little spots of crud on my work
Posted: Sat Apr 12, 2003 11:01 pm
Let me give a bit of background information on my kiln. It is a fiber lined 20" square kiln. About 6 months ago, I had a controller relay fail. When I checked the kiln in the morning (yeah, I know, never go to bed with the kiln firing) it was very hot and the elements had sagged into my work, luckily shorting them out before causing a fire. Of course everything was ruined. Glass had run off the shelf.....what a mess! I bought new elements and my brother in law instaled them. We replaced the damaged fire brick on the bottom of the kiln and threw away the shelf. He felt it wasn't necessary to reline the kiln even tho the sides and top had gotten quite firm and "crunchy". Well, the kiln worked. I got another relay. All was well with the world. HOWEVER, I began getting little fiberous looking spots on my work. So, I did research and coated the top and elements (Big mistake on the elements when they got hot chunks of ITC dropped onto my work. I had to clean them off with a dental pick. Very tedious!) with ITC 100 and also ITC 296A. Well it got better, but lately the spots are back. The top still looks fine. Could it be from the crunchy sides? Should I reline my kiln? Could it be that convection currents are picking up little pieces of fiber during the firing and they are landing in my work? Help!
Dianne VdC
Dianne VdC