Bill Merrill on wed 5 jan 11
Rhode Island School of Design has several Blauugh kilns as they have so =3D
many students that are required to take a Ceramics class. Larry Bush =3D
was an artist in Residence here at Peninsula College mny years ago. =3D
Larry is or was the Headf of the Ceramics Department at RISD and he told =
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me the Blauugh kilns were very good. The Blaaugh kilns are an gas fired =
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automatic kiln. Larry is someone who could tell you if he would use =3D
those kilns again.
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We are finishing a new ceramic facility here at Peninsula College. In =3D
todays world of Commmunity Colleges , we will never be able to build our =
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own kilns again. Administrative politics etc. will never let that =3D
happen again. It is a sorry state when ceramics students will not be =3D
taught kiln construction of various types of kilns. For such a nice =3D
facility to be built and the administration and architects of the =3D
building have not provided the space for anything except commercial =3D
kilns.
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If people want to see a beautifully simple and exceptional kiln space , =
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if you get to see the kiln space at the Archie Bray Foundation in the =3D
Dave Shaner building in Helena, Montana you will see an exceptional kiln =
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room It is made to be able to construct kilns. A back wall has a wall =3D
designed to allow the flues through the wall to the outside. The =3D
architects were the Mosaic architects from Helena. Ben Tattinger is an =3D
architect there and he was very helpful to me. Her sent plans etc of =3D
the Shaner buildig to me. The architects here ignored many of the =3D
things I would have liked to have. The Shaner building is a beautiful =3D
12,000 square ceramics facility. =3D20
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I tried to order an A.D. Alpine Hf 40 cubic car kiln. The alpine =3D
Company was extrmely difficult to work with. They did not want an order =
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unless 50% of the ccost was paid upfront and would not enter into a =3D
contract concerning the kiln. I had used an Alpine kiln for over 30 =3D
years and wanted another one for the school. =3D20
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I called Bailey kilns and talked to Steve and told him what I was after. =
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This was on a Friday. He called back on Monday with a bid for the =3D
kiln. We ordered a car kiln with the 6 inch walls and also the =3D
automatic firing set up. The set up has controllers for the damper , =3D
oxygen probes etc for reduction. The kiln can be fired manually or =3D
automatically. If I want to home for a break I will be able to monitor =3D
the temperature from home. I hope it is as good as it sounds. The =3D
Archie Bray has a new Bailey 108 cubic foot car kiln. I saw it last =3D
summer and it is a monster kiln.
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Larry Kruzan on thu 6 jan 11
One of the biggest benefits of building your own kiln is the ability to
build exactly what you need. After you build it - and discover that you
really needed one just a little taller - guess what, YOU can pull the arch
off, add a few courses of brick, put the arch back on and fire the next day=
.
Been there done that. When I first built my first cart kiln I was certain
that I'd never outgrow the sweet 45cf (stacking space) honey - but I did.
Two years later my two apprentices and I were pulling it apart to build a
100cf. Then last year sales had dropped to the point that the big kiln was
only being fired every other month so we built a very nice 24cf beside the
big cart kiln - it's just the right size with the market being what it is
right now.
If I'd bought a commercial, automatic kiln first, I would have been forced
to fire it twice a week during the busy times, when I really prefer to fire
every other week. Plus the cost of the automatic kiln is so high that I jus=
t
might not have been able to buy other much needed equipment - the money pot
is only so big. I KNOW I would not have the little 24cf kiln AND the 100cf
cart kiln.
Now I'm building another 24cf kiln for my home studio - this one will have =
a
welded steel frame with a real swinging door. The other one I built proved
to be such a nice firing kiln, I decided to make another permanent one.
As far as being fuel efficient goes - this design is tops. No secrets about
it though, just use modern materials, sound construction, quality burners.
The one at the store fires to cone 10 on 30 gallons of propane. Can't image
that the Blauuw could fire with enough economy to ever pay for the
difference it would cost. I don't know how much the commercial one would
cost but I think I'll end up with around $2,500-$2,800 in this one, not
including the oxyprobe and pyrometers (I use two - four pickups). Not much
different than a mid size electric kiln - but a lot more fun.
BUT if the Bluuaw really could fire on 10% of what I'm using now - well
bring it on - but it had better fire on THREE gallons of propane. NOT gonna
happen!!!!! Ohh but I wish.
Larry Kruzan
Lost Creek Pottery
www.lostcreekpottery.com
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