If you fire the same size load and type of ware regularly,
the witness cones let you compare one firing to the next and
alert you when something is wrong. For example, if the wit-
ness cone bends farther and farther with each consecutive
firing, this may indicate thermocouple temperature drift.
Note:
If the bending of the witness cone does not
match the Cone-Fire shut-off, you may want to ad-
just Cone Offset or Thermocouple Offset. See
pages 20 - 21. If the witness cones bend inconsis-
tently from one firing to another, see “Sentry Trou-
bleshooter,” a separate publication.
How to Position Cones on
the Shelf
Position the witness cones
so that you can see them
through a peephole during
firing. If the kiln takes longer
than usual to fire, you may
wonder if something has gone
wrong and the kiln is over-fir-
ing. But by seeing the cones,
you will know how the firing is
actually progressing.
If you follow these guide-
lines, you should be able to see the cones even at cone 10:
1
Place the cones 8” - 12” away from a peephole. Posi-
tioning them closer makes them difficult to see.
2
Have enough space around the cones to keep them
from touching a piece of ware when they bend.
3
Position cones so that when viewed from the peep-
hole, they are silhouetted by a glowing heating ele-
ment on the opposite kiln wall. (Keep cones at least
2” from an element.)
4
The element that silhouettes the cones should be
level with the lower part of the cone. If the element
is in line with the upper part of the cone, you won’t
be able to see the cone when it bends.
5
If you use the three cone system, always have the
higher temperature cone on the same side in every
firing. Otherwise you can lose track of which cone is
which.
6
Wear green #3 kiln firing safety glasses when view-
ing the cones through the peephole.
See your dealer if in doubt about which cone number to
use with each clay and glaze.
Firing Schedules
Cone-Fire uses three firing schedules:
I
Low fire cones 022 - 011
I
Medium fire cones 010 - 01
I
High fire cones 1 - 10
Keep the kiln lid or door closed when the kiln is not in use.
11
Cone-Fire Programming
Use these instructions for your first firings. Later
you may prefer “Cone-Fire Shorthand Programming,”
page 40.
As the Sentry prompts for cone, speed, pre-heat,
hold, and slow cooling, values entered for the last firing
will appear. To use these values again, press
ENTER
.
To fire without Delay or Alarm: Follow steps 1
through 7 below. Then from
[IDLE]
press
START
. To
use Delay or Alarm, see also pages 8 - 9.
1
Apply power to the kiln.
[8888]
then
[IDLE]
will appear. (Press
ENTER
if
[IDLE]
does not
appear.)
2
Press
1
.
[CONE]
will appear. Enter cone num-
ber. (If the
1
key does not respond, your con-
troller has Ramp-Hold only.)
3
Press
ENTER
.
[SPD]
will appear. Enter speed:
FAST (
1
), MEDIUM (
2
), SLOW (
3
). (Me-
dium speed will display as
[STD]
.)
4
Press
ENTER
.
[PRHT]
will appear. To use
Pre-Heat (p. 12), enter time. Otherwise enter
0
.
5
Press
ENTER
.
[HOLD]
will appear (pg 13). To
soak the ware at the end of firing, enter a hold
time. Otherwise enter
0
.
6
Press
ENTER
.
[COOL]
will appear (after you
have turned it on in Options, pg 13). To use
Slow Cooling, enter cooling rate as degrees per
hour. (180°F/82°C is the maximum cooling rate.
Set
0
to turn Slow Cooling off.)
7
Press
ENTER
.
[IDLE]
will appear.
8
To set Alarm
: Press
7
.
[ALAR]
will appear.
Enter alarm temperature. (Press
0
to turn
alarm off.) Then press
ENTER
.
9
To set Delay:
Press
3
.
[DELA]
will appear.
Enter delay time. Press
ENTER
. (Delay zeroes
out after each firing.)
10
To start the firing, press
ENTER
once.
[STRT]
will appear, then temperature. If Delay
was programmed,
[DELA]
will appear, then
time remaining until start. To stop the program
during firing, press
STOP
.
When program fires to completion,
[CPLT]
will ap-
pear and the controller will beep. Press
ENTER
.
[IDLE]
will appear. To shut off the alarm when it
sounds during a firing, press
ENTER
.
Silhouette the lower part of the
cone against an element. Keep
the cone 8” - 12” away from the
peephole.
