Kiln Maintenance

Last week while firing a custom order, my electric kiln failed to reach it's top temperature.  

It's been a little while since I'd change elements so I figured the elements were the source of the issue and in testing, the center ring of elements weren't heating.  I usually replace my elements and thermocouples at the same time, so I called L & L to get some replacement parts (heaven forbid you get them when you've used the last ones).  Parts arrived over the weekend so today was a kiln maintenance day.

I replaced these nasty looking thermocouples.

And installed these shiny new elements.  

Got everything all put back together and fired it up.  The center ring still didn't fire.  Turns out it was a relay failure.  Guess I should have done a better job evaluating the problem before ordering parts.  Tomorrow... ordering a new relay. 

2013 Woodfiring Workshop

Due to some personal issues, I was regrettably forced to reschedule my 2013 Woodfiring Workshop.  A new date has been set and I'm excited to be promoting this new date.  Here is the new schedule:

Firing:     August 23-25, 2013
Unloading:     August 31, 2013

For more information on the workshop, click on the photo below to go to my workshop page.

Hope all you folks that were planning on the originally scheduled dates can join us on the new dates and maybe some additional folks find they are available now when they weren't earlier.  

Have a great weekend everybody!!!