Flock, Andra and Reid on sun 30 oct 05
Morning.
I have recently built a downdraft, hard firebrick, forced air
kerosene kiln. There are two burners at perpendicular corners.
Both are 100V, 65W 4~8l/h Mimata electric burners. Admittedly,
it is my first kiln and I am all smiles.
The first firing was full of bisquit and went off without a hitch.
However, last night I completed ( or rather attempted to complete) a
second glaze re-fire. Roughly one week ago I loaded the kiln with
bowls of equal size, shape and weight along with the same glaze to
simply test what the kiln would do. Using cones 7~10, I aimed for
1280~1300c. Nevertheless, that first glaze firing did not get past
the orange to yellow ( thought to be in the mid 900's c. Nor did any
of the cones soften. The firing lasted from 10am to 4am the
following morning and I went through 90L of fuel : ).
Carbon build up was great. I cleaned the ports twice to remove
excessive carbon. Too much fuel?
Following that firing, I reduced the bag walls to simply a few bricks
at the opposite walls to help direct the flame upwards at peak
temperatures. In addition, I increased the size of the burner ports
to allow for an improvement to air flow around the burner.
Stainless steel cones were attached to the burner nozzles to help
direct the flame efficiently into the chamber.
Last night I completed a second glaze firing attempt with the same
wares yet with the modifications set as above. Firing began at 10:30
and finished at 2am ( as I ran out of bloody kerosene ). I went
through 110L of fuel this round and noticed that near to the end of
my bout with my new kiln the chamber colour was closer to a yellowish
orange compared with the previous firing.
Now, I realize that I should have had more Kero simply as a back up
and as such perhaps does not justify this message here as it is
simply a matter of common sense but, I was hoping to hear from
someone who I might be able to bounce things off with. Simply, I am
a little brain dead today but would like to work this out.
There was some carbon build-up around the edge of the burner cones
and along the edges of the burner ports. Has anyone here had
extensive experience with forced oil burners and carbon buildup?
Off to make some tea.
Reid
otatanbo@ybb.ne.jp
Reid
otatanbo@ybb.ne.jp
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