Wayne Matthews on tue 22 may 01
Greeting.
Anyone out there build a high fired rammed earth kiln?
I built an 80 cu ft Catenary arch about 20 years ago.
I worked well for the three years in use. It fired a
bit more uneven than a comparable brick kiln. The
biggest hassle was breaking it apart when we moved the
studio!
I'm interested in your experience with:
-Formula used
-Material used to separate refractory from form
-Kiln Type (Sprung Arch? Catenary?,
Updraft/Downdraft,etc.)
-Kiln Size
-Estimated total cost
-Drying-Curing Time before first fire
-How long since building
-Deterioration noticed
-What you'd do different next time
-Type of fuel
-What cone you fire to
-Anything else relevant that I've forgotten
Thanks.
=====
Wayne Matthews
Innvironments, Potter and Sculptor
Ojai, California
Prostate Cancer Initiate
innvironments@yahoo.com
wayne@innfusion.com
www.innfusion.com
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Jim Bozeman on tue 22 may 01
Hi Wayne, A good book which will answer some of your questions is "A
Potter's Guide to Raw Glazing and Oil Firing" by Dennis Parks. Published by
Charles Scribner's Sons/ New York. In Chapter 6 the sub-title is "How to
build a kiln dirt cheap". It shows how to construct a kiln using adobe
bricks that are made via a Cinva-Ram Block Press. Dennis lives in Tuscarora,
Nevada. I was fortunate enough to spend a Summer at his pottery school back
in 1986. Dennis is a real "can-do" kind of person and utilizes materials on
hand. He was/is a real mentor for me. We 'once-fired' the pottery with waste
oil, obtained for free from a garage. I remember he had a sign over the
kitchen table that read, "Hitler was a vegetarian". He would sometimes put
stereo speakers outside of his studio and at 3 in the morning he would play
John Philip Sousa's Marches at full volume. His way of rousing us out of bed
to make more pots! He's a trip. His book is very informative ( and hints at
a healthy dose of contempt for academia too!) Best, Jim Bozeman
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mudlark on wed 23 may 01
Built 3, 1st one I used porland cement. Not good. Fluxes with everything else.
Jack Troy's book.Not good. Next, use an Aluminum Cement, Lasted forever. Well not
forever. Paul Rodgers "tore it down",,,, "cause it was in his way". I did line it
with fiber. Would have lasted for years more.
Like to answer all your questions but... I'll do what I can.
Formula:
Fire clay 50+
Aluminum Cement 15 (Alumini Cement)
grog 25+
sawdust Fine , (off a table saw) 1/4 by volume
Lowell Baker probably has this dialed in.
The form was 12" high, every other block, pulled out the seperations and filled in
the rest. Went on to the next layer. Alternated the blocks. Moved the forms up.
Like the "Living the Good Life" way of building rock walls.
Down Draft, 35 - 65 ft. ,Straight walls-Flat fiber roof, catenary cone 10,
salt, cone 10, salt bisque ------propane, wood
you should make tests to determine the cost. I would like to do your home work but
the clay you choose and your sources will make a difference. And ........ it was
a while ago.
Wayne, I didn't include any "earth" in this. The labor and commitment in a kiln
seemed to be tooo, toooo, much to risk using the hillside for the materials.
Wayne Matthews wrote:
> Greeting.
> Anyone out there build a high fired rammed earth kiln?
> I built an 80 cu ft Catenary arch about 20 years ago.
> I worked well for the three years in use. It fired a
> bit more uneven than a comparable brick kiln. The
> biggest hassle was breaking it apart when we moved the
> studio!
>
> I'm interested in your experience with:
>
> -Formula used
> -Material used to separate refractory from form
> -Kiln Type (Sprung Arch? Catenary?,
> Updraft/Downdraft,etc.)
> -Kiln Size
> -Estimated total cost
> -Drying-Curing Time before first fire
> -How long since building
> -Deterioration noticed
> -What you'd do different next time
> -Type of fuel
> -What cone you fire to
> -Anything else relevant that I've forgotten
>
> Thanks.
>
> =====
> Wayne Matthews
> Innvironments, Potter and Sculptor
> Ojai, California
> Prostate Cancer Initiate
> innvironments@yahoo.com
> wayne@innfusion.com
> www.innfusion.com
>
> __________________________________________________
> Do You Yahoo!?
> Yahoo! Auctions - buy the things you want at great prices
> http://auctions.yahoo.com/
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--
Clyde Tullis
Mudlark Pottery
320 G Street
Salida, CO 81201
719-539-1299
mudlark@chaffee.net
http://www.mudlarkpottery.com
Bret Hinsch on wed 23 may 01
Hi Wayne,
In ancient China rammed earth (also known as "pise" in English- there should
be a little mark over the "e" in "pise" - and called "hangtu" in Chinese)
was very common. It dates all the way back to the late Neolithic era and
was widely used for almost 2000 years.
The technique was very simple. They would build wooden frameworks (like the
kind construction workers nowadays fill with cement) then fill the frames
with local dirt - any dirt should do fine. Then they rammed the dirt
repeatedly with a large wood or stone pestle until it was completely
compacted. If you hit dirt hard enough, it turns as hard as a rock. Once
the wooden frame had been filled to the brim with compacted dirt, they would
disassemble it and then reassemble it on top or on the side, then keep
pounding away until the structure was as large as they wanted.
Ancient Chinese built enormous structures this way - even city walls and
palace foundations. Thousands of years later, many of these rammed earth
sites are still in place - they're incredibly tough - almost like stone.
This should probably be about the cheapest way to build anything in terms of
materials. The problem is labor. But if you do the work yourself and
incredibly patient, it should be a very cheap way to build a kiln.
This technique obviously can't be used to make a roof. You would have to use
another material for the roof or arch.
Be sure to let us all know what you eventually come up with. Good luck!
Bret in Taipei
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LOGAN OPLINGER on thu 24 may 01
Just a thought here. What if a mold were made of reinforced concrete. The mold would be the the form for individual blocks of rammed earth. If the rammed earth blocks are wedge shaped, they could be assembled into an arch. Some extremely sturdy buttressing would be necessary to support the sideways thrust of such an arch if it were used to form the top of a kiln.
Maybe four or five mold shapes could be used to form the blocks from which a self supporting catenary arch could be built.
A liner of some kind (paper, plastic sheeting) would be needed to allow the blocks to be easily released from the molds.
Logan Oplinger
-----Original Message-----From: Bret Hinsch
.....
> The technique was very simple. They would build wooden frameworks (like the
> kind construction workers nowadays fill with cement) then fill the frames
> with local dirt - any dirt should do fine. Then they rammed the dirt
> repeatedly with a large wood or stone pestle until it was completely
> compacted. If you hit dirt hard enough, it turns as hard as a rock. Once
> the wooden frame had been filled to the brim with compacted dirt, they would
> disassemble it and then reassemble it on top or on the side, then keep
> pounding away until the structure was as large as they wanted.
.....
> This technique obviously can't be used to make a roof. You would have to use
> another material for the roof or arch.
--
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Jeremy McLeod on thu 24 may 01
This rammed earth thread caught my curiosity and the following URL
is the result. It's not about kilns, per se, but seems like more than a
good start in finding out about rammed earth and adobe.
Ain't mud grand?
Jeremy McLeod
http://www.northcoast.com/~tms/adobe.html
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