I'm Melting Away
No, it's not the wicked witch from The Wizard of Oz. I wish it were. It's the electrical outlet where I plug in my kiln. I always give the area around the kiln a little inspection before I fire it. I'd hate to have something flammable sticking to the side of the kiln when it's hot or some other thing like that which might cause a fire or something else to go wrong. That inspection also includes the electrical wires and such. I think this is a good practice.
Today, after I loaded the kiln I noticed that the electrical outlet that the kiln is plugged into looked a bit soft. I unplugged the kiln and looked at it closer and it looks melted. No way I was going to fire a glaze kiln with the outlet looking like that.
I called my electrician but his voice mail was full. I had to resort to email which means waiting. I hope he's not on vacation or without a smart phone. Isn't it funny how we expect such instant results from email and the like these days?
Anyway, the only reason it was really important to fire the kiln today is because I had two mugs that I wanted to donate to the Penland Auction Volunteers Party when I go up there in a few days. They were engraved with the date so they won't be good for next year. Damn.
The good news is that I found it before something caught fire.
Check out the gallery page - Future Relics Gallery by Lori Buff
Today, after I loaded the kiln I noticed that the electrical outlet that the kiln is plugged into looked a bit soft. I unplugged the kiln and looked at it closer and it looks melted. No way I was going to fire a glaze kiln with the outlet looking like that.
I called my electrician but his voice mail was full. I had to resort to email which means waiting. I hope he's not on vacation or without a smart phone. Isn't it funny how we expect such instant results from email and the like these days?
Anyway, the only reason it was really important to fire the kiln today is because I had two mugs that I wanted to donate to the Penland Auction Volunteers Party when I go up there in a few days. They were engraved with the date so they won't be good for next year. Damn.
The good news is that I found it before something caught fire.
Check out the gallery page - Future Relics Gallery by Lori Buff
Toes crossed that things get fixed post haste. This seems to be a problem with electric kiln. Little Sister (my small Skutt) had the same thing happen after I forgot that I was candling for too many days. Gosh, why is the kiln on? Oh sh#t!!) It has also happened at my old co-op. Those in the know say to unplug it every few firings and clean the prongs. Or hard wire it in.
ReplyDeleteThanks SC, I read the same thing and mentioned it to the electrician. He agreed that it was a good idea because something arced and caused the melt down. He also advised making sure that all the connections were nice and tight at all times. He was wonderful, came out today, earlier than expected and fixed everything right away. I'll be firing tomorrow morning.
Deletelori that is scary, my kiln says 50 amps but says 60 amp breaker, one long run no splices from the breaker box, so many folks have said they don't like the plugs but i think if they are wired correctly they should be just fine. Skutt says to run a fan blowing on the controller of my kiln while firing which I have always done. I haven't seen anyone else doing that, wonder if circulating the hot air around the kiln helps to prevent the melted outlet?
ReplyDeleteBetter safe than sorry that's for sure.
a gentle rain is coming down and cooling it down up here, hope you get the same.
Thanks Linda, The electrician was pretty sure it was an arc, see Smartcat's comment and my reply. I suspect that the fan is to keep your skutt's computer cooler. Mine is not that sophisticated, I'm still using cones.
DeleteARCED! MELTED!!!! Glad it was fixed, ho boy....
ReplyDeletewonderful mug with dragon, btw, astounding :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Gary.
DeleteThanks Cheri, unfortunately the electrical problem seems to have hurt the kiln.
ReplyDelete