Heidi Haugen on sun 2 jun 02
hello,
i currently am designing a new shop and looking for some input on pad
size for my kiln. i'll be building a 25-30cu ft minnesota flattop. my
shop is 24x16 ft and i need to figure out how far to extend the slab and
recommendations from folks if i should just pour a pad for the kiln or
extend the entire slab.
also, what size propane tank should i be considering. i'm assuming that
it is not possible to run both kiln and house appliances off the same
tank.
thanks for your time.
heidi haugen
Dave Gayman on mon 3 jun 02
I'd recommend a separate pad. When you total the weight of all your
materials, you may be surprised... my ~80-100 cu ft catenary arch was more
than 6 tons fully charged (the kiln itself was 50% [heavy] hard brick hot
face, plus it had a common brick exterior). Based on Ann Arbor building
codes, that required a slab 12 inches thick with 8" diameter piers
extending 40" (below the frost line) at each corner. I reinforced the slab
with "lightweight" mesh and put a pier under the chimney area, and the slab
never settled, never cracked.
Back then there was surprisingly little difference between the cost of a
non-reinforced slab versus a reinforced one.
The guy who bought our house hopefully wanted the "patio" in the back yard
(the kiln was years gone by the time we sold)...
That kiln was happiest with 2 large-ish tanks... don't remember the
capacity, but they were around 5' tall and at least 3' in diameter... in
tandem. There's a discussion of freezing tanks (with occasional pointers
to sizes) in the archives at http://www.potters.org/subject27909.htm. When
both tanks were 1/3 full or less, the tanks required a water bath to
continue generating enough propane for my 4 burners, especially when
ambient was below 0 Fahrenheit!
Your propane supplier should be able to work with you to get the size(s)
and types you need. Back in 1970s Ann Arbor, the propane dealer supplied
one tank free and ended up giving me the second after I had tank freezing
problems. Some failed business customer of theirs had abandoned its
business-owned tank and it was too ugly to give to a real customer of
theirs, so the "hippie" got it.
Site your tanks a goodly distance from the kiln itself, but, again, work
with your propane supplier on this.
Dave
At 07:17 PM 6/2/2002 -0600, you wrote:
>hello,
>
>i currently am designing a new shop and looking for some input on pad
>size for my kiln. i'll be building a 25-30cu ft minnesota flattop. my
>shop is 24x16 ft and i need to figure out how far to extend the slab and
>recommendations from folks if i should just pour a pad for the kiln or
>extend the entire slab.
>
>also, what size propane tank should i be considering. i'm assuming that
>it is not possible to run both kiln and house appliances off the same
>tank.
>
>thanks for your time.
>heidi haugen
>
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**********************
Dave Gayman
+1 508.820-1179
fax: +1 508.820-2731
cell: +1 508.740-6179
dgayman@rcn.com
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