ThePottery on fri 8 may 98
Hank.....Yes I have done alot of kilns over the last 30 years...But I have not
yet built an entire kiln of fiber. I really like to lay brick and build
arches... but I have built a number of fiber rolling doors......what I have
found is that their is a tremendous savings in fuel with 9" of fiber over the
use of Ins fire brick and hard brick...the down side to fiber is that it
srinks over time and will tend to deteriate unless it is coated with a
rigidizer.....some people have complained about fiber in the air during
construction and fireing....then their is the cooling cycle of fiber...since
fiber is a hotface reflective material it does not hold any heat. therefore
the cooling cycle is quite drastic and if there is not alot of mass (such as
kiln furnituer and wares) you will see a big difference in the quality of the
glazes......now you could fire down to gain the a similar cycle but I like to
put hard brick in the floor and in the walls to just above the burner ports
with ins fire bricks (usually 9" of 2600) for the rest of the wall and arch.
Lately (for the past 6 years I have also used IFB's in the chimney starting
just above the damper with no deteration or lack of draft) also if you build
a kiln without mortar you can usually salvage all of the materials (unless you
salt the kiln).....Fiber kilns salvage is nill since the materials become
brittle with use.......
Hum...After reading over this it looks like I may be a little down on fiber
but I am not...It just needs to be used in the proper locations and you need
to know the good and bad side of it's use...and like I said I like to lay
bricks and build arches..
Good Luck
Tracy
Penland NC
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