[Clayart] wet kilns

[David Woof]

Yes of course in these disasters there may be other life concerns that take priority over making and firing work so let's be sensitive to these issues and our fellow clay folk before jumping in with kiln salvage advice.   Truely sorry for your losses and the desperate situations you may find your selves in.

Regarding the flooded kilns....... Firstly ***Do Not " flip the switch to Turn On" the wetted kiln. Some of the electronics and circuitry may have survived and if cleaned and dried completely before power is activated these may still be salvaged.

Don't trust the circuit breakers to have tripped off. Manually disconnect from power source. A wetted kiln can cause electroshock death simply by one having physical contact with any part of an activated kiln.

Even if the Power Company has the power turned off or downed lines make it seem so...some other citizen may have a personal generator operating in your area and has failed to isolate those home lines from your supply "grid."

Flood waters carry mud and fine silt, coating everything it contacts with from a fine clay-like film, to sand and sticky mud.
Kiln elements like any other flooded object must be thoroughly cleaned before attempts to "dry it out." and fire up.

So first things first!......But as Mel said, if the computer control is toasted one can still dry the kiln out and fire manually. (Providing one is not still standing ass deep in mud and slop!)

Also one can install a programable remote electronic computerized control.

Misneach,

David Woof......................................................................................
*******************************************************************************************
________________________________
From: Clayart <clayart-bounces at lists.clayartforum.com> on behalf of mel jacobson via Clayart <clayart at lists.clayartforum.com>
Sent: Tuesday, October 8, 2024 10:40 AM
To: clayart at lists.clayartforum.com <clayart at lists.clayartforum.com>
Cc: mel jacobson <melpots at mail.com>
Subject: [Clayart] wet kilns

I am waiting until folks that have been affected by the storms are back online, have  email etc working.  Arnold Howard of course will have good information and many of us can chime in.  There is no question that kilns can be saved and can be  back in action fast.

The best news is if you have lost your computer on your kiln you can easily make it into a manual kiln.

So, for all of  you getting information about friends in trouble…encourage them about cleaning and getting their kiln back in action.
mel

www.melpots.com<http://www.melpots.com>

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.clayartforum.com/pipermail/clayart/attachments/20241008/de67fe15/attachment.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.clayartforum.com/pipermail/clayart/attachments/20241012/1c317df2/attachment.htm>