fired clay products 14" thick without cracking but that takes
two days of firing. The thicker your ware the slower you fire.
10. Vacuum out element grooves and you will prolong the life
of your elements.

Glaze firing

1. No surface that is glazed may touch another surface or the two
will fuse together.

2. Shelves, lid seats and flanges can be treated with kiln wash
to avoid sticking problems. Clay that is high in ircn tends to make
lids stick at high temperatures so a wash should be used then.
Waxing the flange or seat gives no protection from this trouble.

3. Fire lids on the pots. This prevents warping and gives equal
heat to the total pot.

4. Do not slide pots across shelves as it tends to flake glazes off
and drop debris down below.

5. Large pots are loaded first in the kiln bottom.

6, Line up all pots of equal height and place them together on the
same shelves. Clearance between pots in about } inch.

7. When loading glaze ware in a gas kiln the pots are still only

| inch apart but usually come within | to 2 inches of the kiln sides
and roof. The kiln's draft properties would naturally have to be
considered when loading a gas or oil kiln and pots must not block
exhaust ports or flues. Bricks tend to expand and move when
heated so pots near the crown sometimes catch falling brick dust.
8. Shelves staggered in glaze firings in gas or oil kilns help to
prevent hot spots. This staggering of heights of each layer or
"bung" has to be considered along with the flame pattern you wish
to establish. This judging is done through experience.

9. In electric kilns, shelves close to top or bottomof kiln will
make hot spots in center of chamber.

10, No large air spaces in the chamber, If you haven't a pot to fit
then put a brick in the empty space.

ll. Use plenty of cones. It's cheaper than losing a load of pots
because you can't see your cone, or the clay wad blows up and
your cones are out of sight. Use cone setters or mix clay wad
with vermiculite.

14.