[Nelly]

Dear All,

First of all, I want to thank you all for your guuuureat replies to my question last weekend.

Know that I spoke to Frank Tucker today about the kiln.

He said that yes, this can happen. It can get a little hotter than it should but to not be alarmed.

Please know that I DID check my cone and with my glasses off it was clearly an 04. Thus, I did take that suggestion to heart and recognized I did follow the usual practice correctly.

Tuckers said, yes, if the cone was down that low that it was bordering on over firing.

Their suggestion was to not adjust anything. They said, next time you fire, allow yourself to do the slow bisque (as programmed into the machine or computer) and watch the cones carefully. He said when I see the three o'clock bend, "shut it off." It is that simple.

I know some of you are likely shaking your head and thinking but what is the sense of that if it is supposed to do it for you automatically??? I will do more research on it on Monday with another member of the staff but do know his suggestion seemed like an Einstein thought to me this morning. Simple.

No checking the thermocouple. No adjusting temperatures etc.

He did shrug a bit when he said 04 may be a little high but he said as long as the glaze fits and you are happy, then go to this temperature. I am only using this temperature as that is what the kiln is programmed for.

Next time I will get one of the other staff to walk me through a slow bisque programed to say 05 if I am firing at 6. Does this make better sense?

Know that the last time I did a glaze fire, that all turned out as it should AND the computer went off when it should. This one I did at cone 6.

But again, his simple words were "turn it off" when the cones bend to three o'clock and you will be fine.

So there you go. That is as far as I got on this one.

THANK YOU everyone for trying to help. My research hasn't stopped but at least I am not stumped with a kiln that it totally not functioning. I just have to figure out a way to do it even better.

Nelly

[bciskepottery]

I bisque to 05 and glaze fire to 6. You'll hardly notice the difference between 04 and 05.

[Nelly]

bciskepottery, on 25 May 2012 - 06:20 PM, said:

I bisque to 05 and glaze fire to 6. You'll hardly notice the difference between 04 and 05.

Dear All,

I have to tell you the only reason I bisqued to 04 was the machine was calibrated or programmed for 04. I must figure it out though.

Thank you for your suggestion--this IS what I did at my old studio.

05 then fire at 6-7.

Nelly

[atanzey]

I bisque at 04 and then fire to cone 6, so there's no 'magic number' for bisque. The key is to figure out what you're going to do and learn how it works for you. And actually, I should say that I aim for 04, but I'm firing a gas kiln that has to be tended, and if I'm in the 06-04 range and I need to do something else, I shut it down.