After a couple of weekends of missed communications, Conor came by to work on the kiln tonight. Alas, the news is … semi-sad. Apparently there’s a problem in the relays for the bottom elements. They don’t shut off when the panel says they’ve shut off. And – the wiring diagram for that kiln is not online. Conor will be contacting Paragon to see if they have a wiring diagram they can fax or email him. If all goes well, he’ll be back tomorrow to correct the wiring.
Good to find out but not good that there is a problem
Oo, I hate that. Hopefully he can get this resolved.
Just a reminder he is donating his time after he gets off of work to repair the kiln.
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I’m pretty sure we’ll be paying him…
Oh, When I picked up Glaze on Monday and asked for a DMS discount, he said at this time there is not a discount for DMS but, he is donating his time to repair the kiln.
Hopefully it will be a parts only bill, fingers crossed.
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whats the update on the kiln repair?
Sigh. So. Conor thought he had it fixed. But. After the meeting, we went back to the area and it was running. When it said Idle. My personal guess is that we blew out the relay for the bottom coil when Conor was tweaking the panel back into correct shape visit before last. He though it was a wiring issue, and he made sure the wiring was correct.
Christie is going to talk to Paragon, and possibly haul it over there for repair.
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Putting a bug in someone’s ear… Has this ever been brought up to the board? perhaps there are available funds to get a new kiln?
A new kiln is a possible solution. I’d like to make a last attempt at repair via a couple of professional repair people as the kiln is relatively new and there are many other items in the area that need attention. If a repair can’t be secured in a reasonable amount of time then it will be voted on by committee in time to go in front of the November board. Fingers crossed for a cheaper repair!
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Success! The small (ceramic) Paragon kiln is now repaired. Did a test fire with furniture and three sets of cones which were all very even. We will be loading the first round of slow cool macro tonight. I’ll message everyone who has work going in in case you would like to be here for unload.
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Fortunately, it’s been fixed. A couple of us and Conor were chatting time before last, and the consensus was – if the kiln itself (bricks, metal surround) are in good shape, it’s always better to fix. I feel like the problem was partly that it kept blowing things out.
The dearth of repair guys in the area may be because Paragon used to send techs out to fix your kiln, at least locally. They quit doing that before the first time we had that kiln repaired.
I used Rodney George Kiln Repair and so far I’m giving him a strong thumbs up. He was quick to schedule, completed the repair and invoiced promptly. There are business cards on the whiteboard in FA and he’s listed on the Paragon website.
Does the newly repaired kiln belong to DMS or is it also a loaner?
What are the cone temps?
Nathan says the big one is his, so the fixed one belongs to DMS.
5-6-7 (and some characters)
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The six is a bit more over than I would like, yet the controller read a final firing temp a bit lower than I expected. Firing rate vs. peak temp! It was a fast firing and empty kiln (furniture only) so that was likely also a factor. The good news is that all the cone packs were nearly identical so we at least have consistency. I’m going to run cones on the next several firings and see if we need to do a cone offset/adjustment.
Not this current firing, but in the next bisque and glaze firing for the bigger kiln, we will be running cones. I’ll post up our results on those as well.
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