Vince Pitelka on thu 12 jun 08
Duff Bogen wrote:
"I accept your comments about hot spots but I have a weakness for
catenaries. How can something that's a cousin to Gaudi's Barcelona
cathedral design be bad...?"
Duff -
There's a big difference between a space for worship and a space for firing
pots, but the catenary arch is certainly an inherently stable system for
spanning an open space without any externally framework or buttressing. Hank
has pretty high standards in kilns, and his doorless fiber kiln is one of
the finest studio kilns ever designed. But the catenary arch is a
beautiful, simple design, and when properly built, can fire very evenly and
efficiently. There's no hot spot at the top of the bag wall if you design
the bag wall properly. When you hang the chain to determine the catenary
arch, there is a lot of variability. Make sure that it is not too tall and
narrow. A downdraft kiln should never be taller than it is wide. Use a
checkered bagwall with solid bricks in front of the burner ports to deflect
the flame from the wares.
I remember all the fine ware that came out of catenary arch kilns in
Humboldt County, California back in the early 1970s, when potters could get
all the free used hardbrick they wanted from the sawmills. I helped build
and fire catenary-arch kilns for salt and reduction firing out at Gorilla
Gulch in McKinleyville, CA, and that was the first place I fired a kiln all
by myself away from the university setting. What a great experience that
was.
- Vince
Vince Pitelka
Appalachian Center for Craft
Tennessee Tech University
vpitelka@dtccom.net; wpitelka@tntech.edu
http://iweb.tntech.edu/wpitelka
Lee Love on fri 13 jun 08
On Thu, Jun 12, 2008 at 11:58 PM, Vince Pitelka wrote:
> Duff Bogen wrote:
athedral design be bad...?"
>
> Duff -
> There's a big difference between a space for worship and a space for firing
> pots,
Not for us heathen fire worshipers. ;^)
"We don't run with scissors... But we play with fire!"
--
Lee Love in Minneapolis
http://mashikopots.blogspot.com/
http://claycraft.blogspot.com/
"We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is
rounded with a sleep." --PROSPERO Tempest Shakespeare
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