A bit of an update without getting into the ongoing BS saga re Paragon.
Unfortunately the shorter collar did not work. Not to 540C at least, anyway. I was not prepared to test further given the poor results at that temperature plus the two tests before that at 500 and 520 respectively.
In a nutshell, anything BELOW the element collar is not going to work except at ridiculously high temperatures, and even then the heat distribution at that distance is not likely to be uniform. Which is fine if the door is not going to be opened during the soak, but even then if certain glasses are used during the garage phase, it still might be problematic.
This is just my opinion, but I don't find that option at all feasible.
Those of you who have this setup and are satisfied the heat reaching your bead annealing area is sufficient, that's all well and good.
For those of you who aren't, there is a very easy solution if your lid is not attached to a hinge and safety switch. Simply put the annealing collar on top of the element collar, and something stable and appropriate for kiln conditions to prop a shelf to the level of the top of the element collar, thus creating a floor on which to put the mandrels through the bead door. And then test for yourself.
Unfortunately my lid is attached to the hinge and switch and would count as a modification worthy of voiding my warranty if I decided to detach it, so I'm not willing to go down that road. But we're still working on whether an additional lid on top of the bead collar will work. I'm extremely confident that it will.
Those with the plain, hingeless plonk-on lid could test this very easily for themselves
