A few years ago Emily's mom was clearing out excess stuff and found a kiln (used by her mother to glaze porcelain dishes) and I snapped it up. Simon gets very resentful if I use the kiln in the summer months, but with the cold weather that has set in (it's snowing right now!) I am free to fire up as much clay as I can stand. So I was very excited to run the kiln only to find that it never reached the required temperature, and the kiln ware looked very bad indeed. The culprit was a broken element (there are four). Since Emily is out of grandmas and new kilns costs over $2000, I was very dispirited--until Simon suggested I get online to look for a replacement kiln element. Since the kiln is certainly 40 years old at least, I was skeptical, but (unbelievably) I found a company that sells all sorts of kiln parts. The element I needed cost only $32. It arrived a few days ago and, with much trepidation, I set to work on it earlier today while Simon and Frederick went for a walk in Grand Blanc Commons. Here is the new element, right out of the bag:
Step 1 is to remove the control panel. Eew--rather dusty, no?
Step 2 was to disconnect the element from the control panel (held in place by a ceramic tube and a screw holding it to the switch plate.
Step 3 was to pull the element out of the kiln bricks--CAUTIOUSLY!!!--I was warned, as (apparently) the kiln bricks are fragile. I quickly realized that the bricks were likely to break because the work was fiddly and frustrating as hell. It didn't help that the element crumbled to bits every time I got a good grip on it. Here is the kiln, with new element in place, all vacuumed out and ready to go.
Now I just have to attach the new coil ends to the switch plate....
...reattach the control panel cover...
...load up the kiln (with the monstrously hideous pots that weren't fired properly)....and Bob's your uncle!
I have started up the kiln, but it takes about 5 hours to get up to the required temps (about 2000F--hard to believe I'm responsible--gulp--for wiring it up!), then it takes about 12 hours to cool down enough before I can open the kiln to see if it worked. Here's hoping.
Step 1 is to remove the control panel. Eew--rather dusty, no?
Step 2 was to disconnect the element from the control panel (held in place by a ceramic tube and a screw holding it to the switch plate. 
Step 3 was to pull the element out of the kiln bricks--CAUTIOUSLY!!!--I was warned, as (apparently) the kiln bricks are fragile. I quickly realized that the bricks were likely to break because the work was fiddly and frustrating as hell. It didn't help that the element crumbled to bits every time I got a good grip on it. Here is the kiln, with new element in place, all vacuumed out and ready to go. 
Now I just have to attach the new coil ends to the switch plate....
...reattach the control panel cover...
...load up the kiln (with the monstrously hideous pots that weren't fired properly)....and Bob's your uncle!
I have started up the kiln, but it takes about 5 hours to get up to the required temps (about 2000F--hard to believe I'm responsible--gulp--for wiring it up!), then it takes about 12 hours to cool down enough before I can open the kiln to see if it worked. Here's hoping.
1 comment:
Brave triumph!
xM
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