Kiln Repair Again
From Furnace to Flame: A Journey In Glass
I attempted to use the Big Kiln as an annealer, and every thing broke. My assumption was that I needed to adjust the schedule so I went on with life.
Then, I tried to use it to do some glass casting and it did not hit temp, at which point, I accepted that it was not working and begin to try and troubleshoot. I began with using a laser thermometer to see what was going on. The temp on the top elements read 200 wile the bottom two elements read 100, which was also the temp on the floor of the kiln. With time, the ambient temp in the kiln would not go above 150 before it would error out. I also performed a paper test and got the same results. However; the multimeter gave me no clear indication as to which element was not working. I consulted with Paragon Kilns and ruled out any relay issues with them. After 4 days of back and forth, new elements were ordered. I got two, though I may only need one. While I waited on elements to arrive, I had time to try and understand how to get an accurate reading on which elements were not working. At this point, I had tried two multimeters with no luck.
Multiple Paper test remains.
In the process of figuring this out, I ruled out relays and performed many minor adjustments and just kept coming back to the elements.
I contacted Paragon and they worked with Mountain Glass, the distributor, to ship out two replacement side elements to me. A friend also donated a digital multimeter to me. UPS tried to sabotage the project by doing who knows what with the package. I carefully replaced one element, ran a paper test, and it failed. I then replaced the other and it passed the paper test. However, kiln was still not running properly.
Ultimately, my partner called the people at Paragon and they walked him through running a reset to the computer. We ran a short test, hit temp of 600, and all elements heated up. We called that a successful test, loaded the kiln and did a test run.
Success.
Thanks to my partner and his family, kind supporters who gave us a digital multimeter, and the kind people at Paragon Kiln and Mountain Glass.
First run in the now up and running kiln.