I didn't do much today. I cemented a bunch of rows. I can start to cement them together tomorrow. That didn't take much time. I got to the studio later and started working on the electric box.
The box was picked up from Gescan, a local electric supply
company. Ridiculously expensive. It's 6 gauge aluminium with twelve
knockouts. It's a nice box, more than I really need, but it was the
only one that was tall enough. I wanted to make sure that I had room
to add another circuit if I chose to.
All I did was fabricate some brackets that can attach the box to the kiln, and mount the switches. Mounting the switches took a little longer than expected, the knockouts were a larger diameter than the lock nuts that came with the switches. I had to run to Rona (you have to be Canadian to get that) to pick up some washers.
I wanted to mount the terminal box too, but the bolts I had were just too long.
I'm going to eventually do something about ventilating the box. You don't want too much heat in there. I'm toying with the idea of adding a dc converter using a computer cooling fan. Obviously overkill, but it would be kind of cool. Also, I'm looking for a timer switch. I'd like to be able to set a timer that will shut the kiln down after x hours, in case of emergency. Like a kiln sitters backup without the kiln sitter.
Damage so far:
| elements and stuff | $200 |
| bricks | $450 |
| 6 tubes cement | $36 |
| steel base | $27 |
| 2 sheets M-Board | $100 |
| 107x28 inches 20 gauge aluminium | $90 |
| Electrical box | $50 |
| Switches | $100 |
| total | $1218 |
The electrical box was eventually discarded in favour of a home grown solution of bent sheet metal with two 8 inch square ventilation panels on the top and the bottom. The reason is that the aluminum box got much too hot, and there was no way to sufficiently ventilate it. Moreover, it was a major p.i.t.a. to get inside and modify the wiring.
