Friday, December 11, 2009

Kiln posts

Does this extrusion look right to you? Don't they look crooked? I am having a time with Axner and Olympic getting this kiln post/shelf thing resolved. I first contacted Axner on Nov. 11 and I have now moved on to Olympic and still no replacements, no resolution, no answers. They just keep saying "we will get this resolved soon". When is soon? you may remember that I lost my first ^10 load due to a shelf that cracked in half, brand new shelf. Second ^10, lost it to kiln post explosion. Here is what has happened with those brand new posts and shelves.

This post cracked in half on it's first firing
all of the posts are splintering, (again, crooked right?)
and exploding
and I now have two cracked shelves. Does this seem normal to any of you out there? I have worked in community studios for ten years where kilns are fired nearly 24/7 and abused by inexperienced assistants and have never seen anything like this. I WANT NEW POSTS AND SHELVES!! What is it going to take? I can't fire my kiln right now except for Raku because I don't trust the posts or shelves. Come on Olympic, do the right thing!!!!!!

15 comments:

brandon phillips said...

all of our elec. kiln posts have crooked interiors like that...that's so far off i wonder if it's supposed to be that way. sorry this is happening to you.

FetishGhost said...

That's weird...

Tracey Broome said...

Yeah, I just think someone up there is going, "sooooo, you really want to be a potter? heh, heh, heh....(let's see how much she can take)"

cookingwithgas said...

I read this and thought that the post I have and have had for over 25 years are not very straight and with that said- they have never exploded.
Then at the bottom it hit my brain that you are dealing with Olympic.
We have had an Olympic kiln and shelves for years with no problem.
With that said we tried to deal with them while we were rebuilding our electric kilns.
They were Assholes to us.
They were the absolute worse experience I have had with any company in the whole life of our business.
I have nothing good or nice to say about them.
You need to stay on Axner and just tell them you want it replaced, ASAP.
Olympic- those people can go suck eggs!
Whoops I usually don't rant on someone else's blog!
Sorry- good luck!

The Star clay is a cone 6 I don't know what the range is.
But if I find out I will let you know.
M

Anonymous said...

None of our posts are like that. All the centers holes of ours are square to the outside. Looks like a manufacturing defect to me. We only fire to O4 as we only do earthenware.
I would pitch a fit to their customer service and demand replacement.

Hollis Engley said...

Tracey, my posts are more solid than yours. Just one half-inch cylindrical hole down the center. So I don't have experience with your type. That said, they sure do look bizarre to me. And if they're blowing up and the shelves are breaking up, a good business would just say, "Very sorry about that, let us replace them." I don't know why businesses don't do that kind of thing, given the viral nature of complaints these days. it just seems like good business. I fire an Olympic DD-17 downdraft gas kiln and it does real good work for me. But trying to get Olympic to explain anything is a useless task. They build 'em, but they don't understand 'em, near as I can figure out. They've never been assholes, but they have always been less than helpful. Good luck with it. I feel for you.

Tracey Broome said...

Thanks for all of the feed back you guys. Meredith, how do you really feel, you seem to have trouble there expressing yourself haha :) You sound a lot like me, you know?!
Hollis, I know what you mean about Olympic understanding what they build. I can't imagine who wrote the manual that came with my kiln but it was useless. I learned more just asking questions on my blog. I'll let you know if I ever get it worked out! From the sounds of MH, I'm in trouble!

createniks said...

That photo of the post on it side with it's side blown of and crumbly looking reminds me of some moldings we made that disintegrated in the bisque firing. All that was left were piles of rubble the result of using scrap clay and not wedging.
I would guess that the refractory batch they made your shelves and post from was not well mixed and the moron that put the dies in the extruder had just come back from his 4:20 break.

heidi haugen: days with clay said...

i say forget the "replacement" pieces as you don't want to be a guinea pig for their next attempt at getting it right. i would demand my money back from axner ASAP and then buy shelves/posts from a different supplier made by a someone else.
good luck.

MH said...

In my dealings with Olympic only the most senior management had terminal assholitis. Second layer management was more helpful. Sales and office staff was totally clueless. As an example (and this was the least of the problems I was trying to resolve) I sent, via e-mail, a hi-res closeup digital photo of the part I needed and still was sent the wrong part.

cindy shake said...

E-gads!! I think I'd just want a full refund and no more CRAP questionable material. None of my kiln posts look like that. This may be a naive question, but do shelves and posts have cone temp max's?? Or, could have the posts, or shelves gotten wet -and would that have mattered??

Linda Starr said...

All the kiln posts I have are very even inside, nothing like the ones you have shown. I got mind from Duncan's and Aardvark and got the ones rated for Cone 10 so I didn't have to worry about the temps. I used some of mine at the college for Cone 10 firing and they were fine.

I think if the posts or shelf got wet even damp that can make a difference in firing.

Anonymous said...

i've never seen that much trouble all at once... maybe they would be more apt to get the matter resolved if they knew the potter blogosphere is anxiously awaiting the outcome?

Tracey Broome said...

You know Jim, I was thinking the same thing! I wonder who should read these posts first, Axner or Olympic? Although my post about similar classes brought on so many misunderstood emails, I'm hesitant to open up another can of worms right now! I just took that thing down :)

Brian said...

Yikes, looking at the carnage, I'm with the 'just get your money back and go somewhere else' group.
The way the shelves are cracked and the posts are spalling, there is something amiss with that batch of refractories. And I don't know that I'd trust the quality control that let this batch through to not just send you more of the same. Or even be able to identify the catch themselves.