How to Fire a Manual Kiln 2, Kiln Sitter, Firing a Kiln for the First Time, Home pottery studio vlog
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 ต.ค. 2024
- In this second half of all things manual kiln, Emily talks kiln logs, how to avoid kiln explosions and what to do if you something breaks during firing. She even shows the red hot cones through the peephole during firing. All to help the lone potters out there trying to get things in their own home pottery studio up and running.
The laser thermometer (something like this) amzn.to/3oLmkQM
How to Fire a Manual Kiln 1 Preparing and Loading a Kiln, Firing a Kiln Sitter home pottery art vlog • How to Fire a Manual K...
Life as a potter is a journey and a gift. Join Temily on their journey as they learn all things pottery. They share the beautiful discoveries, as well as the agonizing defeats. Everything they learn about pottery along the way -from new and exploratory ways to throw on the wheel, and hand building techniques, to glaze formulation and kiln maintenance. You get to follow the good, the bad, and the ugly. ;)
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Very helpful 3yrs later, thanks! Just got my old fairly new Cress.
So so glad! Good luck!
I just found you. I searched for videos of Duncan kilns. Your videos came up. I have had my kiln for a very long time and have yet to fire it. I have no manual, you have become my manual. Thank you! You have taken the fear out of firing my kiln up. My kiln is old, no digital at all. Kiln sitter!! Bless you!!! You are a pleasure to watch😊
Oh My Goodness!!! I’m so glad! I was in the same boat that’s why I did these videos.
Reach out anytime I am glad to help in anyway I can 😘❤️❤️❤️
😊💜💜💜💜💜
So helpful!! Love the detail you go into. Thank you thank you!
You’re so welcome. I wanted deep details when I started and couldn’t find anything. Just FYI part 1 is in a he description in case you didn’t see it. It goes over loading for best results
This is a great video. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
You are so welcome. Thanks for watching. Good luck!
You’re adorable and smart! Great tutorial!
Aww thanks! Glad it was helpful
This is great! So helpful
Oh thank you so much. Feel free to reach out if something comes up :)
So glad I have found your channel as I have just acquired a sitter kiln. Great info and giving us newbies so confidence!
I have a question about Soaking - how do you hold the temp on a manual kiln to let a glaze soak?
Thank you!
Welcome to the channel! Soaking is difficult in a manual kiln. For 1-2 hundred dollars, depending on where you are in the world, you can get a thermocouple for a manual kiln. It goes in the peep hole and you monitor it manually. You have to put a cone into the kiln sitter that is one cone higher than what you want to reach so that The Kiln sitter doesn’t turn off. Then you monitor the thermocouple and manually adjust the percent power, and/or the ramp speed, and/or just turn the dials on and off, to control the temperature. This is how you would do the type of soaking that people who have digitally controlled kilns do. But another thing you need to understand in a manual kiln, is that Reaching cone is not only about temperature. Reaching cone is about time AND temperature.
So think like an oven. You can bake cookies in a 300° oven for 20 minutes, a 350° oven for 15 minutes or a 400° oven for 10 minutes. At the end of the day baking you will have four batches of evenly cooked cookies but you could say that the ones that cooked for 20 minutes Didn’t make it to a high enough temperature. Or the ones at 400 got too hot. But all the cookies came out edible. Maybe slightly different in color and texture. That’s the way you’re cones work. They tell you when the cookies are done regardless of what the temperature is. This is why we say the kiln load reached cone … And not the kiln load reached …temperature.
So, soaking is all about controlling the cool down not the vitrification of glaze and clay. The idea is to keep the glaze melted but not push it to the next cone. That being said eventually the kiln will reach the next cone. Just like the cookie example, the cookies can get burnt in a 300° oven if you leave them in long enough.
So why soak? One of the only ways to can get large crystal formation is to control the cool down, ie:soaking. But soaking is not necessary to have a successful firing. In the case of glaze running/drips you can sometimes get those effects by simply firing to a higher cone. But don’t feel like you can’t try a glaze just because you don’t have a thermocouple. The glaze will still be vitrified. Just know a glaze that calls for a soak may not look the same out of your manual kiln. Test, test, test! 🙄😒🤪
Lastly, I have one particular glaze I got a girl who has a digital kiln and 3 inch kiln walls. In her kiln it melts great in my kiln it looks like snot. 😳😒 but because of those 3 inch kiln walls and her 10 min soak it takes longer for her kiln to cool down. so be aware that some of the glazes that are stable when you’re not soaking may run in a glaze firing that you decide to soak.
This may be way too much information, but I hope it answers your question. And thanks for watching. 😊
Thank you for this!! I just got a cress fx23p and this helps!
Oh I’m so glad!!! I really needed someone to tell me all that when I got started.
That’s what I have also! The main difference with mine is that the speed control is on the right side of the control case.
Hello, One question, is it normal for the kiln to make noises from time to time? every 20 seconds or so? thenk you very much!
Bad noises are loud and typically more frequent than 20 seconds. Most of those are in the first 500°F. Those typically make you think “holy cow!what is going on!!!” The metal covering on the kiln will bend and flex with the heat fluctuation and those sounds can be scary sometimes. Those sounds can happen throughout and every 20 seconds wouldn’t be unheard of. The metal sounds kind of like a cheap cookie sheet that warps in the oven -that’s pretty much what’s happening. But those sounds are typically not very loud, sporadic, and make you think “did I just hear something?” And then wait and think “I think I am hearing something” and then “I’m definitely hearing something but it doesn’t sound like it’s inside the kiln really”
just git a kiln yesterday and its this kiln your using. how would you do a "hold" say a cone five " hold" for five min
Technically you can’t. 🫤🤷🏻♀️ However, technically a hold is allowing more heat work to happen. It is essentially allowing the glaze to melt more than it otherwise would. So some things you can do to allow more heat work including putting a cone higher than your desired cone in the sitter, then watching your target cone fall and manually adjusting the percentage power dial to a lower power for 5 minutes after your target cone falls, or the speed dial at the bottom from high to medium for 5 minutes after your target cone falls. You could also put your target cone in the kiln sitter and, being there when it falls, lift the shut off lever, press the button and turn it back on for another 5 minutes. But in these cases you would always need to make sure you have a guard cone you can see in the peephole as well. However, I have never done anything like this before. I fire to hot cone six, so I do get a little bit of extra heat work on my pots, but keep in mind I am only relaying what I have heard. I will also say, if you know you have a Glaze that “requires a five minute hold” you can still use that glaze but don’t expect it to look the same as it would if it had that hold. It is more advantageous to work with glaze recipes that are designed to be used in a manual kiln. 🤷🏻♀️ This can get frustrating sometimes, but don’t give up it’s still worth it! 😊
Okay, I have the exact kiln and I'm wondering, should my cone 06 bisque be taking only 4.5 hours to fire before the cone dropping? It's also over-firing. I getting q gauge to readjust the kiln sitter, but I've been told by almost everyone that 4.5 hours is too fast. Does the firemate control when the kiln turns off or just the amount of power its getting? I tried setting the speed to low to slow down the bisque time, but the thumbwheel ramped up to a 5 within less than an hour and that made me nervous, so I put it back to normal and the thumbwheel slowed down. Does fast thumbwheel equal fast firing?
You don’t need to be concerned with how fast it’s going. Mine does an 06 fire in about 4 to 5.5 hours and a cone 6 in 7 to 8 3/4 hours roughly. What you need to be concerned with is whether or not there’s too much water to evaporate within the amount of time it takes the greenware to pass 212°F or the temperature at which water turns to steam. People who do slow firings are paranoid, or they are putting wet greenware into their kiln. If you put wet clay into a kiln it will explode as I explained in this video. If you have a piece that is wet and you can’t wait on it to dry see my video on oven drying clay. You can burn off all the water in your oven evenly and with control. Slowing down a firing, does not help or hurt your ceramic in anyway. It simply wastes electricity. That being said, water can sometimes hide. So we babysit, as I explained in the video.
The thumb wheels only job is to slow down the speed through which the water burns off, 0 to 500°F. If you have an explosion in a bisque kiln, this is where it’s going to be. But the only reason that would happen is if you had wet green wear or a particularly humid environment. I even go a step further and start my kiln with the thumb wheel on three. You will also notice that the thumb wheel doesn’t always reach all the way to 10. That’s OK. Wherever it stops it just means it’s at full power at that point. Were you to need to slow down the water burn off, evidenced by steam, coming out of the top peep hole, simply turn the thumb wheel all the way around past 10 and back to one. But I have never had the need to do that, and I have never had anything explode in this kiln.
As far as The Kiln, turning off, it has nothing to do with temperature or amount of power, or your thumbwheel. it has to do with a chemical reaction evidenced by the cone in your kiln sitter. When that chemical reaction takes place, at whatever temperature, the cone bends and shuts off the kiln. in this way, manual kilns are actually more accurate than programmable kilns. We can’t do fancy firings, and holds, and slow cool downs, but we can be confident that the chemical reaction necessary for our clay and glazes has been completed, -at least the area of the sitter- every time.
Keep a spread sheet and good notes and you do great. And btw there is a part one about loading and preparing for firing as well. Clear as mud? 😜🤪
If you set you speed control to 1 will it automatically move or do you need to move that dial?
It moves automatically. That’s the way it amps up slowly. That prevents some of the risk of explosion from water vapor. It also may not reach all the way to 10. That’s fine too. Wherever it stops that’s full power. And that may even be different load to load. 😊
I have a kiln in my community that I am looking to test. What do you recommend? Where do I get cones from, and what other supplies do you recommend. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
The absolute best thing for you to do would be to go to the Washington Street Studios TH-cam channel. They have a playlist called all about kilns. There is a part 1,2,&3 on electric kilns and Phil bernberg is a genius. He explains everything way better than me. You can get cones on Amazon but they’re more expensive than at a pottery supply store. You will need kiln furniture ( but not for testing) The advancer shelves are amazing but crazy expensive. But go watch Phil he will help a lot. 😉
Thanks for your video! I got got this same kiln from someone who didn’t know anything about it and I had my electrition make sure that everything looked safe but I’m still trying to figure out how to use it so this video helped me. I’ve tried one glaze firing so far and put a cone 6 in the kiln sitter as well as a self supporting cone on the middle shelf. I had the top dial set to be between the two markers listed as neutral, the speed set to normal, and the timer set to 12 hours to be safe. Well after 12 hours, neither of the cones melted and the kiln shut off. Some of the glaze wasn’t fully set and still cloudy. I’m going to try another firing today with cone 7 but I’m not sure if it’s just the kiln is not able to get hot enough. Do you have any suggestions? I also have a second kiln that was also given to me at the same time and it only has a low medium and high dial to control the heat. I installed a temperature gage so I can tell that at least now. I’ve only done two bisque firings in it so far and they seem fine with the 2 hours per setting recommendation from my friend but he’s unsure of what to recommend for a glaze firing. Do you have any recommendations? Thanks!!!
Ok check the Thumbwheel. If your thumb wheel is still in between the two marks and you haven’t moved it since your last firing then that is the issue. What you need to do is start the thumb wheel at 2-3.
If the thumb wheel is at or above roughly 7, then you could have an element issue. However, we had to replace the thumb wheel on our kiln after we bought it used.
I highly recommend you call Cress no matter what. They are awesome. They walked us through the problem and then walked us through the solution.
Lastly if while you’re firing your kiln never stops clicking, it’s not hitting full power. So regardless of how good your elements are something is preventing them from getting full charge; that’s important when your controlling it but a pain when you’re not. Hope this helps. Keep me posted!
Do you leave the first peep hole open? Tell me about the cones? I'm a beginner nort rich to by the digital kilm..
It depends on your kiln. But for most of them yes. You have to leave a way for the evaporation of water and carbon dioxide. Most manufactures have manuals you can download ☺️
So so helpful! Thank you! Do you happen to know if you need to change the components more frequently when you rely on this kiln to do your cone 6 glaze firings? Considering adopting an old manual kiln like this, but I'm wondering if it would only be good for bisque firings in the long run. Thank you again for your videos, and for any wisdom you can impart :)
I use this kiln for all my bisque and cone 6 fires. It will do just fine. As far as replacing things, this is where the kiln log comes in. If you notice it is taking longer to reach temperature on a regular basis or your cones from top middle and bottom have a drastic difference then it is time to replace an element. Generally elements burn out gradually, unless they break. You will have longer and shorter firings based on the amount of ware in the kiln but element replacement will be slow over time and not something you diagnose immediately. If you have a firing that fails. And you inspect elements and they’re not broken your looking at something electrical. A relay can fail, a connection can come lose. It won’t be hard to fix, these kilns are all plug-and-play. But you will need to call the manufacturer. They will tell you what you need and send you instructions.
You’re going to do great! Thanks so much for watching and Happy potting!
@@CallUsTemily thank you for your prompt and helpful response :)
Anytime!
What number cone do I use for bisk firing and for glaze firing
That depends on your clay look here
th-cam.com/video/vuN0jIk3NiA/w-d-xo.html
Hi. I’m a new potter and needing help. I bought a used kiln and replaced the elements. All of them are coming on property but have dark spots. They are not heating evenly. They are expensive and don’t want to damage them with my first firing. Please someone help 😩. I have an Aim high temp kiln with a kiln sitter.
Unfortunately I have never had to replace elements. I can tell you a few things the may help though. First and foremost all kiln manufacturers have tech support 1-800-AIM-KILN or aimkilns@yahoo.com should be yours. Most of the time these people are more than willing to help and more than kind. Take a picture of the parts of the elements that you are concerned about and send it or have that ready to send while you talk with them. Second, in some kilns the element must not be allowed to touch itself. In others it’s no big deal. The tech support will know this, but if you’re getting dark spots on places where the elements are not separated then maybe that is an issue for those elements. Third, anytime you replace elements you need to burn an empty kiln so that the elements can “seal” (for lack of a better word) themselves properly. So it could be a part of that process but that’s a tech support question. Lastly, if you are a part of a Facebook group I would post this to one of those. Be ware that you will get a boatload of answers that are not helpful and all over the place. But you may just get someone who has your exact kiln and knows the ropes. You might even look for an aim FB page. I am a member of “clay buddies” and “pottery studio” as well as “potters of Texas” and for the most part these groups are beneficial. But first and foremost contact tech support. Sorry I don’t have a solution. Keep me posted though.
The saga continues! Lol. I am firing my kiln right now and when I went to check it I noticed there is a lot of steam coming out of the top peep hole! It has been on since 12:44 and right now the time is 6pm! The wheel is a little past 8 and I’m on speed c. I do usually fire on speed d but I just didn’t this time. The kiln is very full but all of my things were absolutely bone dry and had been sitting around for weeks if not months. It is just getting orange. Do I have any thing I should be worried about? I don’t know when you’ll get this but I guess just letting someone know my issue helps. Thanks again
Well 🤔there are 2 types of water, physical and chemical. Chemical water comes off at about 800* it happens as the mud goes through the chemical reactions that result in carbon dioxide and water in the form of steam. This is where pinholes can happen if it doesn’t all get out. But I have never been in the right time/ space to see it. However that’s my best guess 🥴
Btw Washington Street Studios TH-cam channel is a fantastic resource; and the source of a lot of my knowledge. I suggest binge watching 😜. That’s what I did anyway 🥴
Thank you for the recommendation for the videos on that channel. The kiln fires a little under, cone 05 instead of 04. So I just wanted to thank you so much for your help!! Not to fire the boxes of glazed pots!!
no! it is NOT more information than I want. I want to learn it all. I have a second hand Duncan with a kiln sitter. I don't have a place to plug it in yet but I want to be ready. So MORE info please.
Oh Yay! I will help in anyway I can. Did you see there is a preparation video? I just updated the description on this video to include it. It’s called How to Fire a Manual Kiln 1 Preparing and Loading a Kiln, Firing a Kiln Sitter home pottery art vlog but I don’t think I can link it as a comment.
@@CallUsTemily I sure did watch it. I have saved them both to a play list. Thanks so much. Where are you located?
We are in Temple Texas. How bout you?
@@CallUsTemily Coeur d'Alene Idaho :)
I am so sorry if I’m bothering the crap out of you but I was just wondering what model your kiln is. Mine is a FX 27 p. I’m wondering if I actually need to change my elements right now or if it was just the wiring to the kiln that was the problem. Thanks!! Again.
You are never a bother! Mine is an FX 23 P looks like yours might be bigger than mine. Makes me a little jealous 🥴😂
@@CallUsTemily Oh how sweet of you. Don’t be jealous at all. We are all in different places in our lives. Different chapters in our own book. I was just concerned when you said that your kiln fires in only 6 hours!! I can not for the life of me find my log but it usually takes about 9 hours!! Now when I fire it, it is packed as absolutely full as I can because it costs a ridiculous amount of money to fire it and you could say that I like to get my money’s worth of everything possible lol.
#takesavillage 😜
I have a manual kiln. Use cone 04 for bisque firing. Have knows at high and kiln sitter won't drop before 13 hours. How does yours finish in 5 to 6 hours? Shelf cones bend appropriately.
If all your settings are at high, it is also possible that you need new elements or that one of your elements is not burning at all. Beyond that, you could have a power issue. Some kilns are wired for 240 volts and some for 208 volts. I don’t know much about it but I do know it is important. You might call the manufacturer and ask what you should expect time wise for you specific model. And as for the voltage, this video should tell enough for you to see if you have an issue there. th-cam.com/video/6QDGrJ_F4UI/w-d-xo.html
@@CallUsTemily thanks. My kiln came from early 90's and had never been fired until pandemic. My knobs are different from yours but basically do the same thing. I didn't know what I was doing in the beginning but have definitely learned. It may be that I am not around for final firing timing. Will follow your suggestions and also babysit whole process. Appreciate your response.
When the firing is done, the shelf cones have all bent as they should but a little steeper on the top shelf. Electrician (my neighbor) just told me the voltage is at 240 per requirement on kiln. Will simply have to babysit, I think. Thank you, again, for your response.
Absolutely, any time! So glad it’s not a power issue. I would still call the manufacturer and ask if that’s normal. Mine is used. If you bought yours used and have never changed the elements yourself then it’s also possible the last person that did didn’t get it wired up correctly. I did that. It’s in an earlier video. But the kiln would still come on it just wouldn’t reach temp. I had plugged into the wrong part on the relay. The manufacturer tech support walked me through the process with some photos I emailed them. They were great people, lots of help. This is the video of that story although I’m not sure it will help much. Keep me posted! th-cam.com/video/l-h5Wzy-tBk/w-d-xo.html
@@CallUsTemily enjoyed the video. Big help for future. My kiln was brand new, my kiln experience was zilch. Nobody could figure out the knobs until I ran into an old pottery teacher who used my exact kiln back in the day. She got me on the right track but I still haven't babysat a full firing, yet. That should be my litmus test. Will keep you posted.