Necessary Evil or The Kiln

All of my kilns, I have 4, came from studios where people were upgrading to a bigger kiln or getting out of pottery. I ended up with two different models of the same kiln. They are a Knight 82 and a Knight 82T. These are the only two I have set up for use at this point in time. If you are in the pottery world there is a very good chance you have never heard of Knight kilns. I know I hadn't when I first got them.

I am very fortunate to have been given these kilns. I could start out slow and small. First buy a wheel then, eventually I can upgrade to a bigger kiln when I have my own space. The problem with getting used kilns is that there is more required maintenance. I've learned over the years how to take apart and clean connections, change elements and do some of the basic maintenance on my two little kilns.

Oh yeah, did I mention these kilns are little? Only about 18 inches inside diameter and maybe 24 inches tall. I can easily fill these kilns, but I also get a much smaller return for each firing.

I use one kiln for my bisque firing, it goes quick enough for that but whenever I try to do a glaze firing it takes several hours more than the one I normally use for glaze firing. But I have noticed over the last few firings I have done in my glaze kiln, that it has steadily taken longer and longer to reach temperature. Which means the elements are probably getting old.

So, I ordered elements last year and I am just now getting to replacing them because it is a big ordeal to completely take apart the kiln and put it all back together the way it belongs. I got one element replaced yesterday, I hadn't done one in a while it took me almost 2 hours to test, replace, reassemble the kiln and test again. But eventually I got it to work. I was going to stop there.

I have the other elements, so I might as well finish what I started. Which is what I am doing this morning, except upon taking apart the bottom half of the kiln I realized I was one clamp short because I had only replaced one with the newer screw down type of clamp and used a crimp on for the other.

Stupid, stupid, stupid. Now I can only replace three elements total and order another clamp before I can finish. Hopefully with three new elements it will go back to almost normal firing speeds and I'll just replace that last one after I get the last piece.

This kiln is temperamental though, between the top half and bottom half is a set of electrical plugs that allow the electricity to flow through the top elements. If they are not exactly lined up and pressed into place, I get zero electrical current in the top two elements. Not good for firing. And this is the problem I must deal with now. I have to take apart the kiln for the fourth time since I started this and see what is preventing one of the four prongs to be stubborn.

I have to have kilns, there is no getting around owning your own kilns if you live in the middle of the woods with no nearby art centers or other potters to rent kiln space from. There are other potters around, but we are all trying to be productive potters and if I have to haul my work over to someone else's studio every time I need to fire, I'll never get anything done and I'll be imposing upon their system of firing schedules.


...Crisis diverted. I opened the kiln to get ready to take it apart and noticed the top and bottom were misaligned by maybe a quarter of an inch. I shifted it over and the last prong popped into place. A ten minute fix instead of another thirty.