Jonathan Kaplan on thu 12 oct 00
Hello:
Just saw your site with your beautiful new kiln. Looks great! Best of luck.
You did a very clean job. Very impressive burners.
A suggestion if I may be so bold......
You car looks great and will hold alot of shelves and alot of ware, which
means alot of weight resting on the IFB floor of the car. A problem I
encountered with my car was that the IFB just didn't want to support that
heavy load, and move in and out. Over time, the car deck failed.
We rebuilt it and as we installed new IFB we included hardbrick to act as
piers for the shelves. The hardbrick went entirely down to the steel base
of the car and essentially transferred the weight of the shelves,
furniture, and ware, direclty to the steel, then to the wheels, and finally
to the rails and floor. A much better and more stable arrangement. The car
deck has not failed and is in pristine condidtion.
Best
Jonathan
Jonathan Kaplan
Ceramic Design GroupLTD/Production Services
PO Box 775112
Steamboat Springs, CO 80477
(970) 879-9139 voice and fax
http://www.sni.net/ceramicdesign
UPS: 1280 13th St. Unit13
Steamboat Springs, CO 80487
Custom Services on thu 12 oct 00
If any of you potters suffer from the dread "kiln-builder's disease", watch
out! Hearing about someone's new kiln is contagious.
Update: we have almost finished the kiln. We hope to fire tomorrow or the
next day. Here are some statistics.
118 cu ft. total space. IFB brick. Car on tracks. 4 power burners up to
500,000 BTUs each. Fires low-pressure LP gas. 9" thick. Flat top. Dry
stacked. Oxyprobe.
Kiln construction, new shelves, posts, shed, slab, oxyprobe, gas and
electrical hook-ups--just under $13,000.00.
Go to this address to see some more pictures. I will post the pictures of
the finished project soon.
http://www.cedarcreeksoftware.com/kilnbuilding.html
If anyone wants to send copper red formulas, we are getting itchy for some
reds. Our wood kiln was hard to control for reds, so we gave up. Can anyone
share insights about the glaze running onto the shelves with red glazes?
Does controlled firing help to prevent red glazes running? Someone once
told me that red glazes are just runny by nature. Is this true?
Note to David Hendley: We went ahead and built one-couldn't stand to just
buy one "out of the box"
Thanks to all those who helped.
Pat Chesney
The Potter's House
Waco, TX
***********************************************************************************
Custom Services
Computer Consultants, Graphic Arts & Web Page Design
Specializing in Digital Photography and Product Shots
Part of the team at http://www.cedarcreeksoftware.com
Phone: 254-829-0251
Fax numbers: (650) 373-3018, (888) 310-4595
***********************************************************************************
Milton Markey on fri 13 oct 00
Hi Pat!
Congratulations on the inaugural firing!
I enjoyed the photos on your website. There are two men pictured in two of
the photos, wearing spotless white shirts. I'm envious of these guys--I
invariably smear something on myself, when I wear white!
Nonetheless, I'm appreciative of the kiln building process, and may emulate
your process, when I build a gas kiln out here in the Mojave Desert. I'll not
be wearing white, though! Heck, I may not be wearing anything, in the summer
heat!
Milton NakedClay@AOL.COM
No longer shirtless, in the calm, cooled-off desert.
David Hendley on sat 14 oct 00
Thanks for putting up the kiln building photos, Pat.
The kiln we built last July in Calvert looks to be
about the same size, and also cost $13,000, using
all new materials.
You could not get nearly this much kiln for this price
buying a commercially built kiln.
I know you will all love loading the car instead of
stressing your back stacking kiln shelves.
As for copper red glazes, there is no reason to use a runny
glaze that gets on your kiln shelves just to achieve a
good copper red color.
A good red glaze does have to 'move' a little bit, but
not run off the pot.
The recipe/formula that you use for copper red is not nearly
as important as the way you fire. I can achieve pretty
consistent copper reds in my wood-fired kiln. With your
oxiprobe, you should be able to figure it out over the
course of several firings and get reliable reds.
Many copper red glazes are below the limit formulas in
alumina and/or silica. This is OK for a decorative
surface, but for plates and bowls, I would rather have a
durable glaze that has plenty of alumina and silica.
The well-liked 'Vegas Red' is in this category.
Some other reds have a very high expansion and are
likely to craze on most claybodies. (On the dark red
glaze surface, crazing can sometimes be hard to detect
without a magnifier.) This is because sodium and
potassium give nice red colors but also have high
expansion values. 'Pete's Red' is in this category.
(Both these glazes were published in Clay Times in
recent years.)
I, of course, am partial to my 'Simply Red', from
Ceramics Monthly, Oct. '99. It is a low-expansion,
no-barium, no-zinc glaze with enough alumina and silica
to put it at the low end of the limit formulas. Never runs.
It does rely on Gerstley Borate, but it could be
re-calculated to use a boron frit rather than G.B. The
boron helps reduce the expansion of the glaze as well
as add flux.
Good luck with your first firing.
--
David Hendley
Maydelle, Texas
hendley@tyler.net
http://www.farmpots.com/
----- Original Message -----
From: Custom Services
To:
Sent: Thursday, October 12, 2000 6:29 PM
Subject: update on kiln building and red glaze questions
| If any of you potters suffer from the dread "kiln-builder's disease",
watch
| out! Hearing about someone's new kiln is contagious.
|
| Update: we have almost finished the kiln. We hope to fire tomorrow or the
| next day. Here are some statistics.
| 118 cu ft. total space. IFB brick. Car on tracks. 4 power burners up to
| 500,000 BTUs each. Fires low-pressure LP gas. 9" thick. Flat top. Dry
| stacked. Oxyprobe.
|
| Kiln construction, new shelves, posts, shed, slab, oxyprobe, gas and
| electrical hook-ups--just under $13,000.00.
|
| Go to this address to see some more pictures. I will post the pictures of
| the finished project soon.
| http://www.cedarcreeksoftware.com/kilnbuilding.html
|
| If anyone wants to send copper red formulas, we are getting itchy for some
| reds. Our wood kiln was hard to control for reds, so we gave up. Can
anyone
| share insights about the glaze running onto the shelves with red glazes?
| Does controlled firing help to prevent red glazes running? Someone once
| told me that red glazes are just runny by nature. Is this true?
|
| Note to David Hendley: We went ahead and built one-couldn't stand to just
| buy one "out of the box"
|
| Thanks to all those who helped.
| Pat Chesney
| The Potter's House
| Waco, TX
|
| |
|
