No, a kiln sitter is a device that uses an accurately made Orton Cone to
control a pottery kiln. The cone (as in Cone 6 or Cone 10) reacts to heat
in the way the pottery does, so long slow heat or quicker fast rising heat
produce the desired results. With pottery, it is safe to run the temp up
and when the cone trips, the kiln can shut off and coast back down.
You are correct that it is not proper for glass. It is not literally
measuring temp, but heat gain. And letting the kiln crash may produce okay
results with thin glass, but with thicker glass, annealing will not occur
and the glass may shatter in the kiln or later.

--
Mike Firth
Hot Glass Bits Furnace Working Website
http://users.ticnet.com/mikefirth/hotbit45.htm Latest notes
http://users.ticnet.com/mikefirth/NTBowl.htm Once again, Empty Bowls
will collect for the North Texas food banks - donate.
"Lauri Levanto" wrote in message
...
Kiln sitters are not used here (Finland). As I understand it,
a kiln sitter is an emergency switch that prevents the kiln from
melting down. As such it is useful. You can set it to
trigger somewhere around 900 - 1000 C (1700-1850 F).

It may be used also to set a top temperature, where the kiln turns off.
I doubt it is accurate enough for glass work.

As long as you work under 6mm (½") thickness, the natural cooling
of a ceramic kiln works well. When your ambition goes
to 1-2" thikness you need a three men crew to monitor
the annealing days and nights.

-lauri

Michele Blank wrote:

you need to wedge the sitter open, (not use it), get a pyrometer and a
plug
with a hole the size of the pyrometer to be able to have it in the kiln.
This may run a hundred bucks or so. After you get completely addicted
you
will need a controller to plug the kiln into which will go 300 $$ or
so.This
will eliminate the need for human tampering with on/off switches. m

"Gordon Watt" wrote in message
...
I've done a little bit of kilnwork before, but have never managed to
get
access to a kiln regularly. A friend has offered me a loan of her
ceramics
kiln (she mainly fires tiles) fitted with a kiln sitter.

I appreciate that this isn't the ideal method of learning, but at
present
the possibility of regular kiln access is tempting. Is anyone using a
kiln
sitter set up to fuse/slump/cast glass? I'm happy to experiment, and
can
be
in attendance while I fire, but a few initial pointers would be great?
I'll
gladly post my results/progress for anyone in a similar position...

Gordon Watt
morningglass