Terra Cotta: My musings on...and resulting actions with.

Nice! Thank you!!! I will interface PRIOR to THIS purchase. 🤣

3 hours in..

I opened the choke EVER so slightly and actually dropped the pressure, a similar slight “amount” to re-achieve my nice Oxygenated Richard-flame.

Shelves are partially glowing.
 
Nice. I got started @1030AM. Trying to go till 130AMish.

You should you with smoking papers around gaps to see what is sucking and blowing. Oh, speak of blowing, "Oxygen Richard" is extra funny because to really understand Reduction, you can use an Oxygen Probe. Expensive, but I've been invited to a firing in SO Ill that uses them, to better understand Reduction.

So about that smoking paper.....you can research an article about kiln builds that talks about the prime amount of time heat travels through a certain sized kiln. They recommend throwing an oily rag in to see when the smoke exits.....

Stuff like that can help you understand your kiln better. Pressure. Usually, if gaps are sucking, you're in Oxidation or Neutral. Later, what sucked will blow, to remain in Oxidation, pull back your input wall, free up more gap around it, or open your Chimeny hole/damper.

If you're blowing too much, you may be losing temperature, or not climbing.

Sorce
 
sorce said:
Nice. I got started @1030AM. Trying to go till 130AMish.

You should you with smoking papers around gaps to see what is sucking and blowing. Oh, speak of blowing, "Oxygen Richard" is extra funny because to really understand Reduction, you can use an Oxygen Probe. Expensive, but I've been invited to a firing in SO Ill that uses them, to better understand Reduction.

So about that smoking paper.....you can research an article about kiln builds that talks about the prime amount of time heat travels through a certain sized kiln. They recommend throwing an oily rag in to see when the smoke exits.....

Stuff like that can help you understand your kiln better. Pressure. Usually, if gaps are sucking, you're in Oxidation or Neutral. Later, what sucked will blow, to remain in Oxidation, pull back your input wall, free up more gap around it, or open your Chimeny hole/damper.

If you're blowing too much, you may be losing temperature, or not climbing.

Sorce
Click to expand...
Oh yeah.. i changed my entire “idea” of input wall.. had to basically scrap (or have the kiln “explode”) my old design.. i’ll take a picture of how she’s been lookin’.. next “check-in”
 
Hmmm.. what about exhaust/intake manifold 02 sensors?

Have a little chrome dial/gauge?

HAHAHAHAHA!!

(Extra funny considering I am firing, at this moment, tiny amounts of Chromium oxide.. in one of my glaze constructions)🤓
 
My glazes are looking different “on the way up” this time... I realize that not much really HAPPENS... glazewise.. on the “rise”.... but I’m just noting slight visual differences between this.. and my last two (incorrectly “tuned”) fires.
 
I’m planning to fire tomorrow... My pyrometer is still bouncing around China. But I am planning on using the “weed burner” as I have got to “play around” with it recently, constructing the “slab” that I planted my Punicas on, in the contest thread.. it is definitely up to the task..

Any specific tips with using one of these, before I start?

It has 3 “tips” to control the.. ratio... one is 2.5-2.75”d one is around 2”d and the last is .75”d (I’d estimate)

Has a turn knob on the handle going from “-“ to “+”...

Oooor just wait for the pyrometer.
🤣
 
sorce said:
I have this yellow circled, works, but garbage. Gotta take the battery in out or it dies.

Can't use the red x thermocouple. Gotta use the green circled one. K type. They are usually sold separately.

Like $15 for a thermocouple.

Sorce
Click to expand...
Can you change the measurement intervals?
I had a system once that updated every hundreth of a millisecond, drained the 5v battery in a minute and almost fried my memory card.
Could be that the same is happening in your device. A temperature measurement is one of the least demanding functions in electronics, that's why I think you might be dealing with a similar issue.
 
HorseloverFat said:
View attachment 352469
I tried it FIRST.. with the ENORMOUS “nozzle”.....

...but that was back when I had hair on my hands and an un-singed pikachu hat.
Click to expand...
Damnit.. i had to stop... the “weed burner” was too hot. Kept on catching the entire nozzle on fire...

Then when considering putting the forge-burner in.. it would mean building a different door.... on a hot kiln..

🤦🏽‍♂️
 
After looking into it.. it appears that the weed burner malfunctioned, surprisingly, due to cold.... sooo I guess I’m pretty much “screwed” for firing during the coldest months... it’s SUCH a battle.. it’s cold here.. I think I will plan it out that I spend the cold months constructing forms in preparation for spring “firings”... I just didn’t have enough clay.. THIS year. :)
 
HorseloverFat said:
After looking into it.. it appears that the weed burner malfunctioned, surprisingly, due to cold.... sooo I guess I’m pretty much “screwed” for firing during the coldest months... it’s SUCH a battle.. it’s cold here.. I think I will plan it out that I spend the cold months constructing forms in preparation for spring “firings”... I just didn’t have enough clay.. THIS year. :)
Click to expand...

Did the tank freeze?

May be too much gas too fast.

I was almost freezing going fast short.
Slow long, no freeze.

Sorce
 
sorce said:
Did the tank freeze?

May be too much gas too fast.

I was almost freezing going fast short.
Slow long, no freeze.

Sorce
Click to expand...
Yes! This is definitely possible. 🤓

How would you, personally handle the.. um... “trigger”?

And i’m running straight to the “weed burner”, no regulator, would this change how I handled the first valve?.. or still just open all the way... orrr get a regulator that fits?
(The regulator from the forge-blower is actually a conversion unit.. so it doesn’t work with NON-Lithuanian(?) (🤣) accessories.
 
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