Gary's Third Pottery Blog

When the going gets tough, dragons gonna get going....

Gary's third pottery blog

WRITE TO ME! garyrith@yahoo.com Come see me! Open studio HERE! November 25-26 (11-4 each day); Aurora Art and Design, daily until 12/24; Cooperstown Art Assoc. daily until 12/24; Ellis Hollow Community Fair, 12/10; December 10, Little Red Wagon at the Space at Greenstar. All material on this blog unless stated otherwise is copyright Gary Edward Rith 2016

Friday, August 12, 2016

and so the kiln is fixed…again...




(step one:  unplug that thing!)

A couple of years ago, it seemed mysterious, until I realized the kiln had been working overtime for a while:  one after the other, over the course of a few months, the 4 elements all burned out and I replaced them.  Again this year, March and June I had to replace 2 of the replacements, and I had a misfire Wednesday, and surprise! Another element needed replacing…you imagine in a month or 2 the 4th will go, right?  Just like a lamp with 4 bulbs.  EXACTLY like a lamp with 4 bulbs--kiln elements burn out after a while.

It is not as easy to replace elements on a kiln as replacing a light bulb, but not too difficult.  You can see below the burned looking spot, it marked the brick that holds the elements (I love how L and L electric kilns have these hard brick REPLACEABLE element holders, brilliant).  So, I had to tear out the old element, the brick it melted into and then get it connected and tested…and I did so by 9 am Thursday and got the kiln properly fired by the end of the afternoon, right on time :)





New element on the left with the new element holder, on the right removed element and holder...

Below, the connections….



Later:  red hot, firing correctly :)

1 comment:

Karen (formerly kcinnova) said...

I'd be worried that I'd start a fire or something where it didn't belong. Go, you!

Top pottery blog 2015

2014 winner

Me and Missus Tastycakes

Me and Missus Tastycakes

garyrith.com

ME, the TV interview :)

my etsy gallery

my second blog, 2008-2009

my first blog, 2006-2008

Followers

Blog Archive

About Me

My photo
I am a full-time studio potter, sculptor, and dog walker, married to superhawt Missus Tastycake.