Each observation should take a
fraction of a second. It is called peeking to distinguish it from looking or
watching. There is a method to doing this. Think about what you are looking for
before you open the kiln. Pop open the kiln to record with your eyes, close the
kiln. Think about what you saw. If necessary, repeat. But only after you have thought about what
you saw.
Do not spend time looking into
the kiln.
Think about the necessity for
observation before buying your first or next kiln.
The best kilns are those with
generous observation ports, both in number and size. These allow you to peek into the kiln without
disturbing the heat distribution within the kiln. Two or more ports are best, as you can shine
a light into one of them to illuminate the interior of the kiln at lower slumping
temperatures.
If you do
not have ports you will need to open the kiln. This is easiest to do with top
hat kind of kiln. The top hat kiln keeps
a lot of heat in the upper portion of the lid, making the amount of heat dumped
less than on other kinds of opening. You
can peek in at the level of the shelf, so minimising the amount of heat being
dumped.
The problems with lids opening so
you have to peer down into the body of the kiln, and with doors opening to the
front, is that you are dumping a lot of heat directly at yourself. You also are losing a significant amount of
heat from the kiln. The large air
exchange also will disturb any dust in the kiln and that may fall onto your
work.
It is possible to make ports in
your kiln by drilling a large diameter hole in the side of the kiln and through
the insulating material (assuming you do not have side elements). This post gives some ideas.
In all the cases where it is necessary
to open a lid or door, you must close the kiln slowly and gently to minimise
disturbance of the air within the kiln.
The effects
on the glass of peeking at various temperature ranges varies between the rise
and the fall in temperature. This post
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