Down for repair.

My last firing stalled out at 1000'F due to the lower half shutting down. Turns out one of the four bottom heating elements burnt out creating an open circut. Ive priced replacement elements for the kiln at around $30, so I should be able to have it up again soon. Its an old used kiln that has served me well. I cant be sore about it at all.

My first customer!

Ive been hired by the Delphi chamber of commerce to make 50 promotional bricks for them. So far I with the help of my son have pressed out all 50 bricks and a few extras. 20 have been fired in my electric kiln to 1900'F with only one breaking. I should be ready to fire another 20 tommorrow if all goes as planned.
On another note, it looks like I may have a chance to show off a few of my Delphi and Carroll bricks at a local antique art gallery soon. Pretty cool!

Firing temps and brickmaking

The finished color and hardness of a clay brick has alot to do with the highest temp achieved and length of time held there before cool down. There doesn't seem to be as much effect on outcome if the ramp up time to peak temperatre is varied shorter or longer. Obviously the type of clay will have a profound influence on the finished product as well. But here I will focus on firing temp of a single type of clay.

Below are tiles and bricks of the exact same source of clay, prepaired the same way before firing.

They are identical except for the one brick on the lower left. The three of the same color were fired to 1900 deg F over an 8 hr period in my electric kiln. The darker brick made at the same time as the others, was fired to 2000 deg F over 9.5 hrs in the same kiln. All settings on the kiln were identical.

The surface of the darker brick is closer to that of a paver or clinker. It has a reflective quality to it that the others do not. All the bricks and tiles are fired fully and have a strong 'ring' when tapped together. The darker brick has a higher ptched ring to it.

If I were to ever try to make pavers or outdoor tile, they would be fired much like the darker brick. I believe the water proof qualities should be higher.

Notice the small paw prints on the one tile. My kittens were having fun after I made up the tiles.

Bricks in three days

Saturday I came up with a bold idea. To see how quickly I could make a dozen bricks from start to finish. From digging up natural clay all the way to a finshed ready to use good product. It took me two days. Thats it. Three if you want to count cooldown and inspection.

Here are the steps involved and the outcome.

1. Dug up a wheelbarrow load of Flora clay straight out of the ground behind my barn. The clay was already damp from a previous days rainfall. No water will be added.

1:00 pm Saturday

2. Removed all obvious twigs, rocks, and non clay looking dirt material from the load to be formed into bricks. Flora clay at my location is nearly free of roots, rocks or sand. Unusually clean and ready to use for this area of Indiana farmland.

2:00 pm

3. Load brick press and press out 12 bricks. Used all three of my frog logos just for the heck of it.

3:30 pm

4. Load into the electric kiln to begin the drying out. This is really tricky. Too fast and they crack. Too slow and the wont dry for a month!

4:00pm to 9:00pm Saturday.

5. Fire in the electric kiln to at least 2000'F.

7:30am to 9:00pm Sunday

6. Cooldown , unload and inspection.

4:00pm Monday

Success!!!!

My electric kiln works great!

I have used my electric kiln today for the first time. Everything went smoothly. About 8 hrs to make 2000'F. The clays have much more reds to them, save the one creek clay brick I fired. That one may need to go to a higher temp. My first experience with electric kilns. This one has a humm or buzz sound when the elements are being electrified. Guess thats normal. Pulls about 12 amps when one coil is on, 24 amps when they both are up and running at 240v AC.

Whats easy about this, comming from wood firing, no wood stoking!!!! Dont get me wrong, I like the connection with the earth and wood firing. But sometimes its nice to just plug it in and let it buzz for 8 hrs with less effort. Lets see how good I feel when I get my electric bill! lol

I am next gonna fire a bunch of clay tiles for a house project. I will let you know how it goes.

Green energy from my creek.

One of my many 'other' projects is this water wheel ive been building. My plan is to put it into a water chute I will build in my creek along with a dam. If I can get this to work reasonably well, it should have enough power to spin a small generator. Depends on several things how well it will function for me.
If I can build enough head pressure at my dam to move the water down the chute forcefully.
What kind of speed will the wheel turn at and with how much torque?
Will it do as well once under load from a generator under load as well?

Specifics:

36" dia wheel

28" wide

1.5" output shaft dia.

Got myself an electric kiln!

Hey I found a great deal on an old Duncan electric kiln off of craigslist. So now I have this to play with too. Yippie!!!!!