Getting ready for the annual Palo Alto Clay and Glass Festival I packed my trusty little mountain Cress kiln , programed it for a medium bisque and went to bed. It never got to temperature stubbornly staying at 1546 degrees all through the night. I thought maybe because it hadn't been used in a year it was just a little cranky so I optimisticaly tried it again...nope again it got only to 1546, being cranky was not the problem. Why does this ALWAYS seem to happen right before a show ????
We are up in the boondocks...I had days of work to fire and transporting it bone dry back to the Bay Area made me shiver. I couldn't call the amazing kiln doctor, Saadi, who comes and makes everything better in Berkeley. I emailed Cress (which luckily is in Carson City NV - 1 hour's drive from my house) and got an auto message back that they were on vacation. My heart sank. Next minute I got another message...Arturo from Cress was breifly in the office and could give me the parts to fix the kiln if I would come and get them. I have never "fixed" a kiln but I was desperate and my husband, John was game to try. I had diagnosed the problem as a relay because both the elements glowed red during the firing and the little clicking noise that signals the temperature raising was non existent when the kiln reached the higher temperatures. Arturo said relays were a piece of cake to fix and guess what ....they were. John took out the old replaced with the new and VOILA...the kin is fixed. Much thanks to Arturo Maldonado who REALLY went the extra mile and of course to John Schnick, who's screw driver skills amaze me!
