OT: 7-sided kilns ?

[N_Cook]

I was talking to a kiln-repairer this week. He'd recently refurbished a
couple of these
http://www.hobbyceramicraft.co.uk/kilns-paragon-fusion-7-glass-fusing-kiln
He did not know and I could not see why the manufacturing awkwardness of
7 sides?
Just some sort of gimmic or some sensible firing reason to have
non-symmetry of firing or something?

 

[whit3rd]

On Saturday, July 4, 2015 at 1:43:44 PM UTC-7, N_Cook wrote:

I was talking to a kiln-repairer this week. He'd recently refurbished a
couple of these
http://www.hobbyceramicraft.co.uk/kilns-paragon-fusion-7-glass-fusing-kiln
He did not know and I could not see why the manufacturing awkwardness of
7 sides?

Maybe just size. You can use the same size side panels to make different
kilns, and the 7-sided one shows as 14.5 inches, while the eight-sided one
is 16.5 inches.
Maybe they're cutting bevels on standard-size firebricks.
Alternately, if one were to mold the sidewalls as planks with
an outie-circular edge and innie-circular opposite edge, they'd
be easy to mortar together at any angle.

 

[John Robertson]

On 07/04/2015 1:43 PM, N_Cook wrote:

I was talking to a kiln-repairer this week. He'd recently refurbished a
couple of these
http://www.hobbyceramicraft.co.uk/kilns-paragon-fusion-7-glass-fusing-kiln
He did not know and I could not see why the manufacturing awkwardness of
7 sides?
Just some sort of gimmic or some sensible firing reason to have
non-symmetry of firing or something?

Well, if you want to get technical, the kiln is actually 8-sided. It has
a hexagonal box, then a base and a lid. Perhaps only seven sides have
heating elements (not the bottom) - hence the name.

The hexagonal shape will heat items inside more evenly from the sides
than a box shape.

Beyond that I have no suggestions.

John :-#)#

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"Old pinballers never die, they just flip out."

 

[Clifford Heath]

On 06/07/15 23:44, John Robertson wrote:

On 07/04/2015 1:43 PM, N_Cook wrote:
I was talking to a kiln-repairer this week. He'd recently refurbished a
couple of these
http://www.hobbyceramicraft.co.uk/kilns-paragon-fusion-7-glass-fusing-kiln

He did not know and I could not see why the manufacturing awkwardness of
7 sides?
Just some sort of gimmic or some sensible firing reason to have
non-symmetry of firing or something?

Well, if you want to get technical, the kiln is actually 8-sided. It has
a hexagonal box, then a base and a lid.

Count again. There are seven vertical sides, a bottom and a top.

 

[N_Cook]

On 06/07/2015 10:46, whit3rd wrote:

On Saturday, July 4, 2015 at 1:43:44 PM UTC-7, N_Cook wrote:
I was talking to a kiln-repairer this week. He'd recently refurbished a
couple of these
http://www.hobbyceramicraft.co.uk/kilns-paragon-fusion-7-glass-fusing-kiln
He did not know and I could not see why the manufacturing awkwardness of
7 sides?
Maybe just size. You can use the same size side panels to make different
kilns, and the 7-sided one shows as 14.5 inches, while the eight-sided one
is 16.5 inches.
Maybe they're cutting bevels on standard-size firebricks.
Alternately, if one were to mold the sidewalls as planks with
an outie-circular edge and innie-circular opposite edge, they'd
be easy to mortar together at any angle.

Standardizing the size of the panels makes sense if destined for either
a 110V or 240V country , as would only be run in parallel , if an odd
number of panels. Kiln cement covers up all sorts of irregularities,
like angled vertical gaps between panels, and refactory bricks can
easily be cut, likewise.

 

[N_Cook]

On 06/07/2015 21:36, N_Cook wrote:

On 06/07/2015 10:46, whit3rd wrote:
On Saturday, July 4, 2015 at 1:43:44 PM UTC-7, N_Cook wrote:
I was talking to a kiln-repairer this week. He'd recently refurbished a
couple of these
http://www.hobbyceramicraft.co.uk/kilns-paragon-fusion-7-glass-fusing-kiln

He did not know and I could not see why the manufacturing awkwardness of
7 sides?
Maybe just size. You can use the same size side panels to make different
kilns, and the 7-sided one shows as 14.5 inches, while the eight-sided
one
is 16.5 inches.
Maybe they're cutting bevels on standard-size firebricks.
Alternately, if one were to mold the sidewalls as planks with
an outie-circular edge and innie-circular opposite edge, they'd
be easy to mortar together at any angle.


Standardizing the size of the panels makes sense if destined for either
a 110V or 240V country , as would only be run in parallel , if an odd
number of panels. Kiln cement covers up all sorts of irregularities,
like angled vertical gaps between panels, and refactory bricks can
easily be cut, likewise.

Perhaps with standard voltage and wattage and size panels then a
12-sided kiln having 12 panels would be 3x the power of a 4 panel one,
probably not far off the requirement. Anything else can be cattered to a
great extent, in the on/off programming temperature control