Second time's the charm
Mar. 21st, 2016 09:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
offcntrWell, after an hours warm-up, the kiln shut itself off again. Not the breaker this time; seems the kiln sitter button had popped out. Pressed the button again, and five minutes later it popped out again.
Looks like the button itself is bent upwards, so the spring-loaded catch inside the sitter can't, um, catch. I wiggle it with a pair of pliers, and discover that the nylon button has melted and shifted on the brass center rod. Naturally, they don't sell buttons separately.
So I dismantle the box, drive down to Georgies and spend $70 on a new switch block, then spend the rest of my afternoon wrestling fused screws out of the old one. One won't come, so I clip the wires free and then replace the crimp connecters afterward. Finally, at a quarter of six, it's back together. This time, I figure out a way to replace the kiln sitter cone without unloading the--still hot--kiln.
I press the button to start again. Hopefully, this time it's fixed.
Funny thing, though. With a new switch, the kiln doesn't buzz as it fires. I think the contacts get roughened by the arcing when the sitter shuts down, and after enough firings, they don't make good contact anymore. So they arc and buzz as the kiln fires. The new switch block contacts are perfectly smooth. No arc, no buzz. Good thing there's an indicator light, or I wouldn't even know I was firing.
Looks like the button itself is bent upwards, so the spring-loaded catch inside the sitter can't, um, catch. I wiggle it with a pair of pliers, and discover that the nylon button has melted and shifted on the brass center rod. Naturally, they don't sell buttons separately.
So I dismantle the box, drive down to Georgies and spend $70 on a new switch block, then spend the rest of my afternoon wrestling fused screws out of the old one. One won't come, so I clip the wires free and then replace the crimp connecters afterward. Finally, at a quarter of six, it's back together. This time, I figure out a way to replace the kiln sitter cone without unloading the--still hot--kiln.
I press the button to start again. Hopefully, this time it's fixed.
Funny thing, though. With a new switch, the kiln doesn't buzz as it fires. I think the contacts get roughened by the arcing when the sitter shuts down, and after enough firings, they don't make good contact anymore. So they arc and buzz as the kiln fires. The new switch block contacts are perfectly smooth. No arc, no buzz. Good thing there's an indicator light, or I wouldn't even know I was firing.