Connie, Have you looked inside while your kiln is running to be sure all the elements are working and orange and about the same color? Depending on your controller, can you hear or feel the relays working? Kilns are not difficult to rebuild, and far, far cheaper than replacing.
Yep, sounds like one of the elements may be open.
The relays are clicking away. I think my main problem is not enough electricity for it. It pulls 19 amps on a 20 amp circuit. When every I get a "real" job paying good money I will have the house rewired which includes more power and a new fuse box as I can't add to this one. I dream of winning the lottery and having a stone house on the water with a nice big sunny work shop for all my messy hobbies. I will check on the coils soon and maybe check with the almost local Kiln Doctor.
Hi Jack, What do you mean? I've heard of relays being stuck or elements being broken but not open elements.
Way down at the bottom there is more fun stuff to read!! I hope...
It only draws those 19 amps while it is running full bore, unless you are running something else on that circuit, shouldn't bother anything, your problem is somewhere in yiour system, not the power to it.
20 amps ? Is that a 110 volt kiln? Must be ,my 240 volt kiln with 3 elements (Evenheat GTS23) is drawing 35 or 40, if memory serves. Your just under powered, period. You jump to a 220 volt kiln you will be like a kid in a candy store, probably fire it so much you'll have to throw water on the meter to cool it off!!! THAT'S A JOKE, BTW! there is the cure to your problem. Can't have the speed without the power.
Broken element or a connector off. Open circuit. Somethings definitely wrong.
David,
Thank you for your replies to my question in a.r.m. The thread is now dead on my server and I can't thank the others who replied. I didn't know there were so many posts there.
I have another question for you. I use my kiln to blue steel parts for my presentations. Do you have any idea how high I should be going? I've been doing 800F and get variable good results. I'm looking for a purple/blue color.
Great links, thank you. I fired to 555F today and held for 30min and got a beautiful purple blue.
Glad to hear it did what you wanted. I thought if you needed a really dense colour you might have to look at some of the gun blueing products. Is it some of the metal parts shown in you gallery that you are colouring.
Nice glass work!.
nJb wrote:
Thanks, David. None of the parts on my website have been colored with this method but the new ones will be.
Funny thing is that I've been searching with the word "bluing". Didn't know that "tempering" is what the colors were used to determine. Now I remember reading about it years ago. The info was right there on my bookshelf in my Machinery's Handbook.
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