O.K. rather than look at this as selfish promotion, I prefer to call it, me doing my duty to the FH community in ensuring that they don't miss on a heck of a good deal ;D.
Every Hobbyfuser sold before Xmas will have the dual shelf, metal kiln stand thrown in for free. That's a saving of £144.00. You still have to assemble it yourself though :D
I know there is no Beading facility in the Hobbyfuser other than Batch annealing, but I also know there are a few of you on FH that own one and after all, it is the best kiln of its type in the world ::) ::).
http://www.kilncare.co.uk/kilns_glass_general_thehobbyfuser.html
I have started saving for my big kiln.
I won't have space for it though until I move to my 'house'. So at least 18 months away, if you could do another offer then that would be great ;)
Pity as that looks like a fabulous deal...
I love my hobby fuser ;D
All the kilns we use at the university are kilncare kilns. There is a skutter but it's broken ::)
Quote from: Krysia on November 25, 2011, 08:39:36 PM
All the kilns we use at the university are kilncare kilns. There is a skutter but it's broken ::)
Which Uni are you at pal?
I do evening classes at Hatfield.
The glass tutor has pretty much said not to bother getting any kilns if they are not yours.
Quote from: Krysia on November 28, 2011, 12:21:56 PM
I do evening classes at Hatfield.
The glass tutor has pretty much said not to bother getting any kilns if they are not yours.
Lol I better send the bribary cheque off to them lovely people ;D ;D
I'm just off now to make that quote my signature ;D ;D ;D ;D
ha ha ha, it being a university I would say they'll be needing it.
And she is lovely. ;D
QuoteThere is a skutter but it's broken
Hi, If you mean a Skutt kiln rather than a Skutter (?), then we are the UK distributor for them and they have a fantastic reputation as the biggest USA hobby kiln manufacturer. We sell loads without any problems. You should get your Technician at Uni to contact us if there is a problem and we will sort if very quickly as the Technical backup from Skutt is excellent and they do have a long parts & labour warranty. It's quite unusual for Universities & Colleges to buy Skutt as they tend to prefer Kilncares or Nabertherms for that size of kiln.
Yes, Skutt sounds far more sensible.
I have a feeling that it may have been a donation, it's sitting on the floor and all the others are up on stands. I have absolutely no idea what's wrong with it, but it has been broken for a few years.
There is talk that they are trying to get funding for a completely new kiln.
There are evening/short course for glass on saturdays and mondays. And during the summer on wednesdays' too. The courses are booked to capacity as you can imagine they are over loaded with work to put in the kilns so a new kiln would be great.
... you know I'm pretty sure a donation of a completely new working kiln for the university would be much appreciated ;)
Unfortunately the last time we did that, we heard on the grapevine from students that it was being used constantly (and effectively) but that the people we donated it to were promoting a competitor's kiln instead! Fingers burnt and all that!
That's awful!! I wasn't seriously thinking that you would ;) but that's a really horrible thing for them to have done :( I completely understand why you wouldn't want to do that again.
I currently have both; I started with the Skutt from Warm Glass, and now have the Hobbyfuser - I'd happily recommend either kiln to anyone (and either supplier for that matter, I can't fault the service I've had from both of them)
Cracking kiln, although I am still getting used to the Kiln Bill, the Hobbyfuser, several months on (and Lee, oh it does fire hot!!)
Trusty 'old' Skutt Hotstart is just so reliable - the only "blip" I ever had was a few months ago getting an error message and Simon at Warm Glass happily talked me through all the things to check, turns out a loose wire on the thermocouple, and she fires just as good as always.
I have been asking about the broken skutt this evening, tutor thinks that the element has gone...
I had a very interesting conversation with her this evening, it's given me a few things to think about.
Do you know what model it is Krysia? Warm Glass sell a replacement lid unit for the Hot Start Pro....
At the moment I don't know. I have been asked if I would be interested in it. Yet to find out how much they want for it and I need to work out where I would put it in this flat the size of a gnats bum and also how much it would cost to fix.
I really should say no, but the inner need for a kiln for flat glass is telling me to just bloomin go for it, even if it did just sit under the bed until I moved house.
Dawn, when you say HOT, can you give me anymore on that so I can digest ???
Full fuse at 775 (Bullseye)..... and I think that's actually still a tad too hot as I get needling sometimes, was going to experiment a bit more when not got full kiln loads going through....
Hi Dawn, that is pretty hot indeed. 30 degreees almost.
We could do with investigating this for you.
Is it uniform across the kiln???
Lee
Yes, pretty much even, Lee.
mmm, well that rules out s few options. OK. mate. Let me think.
How fast is the kiln climbing to the full fuse??
I had it on a fast climb from bubble soak to just before full fuse (which is how the Hotstart was always programmed), then slowed it right down in the last 50 degrees, but I wondered if it was overshooting, so I just have re-programmed it to climb at 333 dph from bubble soak to full fuse - I haven't had chance to properly monitor the results on this yet to be honest though Lee, with getting ready for Xmas - but its definitely doing a very full fuse.
O.K. Dawn, we will get to the bottom of it I'm sure.
Let's check what your overshoot settings are on The KCR1.
You are about to enter Engineering mode so DON'T CHANGE anything what so ever or your controller may suffer acute brain damage and go off on one!!!!!!!!! :-\
To enter configuration mode perform the following actions exactly!
Turn the ST221/ST222 off.
Press and hold down the start/stop key.
Turn the ST221/ST222 on but keep the start/stop key pressed down.
Wait until the thermocouple type is displayed then release the start/stop key.
Press the start/stop key a further 7 times, scrolling through the various parameters until the display shows "E5 - -" The dashes may well be a number, say 20 or 50. This number is the overshoot alarm allowance. Don't worry if you go past E5, you can just scroll to the end and begin the process again or wait 15 seconds and it will time out.
If it is set anywhere between 30 and 50, or off "--" it may be that the kiln is actually overshooting due to it being much faster than the Hotstart.
Take a look at that value for me matey. It's a start point.
Well, I have to say I did wonder if it was overshoot, as I'd seen just how fast it can climb, which was why I added in a slow climb in the last portion before process temperature.
Originally I just used exactly what I had in the Hotstart, and worked on from there. (The programme I use is probably slightly odd compared to a lot of fusing programmes, because as well as the hold at the end of the first controlled climb, I have a slow climb as a bubble squeeze, as I found that a simple soak didn't always work, as different glasses soften at different temperatures, and I found this was a good "cover all" - it took a good couple of years of fusing to get that right - translated it straight to Bill, but that shouldn't be causing a problem as even allowing for the variance in temperature in the kilns, as the bubble squeeze is well below even a tack fuse, never mind a full fuse).
But then I wondered if I was leaving it in the fusing zone for too long - I know that fusing, like ceramics is a matter not just of temperature but of heatwork, so I wondered if I was doing the equivalent of giving it an extra long soak. Hence I reprogrammed to have the climb at 333, hoping that it would be less likely to overshoot.
Thanks Lee, not sure if I will have time tomorrow to play, as I need to get some work through, but I will certainly get the info to you as soon as I can.
Lee, what's the ST221/ST222? (Not got the booklet here, tis at the studio)
(my bad, turns out the broken kiln at uni is not a skutt)
Good, good - our lovely Skutt's don't normally break so very pleased to hear that. What make is it just for interest?
Dawn, ST221 is KCR1 sorry.
Do me a favour and pm me your cycle.
It's an EvenHeat, From what was said last night it is *very*old.