The Frustrations of Firing!

Last Sunday everything was set for a productive firing; the kiln was loaded, the pyrometric cone was in place.

When the kiln reaches the correct temperature, (approx 1.940 degrees F) after about 6 hours , the cone bends over gracefully.


Unfortunately, the kiln never reached the correct temperature.
After waiting an extra 2 hours, I shut off the kiln.

......................................................................................................................................
NEXT DAY:

Obviously something was malfunctioning inside the kiln, and the tiles were underfired.
I emptied the kiln, and although the top layer was underdone, the bottom part had fired perfectly. There were some very pretty tiles indeed!













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I was also able to see the problem with the kiln.
The top two elements were severed. Oops.
Time to make some repairs!