Kiln Project

Do I really need another kiln? Well, no…uhh maybe, too soon to tell?

An opportunity came up to buy this kiln. It’s the old workhorse from the local junior college ceramics department. I paid $460 for it and am confident that with a little more investing I can get it up and running. The controller alone is worth that much.

Why another kiln? A few reasons. I am starting to explore alternative materials for the Xenith. While the results are promising I am concerned about long-term tuning stability. One way to encourage that would be to use a kiln to heat them. The second reason is that I’m lazy. I don’t want to have to walk to and from my two shops that are 50 feet apart to use my kiln. Lastly, my current kiln is dialed in and set up to color shells and I don’t want to impede that process.

The lid of this kiln is pretty beat up so I am planning on switching the bottom for the lid. Then I will add on a ‘kiln opener’ which is a spring-loaded opening system that should provide the lid with more stability. It will be a project but likely a fun and fruitful one. As it happens my electrical panel is just on the other side of the wall and with industrial 3-phase electricity, hooking up a 50amp breaker for the kiln shouldn’t be an issue.