Hendrix, Taylor J. on thu 27 feb 03
Hey sports fans:
The Paragon Highfire kiln conversion is moving right along. I have
removed all the controllers etc from the outside of the kiln. We turned
the kiln over (carefully!) and removed the sheet metal bottom. This
allowed us to remove the floor bricks. Many pieces.
Here are my plans: I plan on using the existing sheet metal bottom as
the bottom of the new kiln. I can attach castors to the existing feet,
no problem. It is 26" square. On top of this I plan on laying down a
square of cement board to level out all the sheet metal screws coming up
through the bottom of the old metal. On top of this I will lay the old
kiln lid. Problem #1: the kiln lid is 3 3/4" thick and 21 1/2" square.
It still has its metal jacket, so I think I should remove this. These
dimensions pose a problem. The base of the kiln needs to be the same 26"
as the existing kiln, so I am going to have to make up the difference
between the kiln walls and the kiln 'lid' (4 1/2") with something. I am
not sure if the old floor brick will work, but that is my plan. Once I
have a level 26" square floor, I will lay two 2 1/2" courses of IFB,
placing the burner port through both. I'm still not clear on how to lay
these bricks to make the burner port. The existing kiln walls will make
the port's lintel. We will place the old kiln, jacket and all on top of
the IFB, effectively raising the kiln 5". Angle iron and metal straps
will tie the IFBs, base, and remaining kiln together. New lid will be
hardware cloth/kaowool. We plan to snip off only the elements' pigtails
and stuffing the wall penetrations with wool. The remaining length of
the coils will stay where it is.
Does anybody see problems with this setup? Is there something we can do
differently? We are budgeted for one case of IFBs. Life is full of
limitations. We will live with them.
I'm going to have to get some pictures of this. When we pulled off the
bottom's sheet metal, almost the entire inner surface had a good layer
of oxidation. Free iron oxide! David, Lily, I made my teacher bag it
up for me.
Taylor, in Raku waiting Waco
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