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i have a front load evenheat gts22 kiln with elements in the ceiling. i noticed that a few metal pins have fallen out, and that the elements are drooping a little bit. i gently pressed the elements up, back into the groove, and attempted to reinsert some of the metal pins. i pushed the pins into new brick, not old holes, but the pins are still loose. what am i doing wrong? does it matter if a few pins fall out?

You really want as many pins holding the coils as you can get. One thing you don't want is one falling on your glass.

Installing the pins can be a hassle when they won't stay in place so try bending the pins a little so the straight portions have a little curve in them. This will help them lock into the brick. Also you might try drilling a hole just a little smaller than the pins with an old drill bit and then push the pins in. Sometimes pushing pins to make a hole crushes too much brick and the pins won't hold.

Ron

Try putting the pins at an an angle such that the curve end rest inside the groove of the brick so when it tries to fall out it gets stuck .....I hate this problem!

Good luck - Terry O.

Mark Wilson wrote:i have a front load evenheat gts22 kiln with elements in the ceiling. i noticed that a few metal pins have fallen out, and that the elements are drooping a little bit. i gently pressed the elements up, back into the groove, and attempted to reinsert some of the metal pins. i pushed the pins into new brick, not old holes, but the pins are still loose. what am i doing wrong? does it matter if a few pins fall out?

Hi Mark -

This is normal and occurs over time, especially with higher temps. Try taking the pins (make sure one end has a point; you can cut them with wire cutters on an angle if not) and push the pointed end into the groove slightly off center, push as far in as possible and try to have the curled end around the element and completely inside the groove. I use needle nose pliers to gently push the pin into the fire brick and have to keep moving further up the pin til it is all the way in. The needle nose pliers let you support the pin so that it doesn't bend. That usually takes care of the problem .... but on my older kilns, the grooves have so many holes now that I sometimes have to inject some kiln cement into the holes prior to pushing in a pin. I put slightly watered down kiln cement in a disposable syringe for this job and they stay put.
Hope this helps....

Since we've had this discussion several times on the board, how would one find the archives on it? I get messed up with search words to access the proper archive. I remember some very creative solutions were posted at the time. - Barbara

Barbara Cashman wrote:Since we've had this discussion several times on the board, how would one find the archives on it? I get messed up with search words to access the proper archive. I remember some very creative solutions were posted at the time. - Barbara

Searching on the new board will give you all the recent posts about pins and elements if you use the term "pins and elements" (without the quote marks).

On the old board searching for "pins elements" (without the quote marks) brings up ovre 50 posts that look to cover the subject very well.

Ron