What I been messin' about with

DanG · November 17, 2006, 10:55:28 PM

Well, it took me a while, but I finally got back over there to see the pottery, and to help build this humble woodshed in front of the kiln. The posts were already set, so it took the 2 of us about 4 hours to throw the rest of it together.

While there, I took a shot of the inside of the kiln chamber. This is a downdraft kiln, so the heat flows from the firebox, through a plenum, and over the wall on the left in the pic. Then it flows down through the holes in the floor, and out to the flues to the right.

DanG · November 17, 2006, 11:05:56 PM

Oh yeah, there were a few pieces of pottery laying around, too. We found a stump in a sunny spot to display a few of'em.

This came to be known as "The Coconut Vase". It is about 2 ft tall. The artist wasn't overly pleased with the outcome, but everybody else is raving about it. :

Some more examples, along with some greenware being readied for the next firing, sometime before Christmas.

isawlogs · November 17, 2006, 11:52:27 PM

Nice shed there Dan , he sure is off to a good start with the firing , I wish him all the luck with the futur firings of the kiln . 8) 8)

rebocardo · November 18, 2006, 03:43:37 PM

> how hot can you get wood to burn?

About 2000 degrees if you can get the O2 into the fire.

Lud · November 23, 2006, 07:24:17 AM

Hey Dan, haven't forgotten about the long talk we're gonna have when time permits.

It happens I built a kiln thirty years ago. I'd gotten to salvage firebrick from the foundry and could fire with gas here at the farm. I had built a hinged steel pipe frame door (filled with the insulative brick) that I'd winch up and down. That was quicker than a manual brick- in . Fired some big stuff. 4 x 4 x 6 inside chamber and 4 burners on the corners.

One thing I did that helped my salt glazes to tell your bud. I taped a couple foot long piece of steel pipe to a old hair dryer that had a hose and a seperate base. Suppose you could use the back end of a vacuum......anyway , I'd brazed a little funnel to the pipe and pour the salt into the airsteam and project it into the kiln as a dispersed particulate stream. Seemed to help spread it around.

Of course your glazing the inside of your kiln using salt like that . That gives you the excuse to build a second one! 8)

DanG · March 12, 2007, 12:04:54 AM

We finally did it again! 8) Things worked out a lot better this time, after we had time to analyze some of the mistakes we made the first time. The #1 big difference was the wood. The shed let it dry out good, plus we used smaller chunks and cleaned them well...no bark or mud on them. John made some modifications to the kiln, as well.

Here are the test cones from the two firings. The ones on the left are from the first time, back in November. The smallest cone is supposed to melt at 2100 degrees, and the largest at 2350. The November firing took 13 hours, and we barely got the small cone to wilt a little. This time took 7 hours and look what happened to the cones!

This is what happens when you get things a little too hot. This was originally a little bowl.

Here's some stuff that fared a little better.

And some more, still in the ware chamber-