# Pics of hot things



## Adios Pantalones (May 5, 2009)

Pics from the firing this weekend... all at bout 2300F.  I got to 2300 in about 20 hours, kept it there for 9 hours so that I could feed in more wood (to generate more ash to melt on pots), and let it get to I think 2378F before shutdown.  Burned a good brush pile and my XMass tree.

Looking through a kiln spy hole- you see shelves, and "cones".  Cones melt at different "heat work"- much like the pop up in a turkey.  They are all melted here- (cones 010, 6, 10, 11, 12)








It is so bright (with dangerous rays)that you shouldn't look in without eye protection.  You see the top of a "cut sided" sake/shot cup.






Same cup- closer up






This shot is taken looking through a hole in the chimney, through the exit flue from the ware chamber.  The hole in the chimney serves 2 purposes- 1) allows me to start a fire in the chimney base to heat it up and get the draft going (the firebox is maybe 6 feet away), and 2) acts as a passive damper.  If I want to slow the chimney draw, I pull out a brick or 2 (or 3) and the chimney draws some of it's flow through this hole rather than the rest of the kiln.






A closeup of a mug made for a friend


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## Adios Pantalones (May 5, 2009)

These pics were all taken by my friend Heather Gwinn

Here's me next to the firebox door.  At some point we cut the air way back, and the gasifying wood creates a back pressure- when it hits air- fire blows out of all sorts of places.





Here are those cones before they melted- actually- it looks like one of them is melted at the right.





The firebox door is a 1/4" plate of steel with kaowool backing- this is the connector for the counterweight (old lifting weights on a pulley)





A sake cup





same cup- more fire


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## Jags (May 5, 2009)

Freakin' Cool man.

I love the pics.  When she cools down, you will have to give us a couple of more shots before the unloading.


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## Adios Pantalones (May 5, 2009)

More Heather pics

At higher temps I shove wood right into the ware chamber for a blast of ash to melt at the top of the kiln





Fire coming up past the sidestoke area





There is a "collection box" before the chimney- air from passive dampers mixes with unburnt gas for a secondary burn.  Longer camera exposure shows cinder trails





More





More pics


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## johnn (May 5, 2009)

Stumbled across your other pics on page 9 or 10 a short time after we last talked...thanks for the up-date,,,so cool! Appears you maintained a good flow in temps. Another 1-1/2 cords I assume? Did wileyhillmudworks open up after your last posted pics? PS..I kept waiting to see the exhaust pic`s..
You really have some nice pieces,,I`ll be revisiting "willeyhill" in the near future!


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## Adios Pantalones (May 5, 2009)

Thanks- great place for Mothers day gifts- LOL!  We went through about 3 cord of mostly pine (some oak, birch, etc), plus a good sized brush pile


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## Adios Pantalones (May 5, 2009)

Exhaust





Exhaust taken with flash (dave in pic)


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## karri0n (May 5, 2009)

Totally awesome. is this the type of kiln that the exhaust is called a "Dragon's Tail"? If so, also totally awesome. These are some of the best wood kiln pics I've seen on the 'net.


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## savageactor7 (May 6, 2009)

Wow ...looks hot enough to melt steel.


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## Apprentice_GM (May 7, 2009)

That's just awesome AP, mighty impressive - the pics, the fire, the wares, the heat - everything!

Thanks for sharing, love to see more pics eg prior to unloading and finished wares (I check out your store intermittently too, some great wares).


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## skinnykid (May 7, 2009)

Good stuff AP, I am amazed that I have never seen your flames light up the night sky.


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## don_faithful (May 7, 2009)

Those are awesome pictures.  Kind of freaky and beautiful.


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## Stentor (May 7, 2009)

Talk about impressive pics!


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## Adios Pantalones (May 7, 2009)

Chimney is high-heat firebrick (2.5x4.5x9") (much higher rating than is used in normal woodstove), cemented with a home made mix of fire clay and sand/grog.  I put and insulated (kaowool/flashing/metal roofing) chase around it so that it wouldn't heat up the wooden beams in the shed.  Ya, very clean- LOL


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## PapaDave (May 8, 2009)

Do what you love, with passion. Stunningly gorgeous.


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## Adios Pantalones (May 14, 2009)

For those that wanted shots of the stuff cooled...
Kiln before unloading- everything is on refractory shelves (nitrogen bonded silicon carbide).  Big sculpture in the back is made of tiny pots- part of my friend's senior project.  There was supposed to be a few more big ones, but he was told that wood fire wasn't the way to go for the others during a critique.  We were left with a short load of pots.  I hope this doesn't come out sideways...






Better shot of it- in the upper left corner you see a place where I can pull out a brick and shove wood in across the bricks at left to give ash and flame up there






Work of several people






Most of these are mine.  You can see the melted cones there that I had a hot picture of them earlier.






Tiles- these are color tests for a good friend (and Hearth member) that may want some for his hearth rebuild.  I LOVE how these came out.






Sake cups- Potter from Hearth sent me a glaze recipe that came out pissa- I will be adding it to my palette.












Mug- nice glaze run to the foot.  New tenmoku glaze for me






Bottle was fired on its side so that the ash drips sideways






Bird houses.  People love these.


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## Jags (May 14, 2009)

Uh....WOW...

Completely, totally, utterly amazing.  Fire gooood!

(the people putting this stuff together ain't so bad either  %-P )

That glazed mug has me picturing a beer (bier) stein somewhere in future firings.


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## karri0n (May 14, 2009)

I really like the mug with the new tenmoku glaze. What's done differently on the blue pieces?(mug and bird houses, last pic)


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## Adios Pantalones (May 14, 2009)

Thanks guys.  The bird houses are just done in a blue glaze, and I put them in a less "ashy" part of the kiln.  They need glaze all over to limit water getting into the clay and breaking it in the winter, so thy are fired on sea shells.  The shells leave an imprint and crumble apart after the fire..

Many potters hate blue, because it's popular and they get sick of it.  I like blue.


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## Jags (May 14, 2009)

Blue goooood!


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## karri0n (May 14, 2009)

Jags said:
			
		

> Blue goooood!




+1


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## madrone (May 19, 2009)

XLNT! Whenever the ceramics dept. at the college I work for fires the wood kiln I hover around annoyingly peeking in the firebox and yammering about wood type and btus. Sadly, we don't use a wood fired kiln for bronze investment burnout, so I have to live vicariously. I welded up a frame for them for a new kiln that uses some kind of oil drip system in addition to wood that will be fired this weekend, so I'll be hanging around as usual.


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## Adios Pantalones (May 19, 2009)

An oil drip system is real easy to construct- some have 3 pieces of channel iron arranged in sloping steps so that the oil drips from one piece to the next as it burns.  A very simple one, however, just uses a single thick plate with a very small air gap above it.  When the chimney starts drawing well, the air velocity over the plate is quite high, causing the oil on the hot plate to vaproize quite well.  Simple ball valves are used to control flow.  

I may add a removable oil drip system to do "bisque" fires (efficient way to get rid of used oil. as well as fryolator grease... neighborhood will all be hungry) to a much lower temp.


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## Jags (May 19, 2009)

Adios Pantalones said:
			
		

> as well as fryolator grease... neighborhood will all be hungry



Won't that drive the pottery hippies over the edge....already having the munchies and then throwing this at them.


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## madrone (May 19, 2009)

Adios Pantalones said:
			
		

> An oil drip system is real easy to construct- some have 3 pieces of channel iron arranged in sloping steps so that the oil drips from one piece to the next as it burns.



That's the one. I'm looking forward to seeing it in action. No word about fry oil, but they're talking about building a bbq with a pallet of off-size bricks they mistakenly ordered. Usually the rest of the campus complains about the smoke, but that might change things.


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## Adios Pantalones (May 19, 2009)

A passive damper can be constructed for the chimney that may help reduce smoke- air introduced there mixes and combusts with the smoke.  An afterburner can also be installed to post-combust it.


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## madrone (May 19, 2009)

Damper's a great idea. I'll mention it. Things have actually drastically improved since they started burning dry seasoned wood instead of splitting it the day before the firing.


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## johnn (May 19, 2009)

Nice too come back on line to some more of your pieces.. sake  cup glaze,,indeed a keeper!! Looks like old english leather!


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