Evaluating Damaged Firebricks: The Paragon Kiln Maintenance Series 

You’re welcome. Another pointer in buying a used kiln . . . check for clay debris in the element grooves. The debris is difficult to see without a flashlight.

@@arnoldhoward2076 will do!

Contacts please

Cementing firebricks is an art form. You can sand them with a 3M sanding block and cement them with kiln cement, sold by kiln manufacturers. Practice on firebrick scraps. Test the bond by firing the scraps in a kiln.

How is your kiln misfiring other than the light layer of dust? You’re welcome to send photos of the damaged lid for me to evaluate. Arnoldhoward@gmail.com

@@ParagonIndustries the bottom of the Kiln is totally destroyed it's melted deeply into the fire brick there's no fire brick left save but a small circle in the middle of about 1 foot diameter so there's a trough to inches deep sunk into where the fire brick used to be. my first thought was just to block that area off with a plantain turn off the bottom coil and only use the top three coils but that would be half-assing it. I have started to take it apart and there was more damage and I even thought. The entire bottom will have to be replaced and about 6 I brick. I noticed that the brick that you carrier little bit different shape in the trough area then the original Vulcan.hopefully that's easy enough to alter by hand it's so soft I can't imagine it being that difficult. Now I'm faced with one more decision Dua replace and repair the manual components such as the sitter components or do I convert the thing to digital. I would never buy a digital controller as I've seen how much they cost and I'd be better off buying a brand new unit. I do understand feedback loops however as I designed incubators for a biotech company years ago. I know that there are some high temperature pids that I could use to control either one continuous coil or used for pids to control the coils individually. I imagine alternatively I could control the input of current to the entire machine if I use a large enough relay that would be much cheaper. Either way I only paid $100 for the kiln and it came with about 20 slip molds. Most of the slip molds are very interesting and something that I would actually use. My girlfriend is heavily into craft shows I figured it'll cost between 3 and $400 to replace all the brick and build new coils which I will make myself on my lathe I've done it before for other applications. It appears to be 16 gauge kanthal wire. the only thing I can't seem to find is the resistance needed per element. I can't simply measure the old abused elements as the resistance would have changed over the years. I've always promised myself that I would get back into sitting behind a wheel and being creative again and I don't have a lot longer left in my life. I have to make this happen if there's any advice you could give to me that'll help I'd appreciate it. I'll check out your prices I'm fire brick as soon as I can I want to thank you for the link jeff