace about a company in New Zealand or Australia that built modules that could be plugged directly in to a PC with Linux, but I can't find the info now.

Byrd

I like this version better.

Dedicated kiln controller... $200 UPS... $29 Using hardware that would otherwise go to the landfill... priceless.

Basically, craigslist outside the US.

Google will find a few options for using a Linux PC as temperature controller. Don't necessarily limit your search terms to glass/pottery, as they're used for coffee roasting, climate control, and just about anything where temperature needs controlling.

You still haven't dealt with the power bumps and freeze ups.

Nah, priceless is sending a 300 pound, 2" thick counter top to the landfill because the hardware failed. I don't know what most of you use kilns for but to me $200 is peanuts compared to trashing a load while trying to reinvent the wheel.

I use two dedicated controllers on each kiln. Each with their own TC. Haven't needed the safety yet but I've also never been in a serious accident. I still have auto insurance.

Somebody asked for advice, I put in my two cents. The great thing about advice is that a wise man doesn't need it and a fool won't heed it.

The strangest thing is that the original poster hasn't checked back in. Maybe that's not so strange.

Jack

A UPS will deal with an unreliable power supply, but the right software will recover gracefully from a power failure anyway. Only Windows users think that machines lock up regularly. DOS would work fine for this sort of application, and has been used for process control in science and industry for many years. The open-source UNIX derivatives are also used for critical real-time control. The PC hardware required to run this sort of thing is minimal: I have some old 486 machines that would be more than adequate, and have proved their reliability over many years, NASA still uses Intel 386 based hardware because it works - but you can bet it doesn't run Windows. You may not be interested in using a PC to control your kiln, and I wouldn't try to persuade you otherwise, but you said "A PC is not reliable for controlling a kiln" and that's just not true. It's probably only going to appeal to people who have an interest in programming and DIY electronics, but it's potentially a very workable solution.

Go for it. I prefer to spend my time melting glass, which I do everyday. You sound like your expertise is in computers. Mine is in glass, kilns, and building controllers that are inexpensive and the least computer literate person can use.

Jack

making clay recycling clay making glazes making tools inventing tools writing a program to analyze glazes analyzing glazes creating glazes making functional pieces making sculpture combining sculpture and functional making monster pots (I have made some really ugly/cute things) making a wedging board making shelves designing a studio making a kiln making oxide pencils/crayons/etc. making stamps (does that fall under making tools?) researching, reading, writing, ....... so little damn time

Thank you.

Not judgmental at all. Somebody asked a question about building kilns and controllers and I answered to the best of my knowledge. A few people took it as if I said they "can't" use a PC. I pointed out some of the pitfalls. What I didn't point out is that the part I use instead of a PC is 2"x2"x4". There are many ways to get any job done. Hey, I don't own an electric mixer.

Jack