Chamber complete and ironwork is started

I finished up framing in the soda ports with hard brick, and putting the IFB in place. Decided to add one more row for a little extra kiln height.

During this last row I realized I did something silly. With the double row thickness of IFB exterior, I didn't think I could alternate the corners (see how the row ends in a straight line instead of alternating like you normally do to stagger seams and interlock rows for stability). Still not sure why I thought I couldn't do it but the last row I figured it out. See? ughhh

I'm an airhead. No other excuse for my blonde move. This row was beautiful...so...what to do. My hubby offered to run an extra strip of ironwork so I don't have to dismantle the whole exterior. Works for me. LOL. Definitely my first kiln build. I am learning quickly.

Here are a few interior pictures of the kiln. It is all very square and level and I have no complaints. I staggered most joints and its pretty tight.

My hubby got started on the iron framing. 2" angle iron across the whole bottom and welded at all corners. I know many prefer to put rods across that can be released or tightened as needed. With a welder and a hubby who loves to weld, I know that we can redo this relatively painlessly if needed so we went with the "rigid" approach and welded the joints. We spent quite a bit of time deciding if expansion joints are needed. The literature I found says they are not necessary if under 4' which the interior of my kiln is, but I am larger due to the huge walls. Opted for not doing expansion joints figuring there is enough wiggle room in all the seams.

We worked until the sun set. The bottom layer of ironwork is in place but the rest will have to wait until the next work day.

Looking good! Very excited to get the remaining ironwork in place and to tackle the arch. Please do ask questions and give feedback.

Running short on hard fire brick...

Well, I am going to be short on hard brick. Decided I needed to find and purchase a few new brick to keep moving on the kiln. Only one thing to say...OUCH!!!! expensive. VERY expensive at $6.88 a brick. I'll need more but need to find some used ones again.

Was able to find some used ones and met another yet another wonderful potter. Thank you Ben! He had a heapload of knowledge and experience, and I really hope I can continue to pick his brain as questions come up. The brick had been part of a large wood fire kiln that has since been taken down. Here's a picture of what is left of that kiln, only a chimney stack. Bricks are in great shape.

We rushed home and I got back to kiln building.

Chamber build continues

As promised, this is the simple metal jig. The bricks are placed flush on the jig and cut with the wet tile saw on both sides. (Saw blade is too short to go all the way through.) Angles are then consistent and accurate. On a side note, came across a website that recommends cutting IFBs with a wet saw and suggests soaking them first in water for a minimum of 5 minutes so no dust is kicked up when they are cut! (and I was worried about the water from just the wet saw. :)

I also gave a quick attempt at trimming the arch IFB after calculating the angles for that. There will be a layer of ceramic fiber between the two layers. Should work.

Some more progress on the kiln. Final chamber wall of hard brick and continuing the IFB. Went through my hard brick and I need a few more to frame the soda port holes and the skewback bricks. The brick I have will be fine for the arch as they are being cut down but I am out of full bricks. I really don't want to "piece" the port hole framing as I want it easy to slide the "peep hole" brick in and out.

This sunset just appeared so definitely time to quit. :)

It rained so some inside work on the sprung arch

It rained all day so i figured it was a good time to figure out the arch details. Darn angles got me so messed up I enlisted my engineer hubby for some help. When his calculations started to look like this I was a little lost again. lol.

My thought was to figure out what span and what rise I wanted, draw an approximate curve. Draw a curve exactly 4 1/2 inches above (height of adapted brick) and parallel to that one . Figure exactly how many bricks I needed for the upper curve (the length divided by the width of brick, pick the closest number of bricks and this becomes my number of bricks per arch curve). Measure the length of the lower curve and divide it by the number of bricks I was using. I figured I needed to trim the sides of the brick by that amount on each side. Which maybe would have been fine if I had remembered to divided that number by 2 (for each side of the brick, duh). Yup, even I confused myself . Russ finished his angle calculations and we both drew it, then gave it a go. He even made a small metal jig I could use on the saw for consistent angles.

Hhhmmm...this will make a circle before reaching the span! Yeah, complete mess up. 

That's when I realized I hadn't divided my number by two for trimming BOTH sides of the brick? (I think.) And maybe my hubby did the same? So back to the drawing board and a new jig made. And a bunch more cutting...(we halved the angle and voila!)

Now that looks better! Pretty sure we didn't do it the "right" way but this is the correct size. Trial and error can usually get you there if you can't figure it out! It spans 31 3/4". My actual kiln opening is 31 1/4" at the widest so these will just fit over the edges. Which is another thing I went back and forth on. Should the arch fit just AT the edge or just OVER the edge? Please comment if you have feedback on this. I'm not sure it really matters if I have done my skewbacks properly and if the iron support is done right?

The rise is 4 3/8" which makes it 1.6" rise  per foot of span so all is good! (Recommended guideline said minimum of 1.5" rise per foot of span.)

Cut out a paper template and folded in half to check for symmetry on each side. All good and ready to use it to build the wooden arch support to build the arch onto the kiln. I also made a paper template for the skewback brick. All great as long as my dog doesn't make off with my paper patterns. :) There will be a layer of ceramic fiber and then IFB over this arch once I get that figured out.

Why am I cutting such funny brick sizes? Well, my firebrick I just picked up (I'm out of my nice even ones) are very uneven sizes and shapes. The most consistent thing is the width and the thickness. I can use partial bricks and trim 4 sides. This eliminates my roughest areas with the least amount of waste. Again, not ideal but making the best use of what is available to me. I don't mind doing the cutting with the saw along with using the metal jig. Bricks fit tight and are very consistent. Goes pretty quick but I would NEVER attempt this without the wet tile saw. Oh, and about this batch of hard fire brick. It was tested in a kiln before I purchased it which is good as a potter just shared her horror story of her newly built kiln melting the first time she fired it up!
Quick safety note about using the wet tile saw: always wear goggles, mask, and ear protection is good too, and be careful! The wet tile saw will occasionally kick back/out a brick if it is not sitting perfectly flat or if it catches on something. Not for the faint of heart to cut all these brick, but can be done if you are methodical and careful.
I'll post a picture of the angled jig when it stops raining.

More supply gathering and building

Well, I picked up a great set of old silicone carbide kiln shelves. 12x24 size, 8 full shelves and 8 shelf pieces. They are well used, kiln wash on one side only, very flat, and will be perfect after a good cleaning. More importantly, I met another potter. Suffice to say that 1 1/2 hours of chatting in a parking lot before I even looked at the shelves! Thank you Karen! It's meeting and getting to know new people during this kiln build that has made it so enjoyable and interesting. I got so distracted that my blonde roots showed themselves and I left my lights on and killed my car battery while chatting. LOL. Fortunately, Karen had jumper cables and a few minutes later I was safely on my way with "new" kiln shelves.

2 hour drive back home only to meet up with my hubby and another hour drive to pick up some firebrick from a very nice gentleman. Thank you Virgil! Loaded up a pallet of old fire brick that came out of an old steel mill (I think). These are rough looking but seem solid. Today I cut up a few and they seem very solid and use-able. On the way back we saw this gorgeous orchard in bloom and had to stop for a quick picture.

Here are some of the fire brick. All different sizes and shapes so I will definitely be doing a lot of cutting. :) I do love a challenge! (Good thing!)

Weather was beautiful today so kiln work was delayed until the afternoon. Got a few more courses of hard brick down and decided on the placement for the remaining soda ports.

One more course of hard brick and the chamber will be ready for the sprung arch. Tomorrow I'll get the IFB up to the same level and frame in the soda ports with hard brick. We need to start getting the ironwork in place too. Russ picked up steel and is excited about welding away. Here is the kiln progress.

I thought I should check level and measurements. All is within 1/4" or less and very level. Exterior and interior dimensions checked. (lol, I may have let out a sigh of relief.)

Soda ports and redo of burner entrance openings

On the advice from a clay buddy (thank you Tim See), I decided that those burner entry ports needed to be redone in hard brick. Easier to do now than correct when the kiln is done. Lots of unstacking and restacking. I am running low on hardbrick so I tried to use some of my rougher ones that were curved or uneven since the size was different from the IFB anyways. Had to use some fiber blanket and smaller pieces of IFB to get a nice tight fit. Not pretty, but should be very functional. Sorry, that second picture is a little fuzzy. Dogs must have licked the camera lens, LOL.

Got the rear burner port done as well. Figured I needed to add a couple of the soda ports a little lower in the kiln so a little more unstacking and restacking and I now have a soda port on each side. Planning on adding a least two more further up the kiln. The soda ports were made slightly tapered to snuggly fit a key shaped IFB brick.

Here is a view of the inside so you can see placement. The other one is mirrored on the opposite side. These are all lined in hard brick too.

A friend (thank you Catherine) stumbled across an advertisement for someone getting rid of silicon carbide shelves in the size and quantity I need. Fingers crossed that they are in as good condition as claimed. Will update when I see them tomorrow. Also off to pick up more hard brick from a friend of a friend (thank you Tom). Fingers crossed!

About 1/2 way up the chamber

So I kept pushing today. I am 13" up in the chamber and exterior IFB is in place. Phew. At least I am feeling like I am making progress.

A few things to note. Yes, the walls are beasts. Yes, they definitely need the iron work support especially at the corners now that it is getting taller. I debated on how to handle the burner ports. I opted to put hard brick on top of the opening only but it may have been wiser to square the whole opening in firebrick. This is one of those choices that a year from now I'll have to come back and comment. I did put it on the top because i was worried about the brittle IFB spanning the opening. Everything is still square and level. Interior dimensions are 27' wide by 31.75" deep. A little bigger than I had planned when I started but I think practical for the pieces and volume I make.

Here's a closer view and a birds-eye view from the rear. You can clearly see now where the door will be and the kiln shelves will go. The rear burner port is much better with a slight separation from the chimney. I ordered kiln shelves yesterday and my son, who is in FL on spring break, will be picking them up to avoid the expense of shipping.
My pottery page is very formal and I never post silly things or pics of my canine babies but since this is a blog (which I think of as a public journal) I just couldn't help adding these. :) These are my three "babies" who are always with me "helping" by running off with my tools, getting in the way, climbing on everything...

 and me, sitting in my kiln with a glass of red wine to wash away the ache and pains my tired aging body is already feeling! ;)

finishing up the fire box area and starting the chamber

First of all, I am sore! And my son is at school today so no lifting help. :(
This dolly is my friend and good lifting technique. Lots of small loads and hopefully I'll survive without too many aches and pains.

Last night I got my hubby to show me how to cut the hard firebrick. He has a wet tile saw with a diamond blade and I was shocked at how easy they are to cut!

I am trying to do as few cuts as possible but I need to do some half bricks. I marked them to fit exactly with a pencil and a quick cut on both sides of the brick with the saw is all it takes. Hubby (Russ) also suggested just using the wet tile saw to cut the insulating fire brick (IFB K23) I am using on the exterior layer of the kiln. I hesitated. I I had read somewhere that I really shouldn't get them wet but was worth a try. WOW! This is the way to go. Because of the wet tile saw there is little to no dust generated (that's the dangerous part of cutting IFB). They cut like butter as the saw is complete overkill.

Here is the IFB being added to the left side of the kiln. I found key shaped IFB so it's a little tricky to figure out how I could use them in my kiln design. They were new and SUPER INEXPENSIVE and I have a whole pallet so my intent is to lay them sardine style. Then I only have to trim the end corner pieces square. This will well over insulate the kiln so it may take much longer for the kiln to cool down but maybe there will be some benefits to slow cooling? I guess I will be finding out. To most this design makes no sense. IFB are usually your most expensive part so most people do not overuse them. I have so many that it is not an issue so designed accordingly. 

As with the interior walls, I am staggering joints for stronger wall. I know it is insulation overkill but maybe it will also cut down on fuel? Will have to wait and see.

Ran into a sizing problem from not getting my original base measurement right. Grrr..and only myself to blame. The IFB around the front of the kiln overhangs  about 1". I can add a metal channel for extra support when I add the ironwork. Still haven't decided if that is the way to go yet.

So here's the kiln build so far. It's supposed to rain a few days so I'll probably be stalled again. I am impressed with how tight everything is fitting with little to no gaps. I need to start getting some ironwork support up and figure out my spyholes.