Weekend weather/splicing elements

I thought I'd start off talking business (even though this weekend has been mostly about fun)!

I spent Friday putting in my new elements. While I was pinning everything in, I decided to add a few extras pins to my bottom row that was coming out of the grove. Well..you guessed it, this is what happened to my bottom element. Split inhalf!I'm sure the neighbors heard many #*&$@*#&@ coming from my shed. I do have a show next week and planned firing everything this weekend. SOOOOO...I got on the phone and located the nearest skutt distributor with elements. I found a place in Charleston SC, which is only about 3 hours from us. The owner told me he could FedEx the bottom element out to me that day and I should have it by Saturday.

Now I hope you all are thinking that we are here in the South with a snow/ice build up. And yes, driving did occur to myself and the nice gentlemen in Charleston SC who was sending the part. So, he suggested I splice my broken element together in the mean time. SPLICE?!?!?! Why I haven't heard of this trick before but I was game for trying it. He explained what I needed to to, which yesterday I did achieve. I haven't yet fired the kiln. Today I plan on turning it on to see if the element does fuse together. I also researched this on the wed. Below you will find a good description of the proper way to do this. I did not have the porcelain conductor since we couldn't venture out in the ice yesterday. I can only hope for the best! As for the bottom element. Naturally it did not get here yesterday and FEDEX does not deliver ground on Monday so it looks like I'll be cutting things close again if this splicing does not do the trick for more than my bisque load.

http://www.handspiral.com/ElementRepair.htm

Onto the fun of the weekend. Our kids have been outside no stop for the last two days. Of course we have the only kids on the block who have sleds and snow attire! We got about 3" or so of snow and since the weather is pretty cold, it hasn't melted like normally. The snow also came down with a little mix of ice so boy those sleds are really fast!!

Of course, Mom was the cramp on the sled yesterday...Paws however did not care for the snow at all.....southern sissy cat!