Damn burst, kiln needs cleaning!

[glaskrafter]

I had a casting damned with hard fire brick faced with kiln board.
It pushed apart during the firing and when I finally got back to my kiln
it was annealing. I've pulled the kiln shelf and all damn material off the
bottom of the kiln and am left with a 1 1/2" puddle of solid glass on the side of
the kiln where the rupture occurred. It is into and over the element.
Anybody got a way of saving the element? Should I take a torch and try to
heat fracture the glass? Should I turn on the element full and try to heat
shock it from the inside?

[Laurie Spray]

That element is a gonner. Save yourself the frustration and remove the glass, patch the area and replace the element.

[glaskrafter]

Thanks Laurie
Its an opportunity to customize this kin as well.
It's timing. I've got a group glass show in March
and a gallery show in May.
I guess I better get to work.
Thanks

[Laurie Spray]

That is the way it always works!!

[Drake]

You can fire a kiln when the elements are full of glass, at least I do. If your oven has 1or 2 inches of glass in it with the first range of elements, you have to get rid of enough glass so that the elements will be free of the glass. In other words you have to melt off the glass from the elements. You can break the glass in the middle of the kiln and take it away, leaving a hole for the glass around the element to melt into when you reheat the kiln as usual. When you break the glass in the middle, if a crack in the glass goes through an element it is broken. Be careful.


The elements do not gave to be perfectly clean of glass they will contunue to fuction well at least under 900°C. If you insist on cleaning every thing up with little needle nosed plier you will finaly break the elements, I have!

If you break an element you can put the 2 broken ends together, wrap a little bit of stainles steel wire, and to keep it all from oxydizing put a small piece of glass that melt over the broken elements.

Now I know everyone says you can not use elements that are full of glass, But how did they cool down to room temperature?
test the oven now with the glass in it do all the element glow.

oh next time put stainless steel wire around you bricks and board.
Oh next time maybe you could put stainless steel around your blocks

[Laurie Spray]

My suggestion would still be to do the replacement.....a repaired element will again fail....and of course it will be in the middle of an important load where you will lose more then your time......just my thoughts.....
After a few casualties with damning glass with brick I started making the stainless steel rings and have never gone back......