Trash Kiln Shelves; what to do?
Posted: Tue Oct 07, 2003 4:48 pm
After years of quality work, my kiln shelf finally died. I ordered two replacement 20" square shelves never considering the possibility that they would be anything other than decent quality. Well, they aren't! Both are warped enough to cause HUGE bubbles from the bottom, in exactly the same place on the shelf. It's too close to the middle of the shelf to not use it.
The shelf came from Evenheat. I talked to them today, they told me they have had that same problem with most of the shelves they have. In fact, they checked their shelves today and found EVERY ONE of them is warped. Evenheat buys their shelve from Mexico where our jobs have gone and where quality control seems to be an oximoron.
Now, I have two warped shelves I'm aftraid to flat fuse on, and I do a LOT of flat fusing. If Evenheat can't be trusted, as big as they are, who else can I turn to. Paragon's customer service concepts are a subject you don't want me to start on. Evenheat didn't even want to call them and for the same reason.
Kaiser Lee Boards looks to be promissing but they seem expensive and I'm not sure about their durability. So I'm looking for answers. I have a large order I'm struggling to get out where I'm using square drop outs and getting bubbles where the glass hits the shelf; bubbles the size of grapefruits. I've got one firing now with 1/4" fiber paper on the shelf to see how that works. If it doesn't, I stand to loose a very large order, to say nothing about the customer satisfaction end of things.
Get a straight edge on your shelves folks, and I hope someone has a magic answer for me; just now I'm not a happy camper.
Jerry
The shelf came from Evenheat. I talked to them today, they told me they have had that same problem with most of the shelves they have. In fact, they checked their shelves today and found EVERY ONE of them is warped. Evenheat buys their shelve from Mexico where our jobs have gone and where quality control seems to be an oximoron.
Now, I have two warped shelves I'm aftraid to flat fuse on, and I do a LOT of flat fusing. If Evenheat can't be trusted, as big as they are, who else can I turn to. Paragon's customer service concepts are a subject you don't want me to start on. Evenheat didn't even want to call them and for the same reason.
Kaiser Lee Boards looks to be promissing but they seem expensive and I'm not sure about their durability. So I'm looking for answers. I have a large order I'm struggling to get out where I'm using square drop outs and getting bubbles where the glass hits the shelf; bubbles the size of grapefruits. I've got one firing now with 1/4" fiber paper on the shelf to see how that works. If it doesn't, I stand to loose a very large order, to say nothing about the customer satisfaction end of things.
Get a straight edge on your shelves folks, and I hope someone has a magic answer for me; just now I'm not a happy camper.
Jerry