Late tonight I was able to unload my cone six glaze kiln… with gloves!
Once again, mixed results… but at least I have a few more answers.
Apparently, the top of the kiln is not getting to top temperature. Remember that this time I placed pyrometric cones on the top & bottom shelves. The bottom cones melted just perfectly for a cone six firing. The top cone pack however didn’t show ANY movement at all. So who knows how hot it got on the top?… we know it WASN’T cone six!!!
Okay, so now I might be onto something. And maybe this explains some of my “random” results. I’m getting tired of testing a full kiln’s worth of work to find another problem… more pinholing, more crawling, more yuck!!! Maybe once we fix the kiln temperature problem I can start to get some consistent results???
Did you get the problem fixed with your kiln?? I’m curious because I have noticed my kiln not reaching ^6 on the upper shelves.
LINDA – I’m not sure. The electric kiln in question is a group studio kiln. I haven’t fired anything in it since. I’m a little leery about glazing & firing an entire kiln’s worth of work just to find out that it might not work. I need to start asking around to see if anyone else has fired since and what their results were. Hopefully it’s working okay now… and I will be able to fire to Cone 6 again with confidence. Thanks for asking…. and good luck with your kiln issue?!!!