There's some good news and some bad news... I'll give you the good news first. I had some of my best pieces yet come out of this firing. :-] The bad news is three pieces blew up and shattered shards all over the place. I had 12 bowls get ruined with "uninvited visitors". I've got a few guess's as to why. The research continues. Update at 11. I did get a beautiful firing asfar as kiln control goes. I looked in the spy hole and saw the color along the floor not as yellow as the rest, so I opened the chimney's shelf dampers more and let 'er rip for an hour and a half. A stronger draft makes the flames path go in a straight line... from the fire box across the floor directly to the flues. A slow draft allows the lazy flame to rise up along the top and across, then down to the flues. And don't forget some medium draft time. This gets all the pottery hot enough. I have been taking the front to cone 12 these last couple of times (the cone on the right in the cone pack picture is 12) and the back to 10.
Then the grinding... need to get those wads off. The turquoise bottle was right up front and the oribe started to run down and onto the wad, showing why we wad them. It soaked up the extra and kept it from sticking the bottle to the shelf.
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