Paul Herman on fri 1 jul 05
Hello William,
Don't worry about being a sculptor, we welcome all kinds of ceramics.
Hi, Snail!
From your description of the kiln, two B4 Ransom burners would work I
think. I use two B4s to fire my gas kiln, but it's all softbrick. Is
your kiln made of hard brick? (Which will take more gas of course.) If
your kiln is all hard brick, the gas may not get it done in an frugal
manner.
Tank size? You might get away with a hundred gallon capacity, for one
firing. Assuming you can stoke wood to finish it off. A 500 gallon is
what I use, and fill it yearly. The working capacity of a 500 gallon
tank is about 300 gal., say from 85% to25%. Below 25% and it might
freeze up on a cold night. 85% is 'full.'
A solution that's worked for us here is to get some younger people
involved in the woodfirings. They have a lot of energy, and will stay up
all night feeding the fire. It sounds like you may have some skills that
would be good to pass on. Maybe you could find one or two young
volunteers around Wilton. Usually the good ones are a little strange,
look for the strange ones. (haha)
Good firings,
Paul Herman
Great Basin Pottery
Doyle, California US
http://www.greatbasinpottery.com/
----------
>From: William Shirley
>To: CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG
>Subject: wood fired stuff etc
>Date: Fri, Jul 1, 2005, 6:13 AM
>
> I was wondering if anyone could offer some information on
> the size of propane tank I would need for a kiln with two ware chambers,
> each about 3'x2'x3' and firing to cone 4-6 or so? Thanks much.
> William Shirley
> Wilton, NY
William Shirley on fri 1 jul 05
I recently joined this group but unfortuneately I may not have a lot to
add as I am a sculptor, not a potter and I fire in rather primitive
means. I have a two chambered climbing kiln I designed and built, which
I call my noborigama because it most resembles one. I have a tiny tunnel
kiln for firing one or two pieces in 6 hours and a bricked lined shallow
pit where I fire in saggers or buried in wood chips. I also gather my
clay from a variety of sources, including a nearby streambed, and I add
stuff like cattail fibers for making coil pots and such. It's been about
15 years now I've been firing this way but as my degenerative disc
problem has continued to go south on me I need to mount a burner to the
firebox of my noborigama so I can reduce the amount of time I need to
shove wood into the hole. I'd like to set it up so I can salt and stoke
into the ware chambers after 12 hours or so with propane. When I bought
my first kiln it was a four burner high fire cantenary arch beast but
when I brought all the stuff home I decided to assemble something
different and sat the burners aside. I constructed a mid-sized climbing
kiln about 8' long, 4' deep and 5' tall with a 15' stack. I still have
two Ransom B-4 burners and figure that one will do nicely for the
conversion to gas-wood. As a solitary ceramicist I have done okay as far
as making art, but I would like to do a bit more commercial work. I just
have to figure out how to get around the old collapsing disc issues.
Right now I use my kick wheel exclusively for holding large sculptures
for detailing. I was wondering if anyone could offer some information on
the size of propane tank I would need for a kiln with two ware chambers,
each about 3'x2'x3' and firing to cone 4-6 or so? Thanks much.
William Shirley
Wilton, NY
William Shirley on sat 2 jul 05
Paul Herman wrote:
>Hello William,
>
>Don't worry about being a sculptor, we welcome all kinds of ceramics.
>Hi, Snail!
>
>>From your description of the kiln, two B4 Ransom burners would work I
>think. I use two B4s to fire my gas kiln, but it's all softbrick. Is
>your kiln made of hard brick? (Which will take more gas of course.) If
>your kiln is all hard brick, the gas may not get it done in an frugal
>manner.
>
>
The kiln is hard brick on the interior with a layer of soft brick on the
outside. The doors brick up hard on the inside and soft on the outside.
The arches are coated in about 2" of adobe.
>Tank size? You might get away with a hundred gallon capacity, for one
>firing. Assuming you can stoke wood to finish it off. A 500 gallon is
>what I use, and fill it yearly. The working capacity of a 500 gallon
>tank is about 300 gal., say from 85% to25%. Below 25% and it might
>freeze up on a cold night. 85% is 'full.'
>
>
Well, here in upstate NY the winter nights can get to -25F on those
nasty February cold snaps. I'll build a shed around the tank to deflect
the snow, though, and probably have to figure out the best way to pipe
it into the kiln shed. I have a 8'x12' woodshed next to the kiln and
will use the same plan for the tank shed so I have room for odd tools
and such. Can't ever have too many sheds.
>A solution that's worked for us here is to get some younger people
>involved in the woodfirings. They have a lot of energy, and will stay up
>all night feeding the fire. It sounds like you may have some skills that
>would be good to pass on. Maybe you could find one or two young
>volunteers around Wilton. Usually the good ones are a little strange,
>look for the strange ones. (haha)
>
>
Yeah, well... you'd think with Skidmore College a few miles away there'd
be some interest, but for several years I tried real hard to find
volunteers. Actually got one kid to show up for a look-see and when he
saw the piles of fuel and heard the "16-20 hours of stoking..." he went
away. There is some interest in woodfiring, but they seem much more
interested in the product rather than the process. Even my wife only
volunteers to make meals and bring out vichy. I think it may have to do
with Prof. Brodie at the ceramics department being a high-tech fan. He
likes computer driven kilns with precision firings. I like several feet
of gold-green flames shooting out of the stack and no clue as to how
much ash and such is landing where. The really curious thing that never
ceases to surprise me is the number of relatively educated people who
ask me if it's possible to get up to temperature using wood. As if all
that porcelain the Chinese emperors got buried with was fired in a
Skutt! I'm just an old fashioned boy I guess. Thanks for the information....
William Shirley
Wilton, NY
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