John Rodgers on thu 14 aug 03
I have an old Duncan kiln, that is basically a shell. Good bricks,
bottom, lid, and that which is in between with the stainless jacket
around it. The elements are gone and so is the control panel and kiln
sitter and timer. I would like to convert this thing to a fuel fired
kiln - propane - for reduction purposes- that is capable of going to
cone ten or above. The bricks in it were never meant to go that hot, and
would probably melt at those temperatures. I really want to make this
thing work as a small reduction kiln and wondered if it is possible to
convert it and if so, how to go about it.
I have thought about lining it with Kaowool or other refractory fiber
and spraying it with ITC to get a higher temperature rating, punching a
hole in the bottom and mounting one gas burner, or perhaps setting it on
a K26 brick base with a burner port in the brick. Putting a hole in the
lid for a flue as well.
Just fishing for workable suggestions. . Anybody????
Thanks,
John Rodgers
Birmingham, AL
Lori Leary on thu 14 aug 03
John wrote:
> I have thought about lining it with Kaowool or other refractory fiber
> and spraying it with ITC to get a higher temperature rating, punching
> a hole in the bottom and mounting one gas burner, or perhaps setting
> it on a K26 brick base with a burner port in the brick. Putting a
hole > in the lid for a flue as well.
John,
I have had good results doing exactly what you are contemplating. I
lined an old gutted Duncan with ceramic fiber, then sprayed it with itc.
I cut a flu in the top and used an old kiln shelf as a damper. I cut my
burner port on the side, but cutting a hole in the bottom works, too.
This has been an sweet and efficient little updraft which I have used
for raku as well as for small loads of ^ 6. I used a raku burner from
Mark Ward, (sorry, can't remember the BTU's off the top of my head).
Go for it!
Lori L.
lleary@epix.net
Mountain Top, PA
Daniel Dermer on thu 14 aug 03
John,
I have done a similar conversion with my old Duncan DK-
820 kiln, turning it into a combination gas/electric
c10 reduction kiln. Coating the inside bricks and
elements with ITC makes it very suitable for cone 10
firings, even though the kiln was originally rated for
max. cone 8 temps. I've been through 15-20 firings to
c10, and the kiln isn't any worse for the wear. It
also gets up to cone 10 really fast - 4-5 hours if I
push it. Love that ITC. (I've recently wondered if
the quick time to cone 10 might make it a really nice
kiln for firing crystalline glazes too...)
There are lots of posts in the archives for how to do
that conversion, which would be useful for the ITC
info, even if you're planning on building a pure gas
kiln. Here is a quick link to some pictures of my
converted Duncan kiln at my *old* web site, along with
links on that page to archived posts with the how to's
on the ITC, etc.:
http://pages.sbcglobal.net/dan_ed/page5.html
If you want to convert to a purely gas-fired kiln,
there's a company in Florida, Summit Gas & Raku Kilns,
that offers conversion kits, including the burners and
new base/stand:
http://swiftweb.com/summit/
They might be worth a look too.
Good luck-
Dan
http://pages.sbcglobal.net/ddermer
Paul B on thu 14 aug 03
John,
if the kiln was rated for cone 6 you may not need the fibre, but i am sure
some ITC will help. a friend of mine did this but made two mistakes, one of
which was to put two burners in the bottom and the other was to cut a
fairly large hole in the top as an exit flue. The result was that the
bottom fired a full 5 cones hotter than the top - too much power at the
bottom and too large a hole at the top. hard to reach cone 10 with a big
open hole a few inches away.
I know someone else who vented the kiln by cutting several smaller holes in
the top, and covered certain ones when reducing. He had only one burner and
said he was able to get a relatively even firing. That is the main trick
with this project -- to get an even firing.
The fact that such a kiln will cool quite fast can work for or against
certain glazes, but i recall that a rutile blue we used in the hot part of
the kiln came out very nice. hope this helps.
Paul B
Falmouth, Ky
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