Robin e-mailed me back very quickly to say you press the plastic bits to release the wires. So easy when you know! Not really intuitive though, it looks as if it would grip tighter if you pressed them in further. Anyhow, the wires came out easily enough, new ones inserted, made sure none of the wires were touching the outer casing (they would burn) and then I screwed it all back up.
Unfortunately, I still have the tCL error. I've e-mailed Robin to ask him if 4 years is a good age for a Paragon SC2 and whether he thinks it's worth fixing any more. It was definitely worth trying a £52 fix when new ones are about £600.
I am therefore reluctantly resigned to not making any more beads before the new year. I only have two more making days left before I will be at the craft market for four out of the following five days and then I will be getting ready to receive guests on the 25th; after that I'm having a rest!
We're getting our Christmas tree tomorrow so it's time to deck the halls, make merry and forget about kilns. Shame I don't feel Christmassy at all yet!
Oh dear - sorry to hear about your kiln. They do have a habit of playing up at the most inconvenient of times. Such a shame that you're going to have to get a new one.
ReplyDeleteForget about kilns until 2011 and I'm sure as soon as you've got your tree up you'll get a bit of your jolly back. :-)
Hi Sue, I have a SC3 kiln which is similar to yours. I don't know if you have the instruction manuals but the Sentry Xpress manual indicates your tCl problem can be caused by worn or burned out elements, defective relay,low voltage or defective thermcouple. As you have replaced the thermcouple it may be one of the above.
ReplyDeleteYou can download the manuals from Paragon at no charge.
Iam in Australia and have purchased spares from Paragon without any difficulty.
Four years isn't long for a kiln.
Hope you have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Hi Vicki, thanks so much for your interest and suggestions. I do have the manual to go with the SC2 but I don't really want to spend too much more money on this kiln, Paragons don't seem to be reliable enough to entrust the future of my business to it. I am planning to buy a new British built kiln next and have the Paragon assessed with a view to a professional repairing it to keep as a spare so I'm not in the position of being without one again for weeks on end whilst I (idiot that I am when it comes to this kind of stuff) try to find out what's wrong. Thanks for your Christmas and New Year wishes, I hope you have a lovely time as well and thanks so much for taking the trouble to comment! :-)
ReplyDeleteWaves at Laura - hiya! Feeling a bit more Christmassy but still have too much to do at the moment! (and keeping the no-snow spell going is very hard work!!!) :-)