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how do i soak and cone fire with an orton autofire plus kiln

updated tue 21 nov 00

 

Brenda Z on mon 20 nov 00

Controller?

My house was starting to fill up with bisque, so I finally got up the
courage to do my first glaze firing with my Orton AutoFire Controller.

I created a user program with three ramps. All the holds were 0, except for
the hold after ramp number three. The temperature on the last ramp was
higher than the cone temperature. My plan was to wait until the cone
slumped and then to use the skip step option to jump to the hold.

Everything went according to plan until the cone slumped. I selected the
skip step option, then I selected step 3 (and hit enter), and selected
return. Unfortunately the elements continued to cycle on, and the
temperature continued to rise. I then tried tried to skip to step 1. At
this point the temperature began to drop, instead of holding. I then gave
up and I aborted the firing.

Does anyone know how to use the Skip Step option properly? I obviously
don't understand the directions in the manual.

By the way, even without the soak, I was thrilled with the results of my
first firing. (I was mostly thrilled that my kiln shelves survived without
a drop of glaze, considering that I hadn't done proper glaze testing before
the firing.)

Thanks,
Brenda Z.