David Hendley on wed 14 feb 01
Silicone carbide kiln shelves work fine as the floor for an
Olsen fastfire design kiln. The kiln shelf floor lasted longer
than the kiln on my first fastfire kiln.
It is a good design.
Building arches over the fireboxes may work, but the
resulting kiln is, in my opinion, no longer a 'fastfire'.
Part of the design of the kiln is that the floor radiates
a lot of heat into the kiln, to help warm up the bottom
and even up the firing.
Unlike most wood fired kilns, the fastfire is dead even,
top to bottom, front to back, side to side, and the floor
design is part of the reason.
And it really will fire to cone 10 in 5 hours.
My fire grates are made from 1" diameter sucker rod, which
is used to drill oil wells, and they last for about 50 firings.
The steel used in sucker rod is much more durable than
that used in re-bar or mild steel.
--
David Hendley
Maydelle, Texas
hendley@tyler.net
http://www.farmpots.com/
----- Original Message -----
| >I have a fast fire kiln i built... The second problem was the flat foor
is
| a poor design and it sagged >and caved in very quickly no matter what we
| tried using for the floor. Second rebuild involved >building arches over
| the fireboxes to keep the floor from falling in.
|
| Interesting. I wondered if the flat floors would hold up over extended
time.
| My Phoenix (fast-fire, cross-draft) has an arch over the single firebox
| under the kiln -lookin a bit rough but still there after 20 years.
|
| >Also ,the iron grates were shot in one firing.
|
| I also found light-weight iron grates to not hold up. Then hubby found 2"
| rebars and we put a row of supporting bricks( the long way) down the
center
| of the 24" wide firebox. It made a world of difference. The grates now
last
| maybe 15 plus firings. I don't think I could fire mine efficiently without
| grates.
|
| >Trying to start with a wood fire right off usually breaks a lot of pots
|
| Yea. Rather then nursing a little fire at the firebox mouth, I use our
| kerosene torpedo heater over-night before a firing. For a few dollars it
| prevents alot of stress.
| Sylvia
|
| Mark & Sylvia Mondloch
| Silver Creek Pottery & Forge
| W6725 Hwy 144
| Random Lake, WI 53075
|
| |
|
