Operating a Sierra Kiln (Older Models)

 The kiln should be set up at least 6” to 1 foot away from the wall in a well ventilated room, preferably on a non-flammable surface—use a cookie sheet or a 12” ceramic tile.  The bottom does not get hot, so this is for extra safety.   You really want to have a non flammable surface in front and to the side of the kiln where hot items might fall if you take things out while the kiln is hot.  Never open the kiln door while firing objects with a significant amount of flammable materials in them (e.g., cork clay, leaves, pods, or other burnable forms) as this might start a flash fire in the kiln.  Never put flammable pieces  (e.g., cork clay, & etc.) into a hot kiln for the same reason.

 The flap in front of the door is for ventilation.  If you are firing something that will give off smoke, open the flap to vent the smoke.   Close the vent after the flammable materials have burned off.

 Plug the kiln in and flip the switch to the on position.  The kiln will beep at you.

After a moment, it will alternately flash  IDLE and a number.   The number is the temperature in the firing chamber.  If it is flashing something other than idle, don’t worry, just press the green button until you get back to IDLE.

The ramp speed refers to how fast the kiln will heat up.  If your piece is not completely dry, if you are firing glass, or if you are using cork clay, you should use a slower ramp speed

PrOG is the fully programmable mode for the kiln.  Use this one if you are firing glass or doing something special.

TO OPERATE THE KILN.

After turning the kiln on, Press the Green button until you reach the IDLE setting.

Press the GREEN button once.  It will display either FAST or the last program setting you used.

Use the RED button to change the program.  Set the program to FAST.

Press the GREEN button again.  It will flash F (degrees Farenheight;) and 1650.

Press the GREEN button again.  It will flash Hld and .10.  This means it will hold the temperature for 10 minutes.

Press the GREEN button again. It will display Strt (start)

Press the GREEN button again.  It will flash dELA and 00.00.  At this point, if you want it to wait 15 minutes before turning on, you would use the RED and BLUE buttons to set how long a delay you want to program in.

Press the GREEN button again.  It will display   -On- and, after a moment, you will hear a click and the temperature will begin to rise.

The display will show the current temperature until it reaches the programmed in temperature.  Once it reaches the firing temperature, it will alternate flashing the temperature and the amount of firing time left.

When it is finished the kiln will beep for 30 seconds.  The display will flash CPLt alternating with the amount of time the program took to run and the current temperature inside the kiln.

You can alter the pre-programmed time and temperature settings by using the up and down (RED and BLUE) buttons.  The kiln will remember the last settings you gave it.  To reset the pre-programmed settings to their defaults, cycle through the program settings (FAST, SLO, Stnd, PrOG). 

A SAMPLE CUSTOM PROGRAM

For Example, say I have a PMC piece that is not very dry, but I want to set it going now.  I can tell the kiln to heat up slowly to make sure it is very dry and minimize any warping that might happen.  I want to heat the kiln up to 250 and hold it there for 30 minutes before continuing up  as fast as it can to the PMC firing temperature of 1650 and holding it there for 10 minutes.

Press the GREEN button until the display reads IdLE.

Press the Green button once.  Press the RED button until PrOG is displayed.

Press the Green button again.  rA   1 and a number will flash.  This is the first RAMP speed (how fast the kiln will heat up).   The maximum is 1798 per hour.  Use the red and blue buttons to increase or decrease how fast the kiln will heat up.  For the above example, I will set the Ramp speed to 1000.

Press the Green button again.  F 1 and a number will flash.  This is the first temperature you want to reach.  Use the red and blue buttons to set the temperature.  I set this temperature to 250

Press the Green button again.  HLd1 and a number will flash.  This is how long I want the first temperature to be maintained.  I set this to 30 minutes.

Thus far:  we have told the kiln to heat up at 1000 degrees per hour to 250 degrees and hold it there for 30 minutes.

Press the Green button again.  rA   2 and a number will flash  This is the second segment of the program.  The second ramp speed will be the FULL speed (1798).  I hold down the red/increase button  until the desired setting is reached.  Alternately, if rA 2 is starting at zero, I can press the blue/decrease button and it will go to FULL (plus my finger won’t get tired)..

Press the Green button again.  F 2 and a number will flash.  Set this second temperature to the desired setting using the red and blue buttons.  In this case, 1650.

Press the Green button again. HLd2 will flash with a number.  Set the second hold time to the desired number using the red and blue buttons.   In this case 10 minutes.

Press the Green button 3 times to cycle through Strt, DelA, and –On–.

You can set up to Four Ramp, Temperature, and Hold times.

If a later temperature is lower than a previous one, the kiln will RAMP DOWN to that temperature.

For the official Sierra kiln manual call (toll free) 866-762-2529.

   MED'A Creations
San Pablo, CA 94806
Phone: 510-236-2313  Phone / Fax: 510 236 2313