Don Hoskisson on tue 8 jan 02
Jonathan Pennington in part said way back in December:
>So, I'd like to ask outright. What wall thickness would be optimal for a
>5-10 Cu. ft. kiln that goes to cone 10? Ours is 2.4in, but considering
>the inset for the elements, it's actually a lot thinner- especially
>since the elements themselves are *in* that inset, and therefore the
>hottest part of the kiln is closest to the outside where the
>heat radiates warming, as it were, my *studio* walls, not my pots.
>
>If the kiln gurus here were going to build a kiln this size, what's the
>*minimal* thickness they would have the walls? The thinnest I've seen
>so far is Western Oregon University's Oregon Flat Top, with a single
>layer of IFB for a three inch wall thickness (gas fired, so no inset
>to thin the walls further)- but it should be noted that Nils Lou in
>his book states that this is possible because ITC is used to improve
>effeciency dramatically.
Correction and explanation:
I have been away from computers
and posts since Dec. 11. Catch-up time.
"The Oregon Flat Top kiln"
There have been many kilns
with thin walls. Ours is only one of
the many. It is a 4 1/2 wall thickness
(one brick thick). Many years ago I
built a one-brick wall thickness 24
cu. ft. kiln. Our first firing in it we
hit cone 10 in 3 1/2 hours. This was
way before ITC was on the potters
market---no ITC used. We slowed
the kiln down to an 8 hr. cone 10 cycle
from then on. ITC is helpful to
the efficiency of the kiln. That 3 1/2
hour firing was not intentional. The
fastest the Oregon Flat Top has fired
is 5 hours.
Don Hoskisson
Western Oregon University
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