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Tom in Texas wrote "I have used old style with bichromate sensitizer, have not tried newer diazo based system yet so I don't know light sensitivity on it." Sensitivity is the same but you have to mix the entire batch up at once unlike the old Bichromate system. Anyone know where you can ge...

i thought you had to worry about your health and the earth's ozone layer being damaged. Not nice stuff. Kevin

Thermal mass is the problem. You pay to heat it and then wait to cool it. Wasted money and time. I hate my kiiln shelves as they add mass to my kilns. I could fire faster without them. Mine run 6 cubic ft on 2300 watts. It is not the power going into a kiln that is important, it is what you are heat...

S.W.Enterprises had a wonderful 12 inch machine with central water feed and magnetic disks. You could use the entire surface as there was no central post. Expensive. Kevin

The rumour about kilns contaminating work arose probably out of the story that was heard maybe five years ago. A pottery studio in the US had their pottery tested for lead etc. and they failed. They were using lead free materials in their work so the lead etc was obviously coming from the old kilns ...

[quote="Tony Serviente"]Carla-Before you ditch the thermocouple, do you know all your elements are working. If not, then your controller may be forced to take longer to get to the target temp, and overcook on the way. What about the voltage you are delivering your kiln? At this time of yea...

Only thing to be aware of is that the kiln being fired must have the thermocouple fitted, and connected. So it will read the temperature of the kiln being fired. Having done the above swapping of connections to save some money and not buy a controller, I cannot recommend it. I once failed to move t...

Clay is dry when you pick it up and touch your cheek with the clay and it does not feel cold. 1/2" of clay can hold a lot of explosive steam. I suggest paper clay. Kevin

The messy water spray can be kept down by using magnets to hold a sheet of plastic such as 6 mil vapour barrier in place in front of the belt. Three or four of the thin flexible rubber type magnets will hold the sheet in place. Don't use any type of magnet that might cause damage to you or the machi...

My kilns run at the low end, about 600watts/ cubic ft. Sure more power will get you to fire a little faster but how many times a day do you want to fire a kiln? I am not into working a 24 hour day. It isn't the watts going into a kiln that is important, it is the total power that it takes to fire a ...

Not only a coarse screen, a metal mesh that won't get cut by the grit of the Thompson enamel. I've got the Thompson stuff, have done lots of screen printing and wouldn't dream of using them , 80 mesh,with a regular silk screen. Thompson's will make a finer mesh if you special order it but I suspect ...

Same goes for Thompson enamels. I've had problems in thick applications. You can get away with a lot fusing different materials together but there is always that chance for a problem. I have one Thompson colour right now that either they sent me some wrong coe enamel or I have to apply it realllly t...

Surface degradation over time. The surface of that old glass, if you were able to get down to the molecular level would look porous where parts of the surface have been literally washed away over time. The glass, drawn as compared to modern float, is most likely worth more to a stained glass window ...

the kiln is at 180º so I peeked and there are no visible cracks Air temperature! The glass had to be over 300 on its surface and probably 500 F or more internally for a thick piece. Haven't there been a long discussions on this board before about the 300F glass transition temperatures, the ones I ...

Rather than stomping on a panel, I tend to keep some of my stompable pieces around as examples to study and learn what not to do. I'm with Brock, possibly a leetle bit of incompatibility and an imperfect cooling to room temperature.

I might look at several areas that could be causing the problem. #1 was all the glass from the same stock sheets or were they mixed and thus have some subtle variation in compatibility. This is probably not the problem. #2 shift in COE from repeated firings. Probably not the problem. #3 sometimes ki...

My suggestion for the double/single label problem is to use a large enough single label but using an xacto knife cut through only the backing paper. Peel one side only. You do need a label with a backing paper that can be peeled off easily at the sales desk so the sales clerk doesn't have to waste s...

Had a home built kiln with Kanthal elements for 15 years times 300 firing days times 2 firings per day. No replacements that I can recall until the frame finally rusted apart.

What about building yourself a plywood box with baffles inside that causes the air to flow in a series of curves before it hits the motor. Sounds cheaper than $800. There is also the possibility of fitting standard furnace filtering materials from commercial air filtering companies. They have a tack...

Try it and see if it works without any glass in the kiln. Clay works best if allowed to dry properly. If done when wet it might explode. Kevin