What I been messin' about with

[DanG]

My buddy, John, is a potter, as well as a mason and General Contractor.  He is realizing one of his dreams, building and operating a really fine large, wood-fired pottery kiln.  Here are some shots of the Maiden Voyage:

This is John loading in a log, early on in the firing stage.  We had burned a "candling fire" for about 24 hours to dry things out before the firing.



Here's a view inside the ash pit.  We burned a fire in here too, to help things along.  This was not a cheap venture, as there are almost 2700 fire bricks in the structure.  John did a splendid job of brick-laying, especially on the arched firebox.



We're beginning to get a little glow in the ware chamber, but it is still cool, yet...probably only 1000 degrees or so. :



We had a nice crowd of celebrants for this auspicious occasion, ranging in age from 80+ year old Don Weed, in the white hat, to the "babe in arms", Cyrus Gernatt, 4 months.



More pics to come. ;D

[Paul_H]

John is a talented man and he seems to be blessed with a large group of family and friends too.Is the kiln wood fired only or is there electric fans ?

[DanG]

No electric.  It is all heated by convection.

Things are heating up in the late afternoon.



Here's what we were looking for!  The "afterburners" kicked in about midnight, with 4 foot flames shooting out of 2 of the 3 chimney stacks! 8) 8) 8)




These are the test cones, each calibrated to melt at a certain temperature.  The smallest one droops at 2100 degrees!   You can see the yellow glow of the wares behind them, at this point, but we didn't have it hot enough yet.  The redness in the fire bricks was not a reflection...they were actually glowing like that!




This pic has no real significance, except that I like it. ;)




All in all, this was a particularly great weekend.   I got to participate, to a small degree, in the construction of this monster, and was then able to join in the festivities of its first firing.  I also provided the slab wood that gave us the heat.  I wuz wonderin' what I was gonna do with all of that!  I started out helping because John is giving me a hand with my house, but I just sorta got caught up in the thing.  It is a fascinating process! 8) 8)

[CHARLIE]

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm....I think I'd have been roasting a hot dog or two and toasting some marshmallows. Yep, I'd have cut me some palmetto sticks and just held them somewhere near the front of that kiln. Probably wouldn't have to get too close either. 8)  DanG near a shameful waste to have a nice hot fire and not roast hot dogs. ;D

[asy]

Where are the MARSHMALLOWS???

Seriously, gosh, I'd LOVE a kiln, then I'd learn to throw clay!

Please show us some of his finished wares, some of the bowls in the background of the photos are lovely.

thanks for sharing it all DanG!

asy :D

[rebocardo]

Wow, great pictures, thank you for sharing. Totally cool doing your own clay work.

[Corley5]

That's pretty DanG  8) 8) 8)

[Kevin_H.]

I am picturing in my mind, getting within about 6" of that thang with a marsmallow, and watching the offering instantly burst into flames... :D

Hope ya like them well done  8)

[DanG]

Ya got dat right, Kevin!  We gonna have some face shields handy next time, too!   And another thing, we ain't gonna stack the wood quite as close in the future.  We used about a cord and a half of slab wood, and had it stacked about 8 feet in front of the firebox.  Dat was too close.  There wasn't room to be comfortable between the two.  We've actually discussed the possibility of putting an anvil out there and doing a bit of smithing while we're at it. ;D

[maplewoman]

Great kiln, he will be able to make some magic stuff in there! have you got the design for that one?

[Jeff]

DanG, are you guys makin donuts in the front of that thing?

[Dan_Shade]

I'd use it to fry chicken wings

[DanG]

Welcome to the Forum, Maplewoman.  We're glad to have you here.  John patterned that kiln after one he had used many years ago in college.  It is only based on that one though, because all he had was his memory, and a number of years of experience, so it is really one of a kind.  Pretty DanG talented guy, that John! 8) 8)

Jeff, we put some donuts in there, but something ate everything but the holes!  Actually, I meant to explain those little rings in the first post.  They were test rings placed there so that he could fish one out every now and then to see how the glaze was coming.

For this firing, he was using a soda glazing process, where he introduces Sodium Carbonate into the chamber at certain points, like when it gets over 2100 degrees in the ware chamber.  He uses a long piece of angle iron to put the soda in with.  The burning soda gives the glaze a peculiar texture.  We'll see if it worked tomorrow, as it should be cooled down enough to open by then.

[Mooseherder]

Wow, That DanG Thing could heat how many New York City Blocks. ;D

[Paul_H]

It reminds me of of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego

[Roxie]

Me too Paul! 

Great pictures DanG!  What an interesting hobby...I would really like to see the pottery when it comes out.   8)

[fstedy]

Dang great job gives ya a nice feelin of satisfaction when you're done with one like that!!!

[asy]

Don't forget to take lots of photos of the stuff comin' out of there, we're waiting!!!

asy :D

[woodbowl]

DanG, how far does John live from you? I've just got to see that thing. Does he have any plans to capture the exhaust for home heating? A few burns like that and he could have all the heat he needed for the whole winter, if it could be stored.

[DanG]

Well you can see it anytime you're over this way, Olen.  It's only 5 or 8 miles from me.  John would be pleased for you to come over and admire his work.

Nix on the home heating thing.  The kiln is picky picky about air flow, and the tiniest little change will have a dramatic effect.  For instance, early in the firing stage, we were getting discharge from chimney 1 and 2, but nothing from the third one.  John closed the #1 damper, but the firebox started belching fire, so he opened it again.  When he did, chimney #3 equalized with #1, and stayed that way all night.  #2 ceased to produce any major discharge.  I was watching the firebox, and saw the airflow change in there.  I think we changed a simple convection into a vortex with that simple move.  Things started to change after that.  The temp went up, and wood consumption went up, as well.  We started getting the flame from the stacks, shortly after that.  I was told that the flame from the stacks turned blue for a little while, after I left!   I'll have to see that one for myself! ;D  After all that, the thing didn't get as hot as he wanted it.  I don't think he'll be trying to syphon off any heat from it.

[Burlkraft]

You Floridians need heat   ???  ???  ???  ???

It must be the vortex.... :D  :D  :D

[Dan_Shade]

how hot can you get wood to burn?

[Stephen1]

that is something, how hot do you have to have it to fire the clay?

[DanG]

Lest anybody should misunderstand, I ain't no expert on pottery.  In fact, this has been my first exposure to the process.  My involvement consisted of some manual labor on the kiln, along with a little cutting and welding on the outer frame.  I also provided the wood from my slab pile, and gave freely of my limited store of wisdom during the firing. :

Now, that being said, I did pick up a few tidbits of knowledge about the process.  As I understand it, the clay is thoroughly fired at the temps we achieved, but the glaze could have used a bit more.  I have not yet seen the results, but I've been told that it came out allright, but could have been better.  It will probably look pretty DanG good to me.

Keep in mind that this is a brand new kiln of an unproven design, and will require a period of learning, before it reaches its potential.  Several lessons were learned, and the appropriate adjustments will be made next time, hopefully.  John thinks he can get it up to 3000 degrees.  We'll see. ;D :D

[Paul_H]

and gave freely of my limited store of wisdom during the firing. :

That's almost got me fired a couple of times too :D

[DanG]

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]

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]

 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]

> how hot can you get wood to burn?

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

[Lud]

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]

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-

[Don K]

I'd say it got rather toasty in there.        Don

[Riles]

I like how the guitar came out in the third picture  :D

[Weekend_Sawyer]

Yea, I'd say the camera came out pretty good too!

Thanks for the thread DanG, it's pretty darn interesting