: meisie - Viewing Profile

I have a paragon kiln. A very nice paragon kiln I might add but it was very large. I was given a smaller one that's also nice and easier for me to use at home. I took the large one to school and got permission to put it in the closet that had originally housed a kiln years before. The maintenance man even had the previous vent. I purchased clay and glazes and thought I did all the research. I fired it this week and it didn't get up to temp for a very long time. I got the error message FTH failure to heat. I looked that up on Paragon website and later ended up calling technical support. The woman asked what the outlet was. 240 or 208 and that most schools tend to be 208. My heart sank because sure enough when the maintenance man tested it the next day it was 208. One option was putting in 208 elements and relays and such into the kiln for the outlet. This was a suggestion by paragon support. But the cost is much to high for me to foot the bill on my own. So this afternoon I asked the maintenance guy at school (he's actually also a trained electrician ) what the cost would be to convert that outlet. He's looking into that for me. He also mentioned what about a 208, 50 amp to 240, 50 amp buck booster. New they are 900 or so dollars but used ? Not really sure yet. Does anyone know if that would work with a kiln?? Would there be an issue? I hate to call paragon again and ask because I am feeling a bit stupid (although I seem to recall maintenance assured me it was 240.) I don't want to point any fingers and say it was them I am just planning on apologizing and sending back the grant money I spent on clay and selling the clay to someone else if I can't come up with a reasonable cost wise solution.
Thanks for any help
Renee

I recently received a kiln. I got approval to install it in my classroom.
I scoured the catalogues for clay and glaze and got a grant for the supplies.
The clay says "fires best at cone 04 and 05 not higher than cone 3." The glaze is also low fire and the directions say..... 2-3 coats on cone 04 bisque and then let dry and fire to shelf cone 06. I thought 04 was higher than 06? In fact just after the cone listing 06 states (999 degrees Celsius) and The cone 04 listed a higher temperature celsius. Shouldn't be the other way around? The higher temperature is when vitrification takes place???

At home I fire 04 bisque and then cone 6 glaze and it all works but that's all I have done. Am I missing something. Did I purchase the wrong stuff? Any insight would be appreciated. Perhaps they are labeled wrong?Thanks for any input.

I am curious why I have bubbles in this bowl. It's a cone 6 laguna clay, I wedged and re wedged and I use the clay twice. The first time the bowl wasn't what I wanted. Under glazed and then bisqued to cone 04 and then clear glaze and fired to cone 6. The kiln is small and the bowls I had were fairly large so one on the bottom, one in the middle and 4 pieces on the top. I did not have a hold time. Could this be that many air bubbles expanding? Or is it something else.
Thanks for any help
Renee