Basic temperature controllers

Greetings to all from down under,

I have recently bought a group of second hand casting equiptment
from a lady whose deceased husband had. He was also into electronics
and has wired all the machines ( kiln, wax injector, vulcanizer) for
external controllers.

Unfortunatly the controller/s are not present or hadn’t been
constructed yet. Q. Is there a basic controller circut that I could
build and use in conjunction with a seperate pyrometer that would
allow me to make use of this equiptment? Unfortunately I am unable to
afford a digital controller as yet. Any

suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Phillip Barnes, Australia.

yes, check:

 - honeywell
 - omega

A good controller is quite complicated, what I did here in the UK
was to use a pottery kiln controller and link the programmes
together.

This has been very succesful and has not let me down in twelve
years. I now have two for different sized kilns. Since potters seem to
be giving up in this country maybe they are also in australia, so
look out for second hand.

I don’t know if the same makes are around there but mine was a
cambridge 400 from memory, new they are only 300 pounds, I looked
into a kit from Radoispares when I started but the electronics were
beyond me.

Tim Blades.

Greetings to all from down under, 

And the same to you!

Is there a basic controller circut that I could build and use in
conjunction with a seperate pyrometer that would allow me to make
use of this equiptment? Unfortunately I am unable to afford a
digital controller as yet. 

How about analog? I’ve recently acquired an old 1/3 cu ft burnout
kiln and was only interested in a simple temperature readout with a
solenoid and simmerstat. It was used as a pottery kiln and rated at
4.5KW but I only needed it to reach 750 degC (not 1200C) so re-wired
the elements appropriately, using a certain length (approx 17m
overall) of 1.2mm resistance wire, and wound them up. The overall
current is under 10amps at 230v mains and 1.8KW so that was nice. I
fitted an analog pyrometer and j-type probe both of which I bought
for $NZ150. They are hard to get hold of though.

It’s a basic setup and offers no ramp-up and ramp-down at precise
rates, but if you want to be able to do that you’d need to go
digital.

Brian

B r i a n A d a m
e y e g l a s s e s j e w e l l e r y
Auckland NEW ZEALAND
www.adam.co.nz

Check your local recycler. A lot of them tear down machines for
scrap. Any number of machines might have the working temperature
controller you need. The recyclers also network, so they can find
what you need from an associate of theirs.

Another place would be the asset (re)utilization department of your
local university.

Jeff Simkins
Cincinnati, OH

Below is a link to a article on building a digital controller for
your kiln. I built this unit a couple of years ago and it works
wonderfully. While I have a basic understanding of electrical
schematics I am a long ways from being an electrical engineer, I
found this article to be relatively easy to follow and to build. The
biggest challenge was to locate the parts. After all the parts were
gathered, I was able to build it in an afternoon. If my memory
serves me correctly my out of pocket cost was less than $150.

http://toblerglasscreations.com/fuji/

I can recommend this controller to anyone who would like a digital
controller for their kiln.

Mike Callihan-Orchid Lurker