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- Springfield, Missouri
Blue Diamond 180D Kiln
- Thread starter Darren Wright
- Start date
- Messages
- 21,731
- Location
- Springfield, Missouri
Have quite gotten this fired up yet, hoping to finish installing the lid tomorrow. I also have been needing to drill out and shape a peep hole in one of the bricks that was replaced. I drew up a tool in Fusion 360 to the shape of the Skutt peep hole plug that I bought.
I printed it from PETG to add a little strength, the brick is pretty soft, so hopefully it will do the job. This it next to the Skutt plug.
I printed it from PETG to add a little strength, the brick is pretty soft, so hopefully it will do the job. This it next to the Skutt plug.
- Messages
- 21,731
- Location
- Springfield, Missouri
The reamer worked like a charm. I first drilled a couple of smaller pilot holes with drill bits, then used a step bit to get started with the reamer. I worked it a little at a time until the plug was seated well.
I also got the lid and vent hose attached. I brushed some areas of the kiln with some kiln wash and am letting it get dried, then will give it a bisque fire to cure the cement. I'll be picking some metal out behind the barn tomorrow to line the walls around the kiln, though it's about 20" on each side to any other surfaces/items in the room.
I also got the lid and vent hose attached. I brushed some areas of the kiln with some kiln wash and am letting it get dried, then will give it a bisque fire to cure the cement. I'll be picking some metal out behind the barn tomorrow to line the walls around the kiln, though it's about 20" on each side to any other surfaces/items in the room.
- Messages
- 21,731
- Location
- Springfield, Missouri
Finally gave the kiln it's initial firing, up to cone 04 (about 1940* F). I started out on Low with the lid propped open and the peep hole plugs out, left that for an hour, then bumped the switches up to Medium and let it go another hour.
I closed the lid and put the peep plugs in, it was going well until I flipped the switches to High, then the main breaker popped. I hadn't looked, but my wife had been running two space heaters when she's out there. Between those, the lights, TV, and a few other things turned on it was enough to blow it. Currently the Garage is fed from the house. I was thinking it was on a 60 amp breaker, but turns out it was a 50 amp. I got the breaker turned back on pretty quickly and ran through a quick cycle of Low>>Med>>High, about 5 - 10 minutes between each again as the kiln hadn't lost much temp. It reached around 1940* in about 20-30 minutes after turning it back on and the parametric bar slumped as it should have and tripped the kiln sitter.
I added a stick up IP camera (Tapo) to keep an eye on things and added a thermocouple inside to monitor the temps as it was fired. It reached temp much faster than I expected. I had the kiln vent running throughout and kicked on the room vent once it started to heat up. The room itself got up to about 95* at the peak of the firing. Of course we weren't firing anything, so we'll take it much slower on the next one to dry out any clay as we're firing.
As for the breaker, I've got a 60 amp breaker to replace the 50 with, but the lines are large enough for a 100 amp. I may just run a new feeder to the main power pole though. Our main breaker is at the pole in the meter box. It has spots for the 200 amp feed to the house and two 100 amp feeds, one of which is feeding the shop, the other is unused. I'll also be installing the mini-split when it warms up again and it will use less amperage than the two space heaters she's running, and do a much better job of conditioning the space.
I closed the lid and put the peep plugs in, it was going well until I flipped the switches to High, then the main breaker popped. I hadn't looked, but my wife had been running two space heaters when she's out there. Between those, the lights, TV, and a few other things turned on it was enough to blow it. Currently the Garage is fed from the house. I was thinking it was on a 60 amp breaker, but turns out it was a 50 amp. I got the breaker turned back on pretty quickly and ran through a quick cycle of Low>>Med>>High, about 5 - 10 minutes between each again as the kiln hadn't lost much temp. It reached around 1940* in about 20-30 minutes after turning it back on and the parametric bar slumped as it should have and tripped the kiln sitter.
I added a stick up IP camera (Tapo) to keep an eye on things and added a thermocouple inside to monitor the temps as it was fired. It reached temp much faster than I expected. I had the kiln vent running throughout and kicked on the room vent once it started to heat up. The room itself got up to about 95* at the peak of the firing. Of course we weren't firing anything, so we'll take it much slower on the next one to dry out any clay as we're firing.
As for the breaker, I've got a 60 amp breaker to replace the 50 with, but the lines are large enough for a 100 amp. I may just run a new feeder to the main power pole though. Our main breaker is at the pole in the meter box. It has spots for the 200 amp feed to the house and two 100 amp feeds, one of which is feeding the shop, the other is unused. I'll also be installing the mini-split when it warms up again and it will use less amperage than the two space heaters she's running, and do a much better job of conditioning the space.
- Messages
- 21,731
- Location
- Springfield, Missouri
All ends well, no issues I can see. The parametric bar did its job.
We’ll probably do a firing in a week or two
We’ll probably do a firing in a week or two
- Messages
- 21,731
- Location
- Springfield, Missouri
I did go out Sunday and opened the panel to see which legs breaker/wall outlets the space heaters were running on of the 240v/120v spots. Turned out both were on the same leg, so I moved one over to the other leg. Now that those are balanced out it should help prevent the main from tripping as it most likely overloaded that leg with both space heaters and the kiln on it. 
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