The ITMy lower ring heater had a busted edge as well as busted macor element connector. These pieces had broken during an adjustment earlier, but I suspect it was because the glass former is oversized compared to the macor element. The glass former and nichrome measured out at 0.281" while nominally the macor element that it seats in is 0.256". Trying to fit the pieces together caused the macor to start chipping and was going to obviously require a lot of force. It seemed like it would just cause the same problem all over again.