On a sunny and beautiful Saturday in July, I was successful in getting my CH into my studio to replace all the kiln elements. Sometimes he'll just replace one (of 6) but this was a total redo. As you can see from the picture at left, some of the elements were sagging and coming out of their grooves. The most frequent element replaced is the top one, as shown. You know how hard it is for me not to peek, just a little bit, when I'm waiting for the load to cool after a glaze firing. Well, that particular practice wreaks havoc on the elements over time and sagging is the result. A total redo was necessary this time, however, as the coils weren't heating efficiently and then "hot" and "cold" spots develop in the kiln. When that happens it's necessary to get the kiln back into balance for even firing.
In the picture at right, you can see how CH has to pull all the coils out of their grooves in order to replace with the new ones. It took a good chunk of time and then after they were in we encountered a problem with the kiln sitter, which holds the cone, and allows the kiln to shut off when it's reached the desired temperature. Even though CH suggested I ought to get pictures at the beginning of the process while he was still cheerful, he maintained a sunny disposition throughout the entire process for which I'm very grateful. It's the one part of this whole darn business that I don't care to learn anything about. :)So I'm running a test firing now to make sure we're cooking on all cylinders, and if all's well I'll be firing like mad this week!
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