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    How To Build Your Own Controller: by Dudley Giberson of Joppa Glassworks, Inc

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    Justin Wells
    This document provides instructions for building your own kiln controller. It begins by describing how controllers can save money compared to store-bought models and allow customization. Next, it explains how to build a simple controller with basic on/off control, and then a more advanced standalone controller that can run sophisticated 30-step firing programs. In the past, kiln operators relied on imprecise temperature methods like newspaper combustion times, but digital controllers now allow setting exact temperatures.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    How To Build Your Own Controller: by Dudley Giberson of Joppa Glassworks, Inc

    Uploaded by

    Justin Wells
    37 views1 page
    This document provides instructions for building your own kiln controller. It begins by describing how controllers can save money compared to store-bought models and allow customization. Next, it explains how to build a simple controller with basic on/off control, and then a more advanced standalone controller that can run sophisticated 30-step firing programs. In the past, kiln operators relied on imprecise temperature methods like newspaper combustion times, but digital controllers now allow setting exact temperatures.

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    This document provides instructions for building your own kiln controller. It begins by describing how controllers can save money compared to store-bought models and allow customization. Next, it explains how to build a simple controller with basic on/off control, and then a more advanced standalone controller that can run sophisticated 30-step firing programs. In the past, kiln operators relied on imprecise temperature methods like newspaper combustion times, but digital controllers now allow setting exact temperatures.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    37 views1 page

    How To Build Your Own Controller: by Dudley Giberson of Joppa Glassworks, Inc

    Uploaded by

    Justin Wells
    This document provides instructions for building your own kiln controller. It begins by describing how controllers can save money compared to store-bought models and allow customization. Next, it explains how to build a simple controller with basic on/off control, and then a more advanced standalone controller that can run sophisticated 30-step firing programs. In the past, kiln operators relied on imprecise temperature methods like newspaper combustion times, but digital controllers now allow setting exact temperatures.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 1

    How to Build Your Own Controller

    Version 3.1
    by Dudley Giberson of Joppa Glassworks, Inc.

    D
    esigning your own kiln control
    center is highly rewarding and
    beneficial as it truly puts the
    control of your system in your own Controller
    Module
    hands. By following a few suggestions
    this can be a relatively simple project Indicator Light
    which can save you hundreds if not Heat
    thousands of dollars over the cost of On/Off Switch Dissapater
    store bought models. The very best \aka "Heat Sink"
    thing about designing your own con- Fuse ple
    T h e rmocou
    troller is you can place the components
    where you want them. In
    Power
    We will begin by building a sim-
    ple bit box controller, called a set-point Power
    controller. Next we will build a stand-a- Out
    lone control box, shown to the right, fig- Fig. 01 This stand-a-lone controller can deliver 30 ramp and soak cycles to
    ure 1, that can control a sophisticated 30 control any kiln heating or cooling need.
    ramp and soak program capable of han-
    dling the most complicated fusing and
    annealing cycles. This controller can manage a large 100 cubic foot slumper/casting kiln to a small
    bead annealer and it can handle any of your high temperature glass melting furnaces too.
    A little background— before this era of digital control most craftspersons were forced to rely
    on erratic and uniquely peculiar methods for determining specific temperatures: throwing a balled
    up newspaper into a kiln and counting off time before it would explode into flame was a standard
    pre-pyrometer determinant. I have a friend who bakes in a clay oven. He refuses to put a pyrom-
    eter on the unit. Fred’s unique test for temperature is to plunge his naked arm into the main open-
    ing and begin counting seconds. The counting stops when it gets too hot. If it’s twenty-five to thir-
    ty, it’s perfect for bread! Twenty is way too hot.
    An analog pyrometer is a big step up from this hair burning torture, but that doesn’t con-
    trol anything. It just lets you know approximately where the temperature is. For most kiln crafts a
    type “K” thermocouple attached to an analog pyrometer is sufficient, it functions from room tem-
    perature to about 2350˚F. before the thermocouple melts. In the analog world you watch the
    pyrometer: when the temperature gets too hot, you turn the power down; when it’s too cool, you
    turn it up. You can be busy, busy, busy.
    In the world of pottery the quintessential temperature control devise is the Orton cone sys-
    tem. Potters stack their kilns and place among the wares sets of cones that melt at various temper-
    atures. For example, a cone 9 melts at 2300˚F. and a cone 10 melts at 2345˚F. The kiln operator
    watches the cones through a spy hole. When he sees cone 9 begin to bend the caution flag is hoist-
    ed. He has reached a specific temperature: he can go on or stop.
    Now enter the digital world. You want the temperature to be 1000 degrees, you set the con-
    troller to 1000. If the temperature is below 1000 the controller turns the power on, and if it rises
    How to Build Your Own Controller, Page 1

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