Monday, September 08, 2008

my stinking kiln



I bought a nifty new high tech kiln 4 years ago, and it is, ahem, tricky. Needs a lot of fixing. Yesterday I was horrified to see SPARKS AND FLAMES popping out of the computer control box. When you fire a kiln, as safe as they are, you stick around and watch them. I mean, they're just big toaster ovens, but you wouldn't put toast in there for 12 hours without watching it, right???
Anyway, I had this same problem about 6 months ago. I caught it early in the firing. The interior was only up to 400 degrees, and I cut the power and the sparking stopped. This morning, I unloaded, unplugged and took apart the kiln. You see that a white insulator was loose, and the element wire was in contact with the kiln's metal jacket. Luckily the element, the wires, the kiln and MY HOUSE are all OK. I replaced the insulator, and tightened all the insulators and wires, and then ran a test. Perfect.

10 comments:

Tink said...

Hoop's nickname for me is Cautious. So I'm not sure I could have one of those in my house... or near it for that matter. I'd pop five new white hairs every time it was turned on. :)

gary rith said...

Well, it should always be safe, but any appliance or equipment has to be used carefully and watched.

Newt said...

Whew.........good save....

Farmer*swife a/k/a Glass_Half_Full said...

Well, that doesn't sound very good.....glad you were watchin' it!

Anonymous said...

Your insurance company loves you. I think.

Whew!! We're all glad for you, Gary.

Gordo said...

Good catch, Gary!

Ellen said...

Stories like this make me afraid to take the plunge on a computerized model. I have a rather old, simple, Paragon with a kiln sitter...suits my non-technical self! :)

Chatty said...

Holy cow. Glad all is well!

Giggles said...

Pretty darn scary!! Great that you caught it!

Bring Back Genestealer Cults said...

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