The Kiln

One of the nice things about January after the Christmas rush  is that I have time for special projects. Along with starting new things like the blog, I can also take care of old things like the kiln. We have what is called a forced air, reduction fire, shuttle kiln.

"Forced air" refers to the gas burners that have fans for increased airflow. "Reduction fire" refers to a firing process that creates an atmosphere that makes a clear glaze on a tan pot, a gray glaze on a brown pot. Our "shuttle kiln" stands seven feet tall with equally sized six foot walls. The roof is flat not arched. This is because the walls and roof are made with a light weight high temperature fiber that is attached to a heavy duty steel mesh frame. The front side of the kiln has the burners and chimney. The rear wall is welded to a steel cart that supports the kiln's heavy brick floor. This L-shaped shuttle is on wheels so with just removing two clamps, the door and floor rolls away with all the shelves and pots.

This design makes loading and unloading much easier. I built this third generation kiln twenty years ago. It requires very little maintenance mainly because I used a fiber with a very high temperature limit. If I had used a lower limit fiber the liner would have needed to be replaced years ago. This is because temperature limits change with repeat firings. If I refire a finished pot to the same temperature the pot will look overfired. In the same way the ceramic walls will eventually lose its fireability and become brittle and begin to flake.

A kiln of this design has very even temperature and atmospheric circulation and is easily disassembled which came in handy when we moved to our expanded facility a few years ago.

Walt