It got cold!

Another productive week last week, managed to spend a good couple of days working on the kiln.  Finished off keying in the back of the arch which involved plenty of niggly cutting of bricks in order to get them all tight and supported both in the arch itself and also into the front wall of the chimney.  Once that had been completed, I began building up the chimney. Raising up the collection box at the base several more layers before beginning to corble in to the final dimensions (somewhere there must be a natural law which dictates that the chimney dimensions will never quite match the dimensions of whole bricks, each layer required two small cut sections to be inserted which made each course slow: this is also directly proportional to the number of times the builder will hit their head on the roof :-(  ). I took the chimney up to just below the board which covers the hole in the roof and will leave it there until the rest of the kiln is finished to keep the rain out.

Once  finished, I  addressed finishing the main arch structure. This involves cleaning off all the excess fireclay mortar and ramming the gaps with dry fireclay using a small wooden wedge. This ensures that all the arch bricks are compressed together.  A time consuming and tedious job although very important for the final integrity of the arch, it took me five hours just to do half of one side of the structure.

So, for this week I have to finish ramming the arch and mix up some refactory castable to fill some voids at the base of the chimney as well as around the blow hole tubes in the top of the arch and then the job of laying the secondary arch can begin. Plenty of clothes on as it's set to get even colder. Joy :-)

More progress

Managed another good couple of days on the kiln with much appreciated help from Steve last week. The hot face arch is now 97% keyed in with just the back end (where it locks into the chimney base), to try and complete this week.

We've positioned 3 blow hoe tubes in the top which should provide us with plenty of information about the atmosphere in various parts of the chamber while firing as well as giving us a useful stoking guide.

View from the front which shows how the arch tapers down to the door.

We managed to build a little more than this image shows, putting in another blow hole tube at the top, and a cone viewing hole in the side arch wall.

So, lots more cutting to do this week to get all those tail bricks to fit good and strong and then filling any external gaps with slithers of brick and ramming with dry fireclay. Then, continue to build up the chimney and start the secondary arch. :-)



Happy new year

I managed to spend 3 days last week working on the kiln with the help of  Steve Parry. We had a little delay due to storms having blown the cover off the chimney hole in the roof and the former getting wet and losing rigidity, but eventually with plenty of make shift supports which made climbing inside the structure feel a little like desending into an old mine: we managed to make a start on the arch.

Having corbled in the first layers of lateral bricks we are now laying front to back stepping in from the front and back to get the two sides of the arch to meet. I'll then brick back out forward and back to tie the arch into the door arch and into the bottom of the chimney.

I'm hoping that this week we should be able to get most of the key bricks cut and in place.  There are also about 15 dense concrete hollows to carry to the other side of the kiln for buttressing before the chimney gets too high. The outside of the whole hot face arch will then need to be dry rammed with fireclay in preparation for the secondary arch to be laid. It's finally starting to take shape.

A cold day weaving the arch former

Probably the last real bit of work to be done on the kiln before a short seasonal break. A bleak cold sleaty day to be doing this so plenty of hot tea to keep my fingers warm as I've been tying lots and lots of knots to secure the laths. I'm happy with the overall shape of the arch now, which I'll reinforce with more substantial board arch formers from the inside ready for the brick arch construction.

Each lath is tied to create a good stable structure.

Now starting to get a good idea of the final shape of the stucture. I've also spoken to the wood yard who have about 5 pallets of wood so far and are still cutting, they antisipate having another 2 early in the new year, so after the break I'll organise that to be delivered ready for the first firing. Merry Christmas and a Happy new year :-))

Another kiln update

I've managed to make quite a bit of progress over the last week. The vertical walls are now at the right height for the arch to spring off and the lower passive damper as well as the middle grate fire mouth are also in place. I'v also put a small side stoke port adjacent to the main fire box. This morning I have positioned the front door arch and removed the former. The rear flues are now all in place and the wall above is ready to receive the back end of the arch. All in all it's starting to feel like a kiln. I just have some fiddly spacer bricks to cut with the angle grinder to finish the last course of bricks as the kiln tapers into the flues and then ready to start making the arch formers. I've added images most recent at the top this time. If you're wondering why a lot of the images seem to be in the dark it's due to me recording progress at the end of each day and at 5pm it's pretty pitch.

Loughborough kiln update

I had a productive week last week being able to spend 2 days pretty much dedicated to working on the kiln. The fire brick floor has been laid lining both fire boxes creating the base from which the vertical walls can be built and the structure can begin to look like a kiln rather than a random pile of building materials. All the measurements and calculations have been made and laid out with respect to the firebox / chamber dimensions / flue and chimney dimensions and this week will be building up the side walls in preparation for the start of the arch.

From this point the walls are started, using a fireclay and water slurry with a little sodium silicate added for spreadability as a bedding motar. This will not cement the bricks together but just even out any uneveness and will also allow the structure to freely expand and contract. Small expansion gaps are also left on every course also to facilitate the kilns movement when heated. The vertical walls are laid stretcher, stretcher, header and then repeated.

The last image shows the progress as of Friday 2nd December, it should now be straight laying for about 5 or 6 rows to reach the wall height from which the arch will spring. I'm documenting the kiln after each days work on it and will try to update this blog with images at the end of each week.

It's been a while but.........

My online activity has been a little lapse recently but I do have mitigating circumstances :-) I was showing at the CPA Ceramics Fair in Oxford on the last weekend of October and for four weeks prior to that I have been busy teaching  the new intake of students at loughborough Unviversity's School of the Arts. I have also taken down the old anagama kiln there and started rebuilding the new one. I managed to salvage most of the materials from the old kiln. The only parts which were beyond redemption were the hot face firebox bricks and the area around the flues at the back of the kiln. Everything else was put on pallets and transported to the new larger kiln site. Only about 200m away but in a new yard. The stage I am at is just grunt work. Bedding and leveling 160 dense concrete hollows to form the kiln platform  and I have now started to lay the firebrick floor, although i've just run out of fireclay to make the bedding mortar (surpisingly tricky to get hold of in powder form), so i'll be a little delayed waiting for that to arrive. I've been documenting the new build after each day and I've selected a few to post here. As the kiln progresses I'll post updates. I'm hoping to get the kiln finished mid February ready to fire in the spring.

 These are the rough plans which I drew up several years ago when planning. Some of the details of stepping and area dimensions are altering slightly as I lay the blocks and the rear of the kiln will be more like the side elevation image with the back of the chamber tying into the base of the chimney above the exit flues rather than an elongated flue running to the chimney. But you'll get the idea hopefully.

And so, the first blocks!

 This image shows the general lay out of the new kiln. Grated firebox extending deeper into the body of the kiln than in the previous kiln with stacking space around the sides. The 1st level packing will be at the same level as the grate and will allow coals to mingle with the work as well as giving good space for shelf stacking behind. There is then a step up to another shelf stackable area and behind this is the block channel for the side stoke grate and ash pit. behind that will be another small step up and another shelf stackable zone in front of the flues.

This picture is the most recent. Later.