Wildcat Creek Brick Company

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Huge success with pottery kiln modifications.


My kiln rebuild was the best thing I could have done. I am starting to realize just how gentle the balance is during a firing. All the variables have to be addressed and satisfied in order to create the best possible conditions for the fire to thrive. Expert I am not, but I am gaining on understanding how it works.
From what I can tell so far, I have gained alot on maximum temperature. I actually melted at least one pot into dripping gooo! I for the first time used cones. Not the correct ones, but close enough to get an idea. I bought an odd assortment of cones from ebay. I placed an 017, 016 , and a 6 near the spy brick. The 017 went first, then the 016. Then finally the 6 bent over. I melted all of them by the time I was ready to finish stoking the firebox. My pyrometer thermocouple is used and abused. It reported around 2000' deg F then failed. Then my front most pot in the chamber near the firebox flue started sagging down!




I thru a steel fitting into the ware chamber to see if it would melt. It glowed but didnt melt.

Notice the color progression from orange to yellow! Getting hotter.

Look at the clay gooo dripping down into the firebox from the chamber above.



2 comments:

  1. Beautiful photos of the firing process~

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  2. Thank you very much. Im a beginner at all of this. But getting closer every time I do it. Someday I want to make something that actually looks good. I look to all of you fellow bloggers for my inspiration...

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