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ellyloo
2006-11-02, 5:54am
I have a kiln available to me!
It's a great price, and large, and comes with a bunch of stuff.
It's large, 2nd hand, and less expensive than the tiniest of tiny kilns I've seen new.

Question:
It was used for ceramics.
I want to use it for glass/etc.
Is there a difference? will it work?
Isn't a kiln a kiln?

It's a Paragon A88... at least that's what she had in the ad.
It looks like it comes up to my hips, and it stands on the floor.
(but for 250.... size will NOT matter, if it can do what i need it to do!)

Mr. Smiley
2006-11-02, 6:11am
A kiln is generally a kiln. I use two big ones for my larger stuff. You may have an expense issue with electric to heat up more space than you need. Take this into consideration when buying one. Also, you will want a controller. The cone style kiln sitters for pottery can be rigged to work for glass, but it's not a fun proposition to "baby sit" the darned thing. If you aren't going to need the extra space, you may want to invest more money upfront to get a better fit.

Does it have a programable controller?
Are you going to be using it for larger glass items or fusing projects?

These two questions come to mind when I think about getting a big kiln for glass work... ;)

ellyloo
2006-11-02, 6:14am
Hmmm.
How expensive is 'expensive" when it comes to electricity?

I"ll check about the controller.

pam
2006-11-02, 7:18am
Another thing to keep in mind is the speed at which it will reach annealing temp so you can use it. My smaller kiln heats up in around 7 minutes, while when I used to fire porcelain it would take hours to heat up. I really can't tell you or even suggest how long it would take to get to 960 or whatever you are planning on using, but a larger kiln takes longer to heat, hence more power. Also, with a larger kiln there is the whole ingress, egress thing. If it is top loading then when you open it to place a bead in, the heat rises out of the kiln and into your face, and the kiln temp drops dramatically. In essence what this would do is cause the kiln to be constantly heating, rather than just maintaining the temp, which uses more electricity.

So, keep in mind the negatives, the cost of electricity, the cost of a new controller if it doesn't have one that you can manually adjust to ramp down, the inconvenience. All of those things can be overcome, but that is what you will be doing, overcoming.

Seems that it draws 26 amps, which is roughly twice what any other bead kiln, that I know of, draws. The toolbox kilns that I am familiar with draw around 4 amps, and the rest of the bead annealing kilns less than 15. This is a really large kiln. You will be paying for heating a lot of extra space in there.
Seems as if the kiln was new around 1970 (that in and of itself makes no difference as a kiln can last forever), so unless someone has added a controller it basically has an on/off switch and a kiln sitter which uses a cone system to fire clay.

But, assuming you have a use for all that space, you can, of course use the kiln. You can pile up shelves in the kiln so that when you open the top to put a bead in it's not dropping 3 feet. You can buy long gloves so you can reach inside to place the beads. You can buy a controller for between 2 and $400 that will allow you to ramp down and hold at a certain temp while you make beads, or you can just plan on bulk annealing.
Good luck. You have lots of decisions to make.

Sue in Maine
2006-11-02, 7:26am
There is a a difference between a ceramic kiln and a glass kiln that you should be aware of. Ceramic kilns have elements in the sides, where glass kilns are at the top. You can use them but the heat distributes differently than it does in a glass kiln. I suspect it's just going to be a case of getting used to it.

The kiln I use is an Evenheat GT14-6. It's for glass fusing, which I got into before I started lampworking and, yes, I batch anneal. I've never had a ceramic kiln. This is just info I've picked up along the way. Others will probably have better info. Go with what they say.

Sue

ellyloo
2006-11-02, 7:56am
Yeah.
Hm.
I think I"ll just leave it.
It's not the last deal in the world.