Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Test adapt Test adapt Repeat


First glaze firing for the Paragon in months since making a few minor/major adjustments…  I had a checklist of hypothesis’s (guesses) of what to expect, but I had to start burning again so I could work through the list.

Aside from all of the other experiments that were in the kiln, it was realizing that kiln sitter needed adjustment that made the firing worth it.
I had set the kiln sitter for cone 5 and it did its job and it shut the kiln down when the bar bent …. but none of the cone packs dropped cone 5 (didn’t really even budge.) So the options are to pull the kiln sitter, readjust the nut and reinstall the sitter OR use a cone 7 bar in the sitter and a pyrometer to see how far off the sitter is.

Hmmmmmm…

10 comments:

cookingwithgas said...

I gave up on the sitter and went to the pyrometer only- the sitter was just making me crazy- I by pass it and don't even put a cone in it.

FetishGhost said...

Hmmmmmmmm....

Hollis Engley said...

Hmmmm, indeed. The pots don't look underfired, but I'm guessing they must be if the cones didn't fall. I'd vote for the cone7 sitter cone. Or placing the cone pack so it can be seen through a peep ... assuming there's a peep in this kiln.

Anonymous said...

I must admit the slight under firing looks good. Personally I would bin the sitter and use pyrometer and cone for exact tempreture. As mentioned put the cone stack near a peep hole if you have one in the kiln

Regards

Andy

Gary's third pottery blog said...

I made the mistake of buying a paragon kiln a few years ago and gave away my 30 year old big skutt. BIG MISTAKE. When the paragon works, it works well, but good lord I have had to replace everything in it multiple times.

FetishGhost said...

I love a good peep, but this kiln just doesn't have peep holes big enough to look into.(I actually thought they came in one size)
I'll adjust the sitter (it's still my fall back) and drive by pyrometer. Thanks voicing options everyone.

jim said...

hope the "driving by pyrometer" works. the pots don't look that underfired although i'm sure once you take them out and examine it will be a sure thing. i like the blue/black combo.

ang design said...

yeh i'd go with the 7... the front cone looks about 20 deg off C that is.... maybe a silly ?tion but are the cones rated the same?? I'm not sure if the small ones bend at the same rate????dunno just more questions :P love ya crawl i have some on the outside of some platters yummo...

Rob Addonizio from Taiko-Earth said...

I usually use a cone that is 2 cones hotter in my sitter in my gas kiln. As the flames come up, they heat the cone in the sitter faster...

I wouldn't recommend firing by pyormeter....too unreliable.

Nick said...

The smaller cones have different firing rates than a normal size cone. So usually the kiln sitters aren't as good as using a large cone pack version, and just checking up on it.

Sadly that can be time consuming to have to keep checking on the kiln.