Susan's New Kiln

Friday, September 11, 2009

I've typed my first blog, and rereading, I find it quite technical. Ok, it is my kiln-building diary. Will try to lighten things up next blog.

I've wanted a wood-fired kiln for a long time. My gas-fired kiln is 25 years old, and the floor was starting to fall out. After much thought, I decided to tear down my (then) existing gas kiln and rebuild on the same spot. There should be no reason the entire project could not be completed during the summer. Well, there is now 10 days left in summer, and the new kiln is not quite half done. Actually less than half done. Of course, I can't give up now - so I stumble forward.

I would never have attempted this project without the complete support of my kiln guru and master kiln-builder: Howard Kiefer. I told him from the start: I want your brain, not your body.
And he's been very generous teaching a beginner to be a bricklayer & kiln designer.
I'm quite confident the kiln will fire well - but then Howard gets alot of the credit.

I've been taking digital pictures of this project as I go along. Often to email Howard of my progress, and ask his advise about a particular problem.
Since I'm just now starting the blog I've been contemplating for awhile, I will slip in the beginning parts of kiln building as I go along.

I've learned so many tidbits of kilns, bricks, kiln design, and much more. Will share as I think of things. I've been accumulating materials - hard bricks - for a number of years. The date of my first bucket of mortar was 1997 - so it's taken awhile for the right time to come about.
Last fall, a fellow potter mentioned he had a number of hard bricks that he was willing to part with. My first trip was to check out the bricks and bring 40 or so home in my Honda. At over 8.5# per hard brick, that was more than 300 pounds. I called around and priced new bricks; delivery alone was not going to be inexpensive. It took over 6 months to coordinate a vehicle to move bricks and everyone's schedule. I should have taken this as a warning that things take much longer than anticipated. Even when we planned the brick moving day, it got postponed at the last minute.

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First Pic: Old Kiln with door & chimney bricks taken down

Second Pic: First row of bricks of the foundation - This is hard bricks with soft bricks at each end - the soft bricks are insulation. Three rows of foundation bricks were used. Bottom is hard bricks, middle is soft bricks, upper row is hard brick floor of the kiln.
I had concrete under my old kiln, but needed more square footage. Had to raise the level of the old kiln foundation with cinder blocks to raise it up. Layed hardibacker over the cinder blocks to level, and another sheet of hardibacker to insulate the concrete from the firebricks.

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I opened a new bucket of mortar today. It was so thick, I phoned the manufacturer to find if I could add water to desired consistency without ruining it. Was told to put some of the mortar in another bucket (used about half a 50# bucket of mortar) (I'll ruin another good bucket), add water then mix. Used about half my mixed mortar to level the soft bricks around the inner hard bricks. Then mortared the 11th row of bricks - ran out of mortar 2 bricks short. Will do them next time - possibly tomorrow.