A clamp kiln firing.

Here is a link to a video I made of my clamp kiln firing last summer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9mLqT6e6c0&list=UUHyKnw7pUdGLsmb6rNqyslw&index=1&feature=plcp

This firing took place last summer at the canal park in Delphi, Indiana.

Visit to a nearby treasure. Colonial Brick kilns at Cayuga.

Driving home to Indiana from Denver, Colorado over the weekend with my wife, my sister and her daughter, I made a short visit to a brickworks in Cayuga, Indiana. Id known about it being in my state for over a year. But never had found time to make the trip to see it.

The 10 or so beehive downdraught kilns are operated by Colonial Brick Co. and still are coal fired to this day. They specialize in recreating old and out of date brick for important historical restorations all over the country.

The sights and smells of the smoke here is a powerful step back in time. If I lived closer, id work for free on the side, just to learn better some of the old ways they made and fired the brick.

I really want to build my next brick kiln like one of these scaled down for my needs. Maybe next year.

First firing of the brick kiln at Canal Park.

We had our first firing of the brick kiln at the Wabash and Erie Canal Park in Delphi, Indiana friday and saturday. Thankfully the rain didn't come as had been forcasted. All went well and the firing from start to finish took a little over 26 hours. The kilns hunger for wood wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be either. We went through about half of the wood I had set aside for the firing. In total, about 120 bricks, 50 tiles, and 30 clay coasters were loaded inside.

My pyrometer temp sensors wern't in the best locations as they didn't seem to reflect temps I was observing in the kiln. So next time they will be relocated.

Today I will be going out to break it open and see the results of all the hard work. I will post pics and results soon.

Death and rebirth, A new kiln for Wabash and Erie Canal Park in Delphi.

With much excitement and some sadness I report to you the ongoing construction of a new brick and tile kiln in Delphi. I have been honored with the task of building a replica historical brickmaking kiln at the Wabash and Erie Canal Park. There you can find a village with several cabins and period homes and other structures from the 1830's to 1880's time frame. They also have an actual reconstructed canal boat that offers rides. For those of you with an interest in metalworking there is a blacksmith shop as well as two iron bridges nearby that have been restored.

The new kiln is a scaled down simple updraft clamp scove fired by wood. This is much like kilns of that time in this area. It is designed to fire a few hundred bricks or tiles each time. The inner body of the kiln is made out of recycled firebrick. This is surrounded by an outer shell of common red brick. In between is filled with dirt for insulation and to stop cold air leakage into the kiln.

The new kiln is the largest I have ever built so far. Because of that it has put a strain on my supply of brick, requiring me to tear down and recycle both of my other kilns for the needed brick.

The barn kiln wasn't a big loss to me as it never worked out as well as I would have liked. Failing to reach peak temps no matter what I tried.

But to loose my backyard bottlekiln is sad. It more than did as I hoped it would. Its sacrafice for the greater good will not be in vain. I hope to one day bring it back bigger and better.

Update photo progress.

Its been awhile since I posted any pics on the my woodfired water boiler project for home heating. Here is the boilerhouse showing the summers progress. Pretty much all the brickwork is now done. I still need to fit the windows in and build a door. Finish the roof and add the firewood chute from the adjacent wood shed are after that.

Video of my latest firing of my bottle kiln.

Here is my latest brick kiln firing video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZ2vs7IdjAs

Bottle kiln, firing #2, better but not good

I kept the top temp of the firing down to around 1850'F at the pryometer. But the center of the chamber still got much hotter than that! Gonna have to rethink the kiln and firing cycle some.

Improved results over first firing of the new bottle kiln, but along way from good results.

Can you tell which brick is wood fired and which one is electric fired? Both were fired to 1850'F.

Monster results. Too hot!

The bricks literally MELTED! Wow thats gotta be the hottest kiln Ive made ever.

It took me a few hours with a hammer and chisel to force remove these clinkers.

Heres what it looked like when I first opened it up. You can see that more heat was at the center of the chamber. It was cooler th the edges. Well over 2000 in the middle. Maybe 1800 by the walls.

I do like the wood glazing that occurred on the bricks. The cracking and tearing is most likely from the rapid heating of the clay in the bricks. Need to slow it down to at least double the time on firing. At least 8 to 10 hours. And max temp no more than 1850'F.

Here are a few more pics.

The firebox door.

A look down thru the chimney.

A cutaway diagram.

Tennessee red clay test firing.

My wife and I went on vacation last week to the mountains of Gatlinburg, Tennessee. I gathered a sample of the well known local red clay to test once I got back home. I wanted to try it out to see how it compared to the clay from my back yard here in Indiana.


The differences in clay is most noticed by color from the iron oxides. Both types have it, but it is more obvious in states of the south. It may have to do with glaciers that overran the northern states like Indiana thousands of years ago.

I brought back several pounds of red clay from my vacation in a plastic tub for test firing.

The outer two are Tennessee red clay and the inner two are Indiana clay. Green unfired from the brick press. The sample clay is very sticky and plastic. It makes a nice unfired brick.

The brick on top is Pigeon Forge, Tennessee red clay. The other three are Flora, Indiana brown clay. Fired in the same kiln for 9 hrs to 1875deg F. Notice the difference in shrinkage.

Heres the address if you are interested in why some clays are so much more red than brown, yellow, or grey.

http://www.ga.nrcs.usda.gov/technical/soils/red.html

Progress at the boilerhouse.

Heres a new photo for all of you. As you can see Its comming along now. I still have alot of work to do on the north and east walls. Then its a door and a window along with finishing the roof.

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.