Building a Kiln
Home About the Pottery Kitchen Ware Sculpture Building a Kiln

A Short How-To

This past summer I knew I needed to rebuild my kiln but realized I didn't have the money to make the same brick sprung arch I had used last.  I had always wanted to try casting a kiln and had had success with catenary arch kilns in the past.  So I decided to go with what felt right and for a minimum output and quite a lot of labour and thanks to friends, I now have a kiln I like to fire and which gives me good results.

Text Box: I started with a shape which is self supporting and esthetically appealing. It comes from hanging a chain between two nails the width of the proposed kiln. Tracing that shape onto plywood gives you the outline for the ends of the arch form. The castable mix I arrived at from lots of reading of others who had done similar kilns but adjusting the mix to adapt to my needs. Then with a mixer and a bunch of friends we spent a weekend doing the casting. It was hot dirty work but fun and satisfying to see the results. Then after insulting the kiln and building the chimney from old bricks I figured out how to support the burners and cut the old door bricks to fit the new opening. I topped the door opening with a new cast arch brick. The first firing went extremely well using far less gas than my old kiln and giving good colour and texture to the pots within.  It proved to be a size enjoyable to load and relatively easy to fill.  There was a fair bit of shrapnel which landed on the pots during the firing and gave them a very rough feel.  Especially those pots on the top shelves had to be ground and re-fired or even in the worst cases thrown out.  But in succeeding firings that resolved itself as the salt coated the walls and arch a little.  I also coated the interior with a very thin covering of kiln wash to brush off the loose bits and help bond the surface.  The kiln has been fairly even in temperature although I will have to get used to the amount of air space everything needs.  This seems to change in every kiln I've fired. Many thanks to Patrick as always and my daughter Aine who brought her friends (who I hope are now mine) Matt, Janey, their baby Sage, Sue and Hide. Thanks also to Melvin who lent the mixer .

kiln form

Hide screwing in the boards

castable arch

removing the form

casting the back

the essential mixer-thanks Melvin

mixing mess

quality control

arch and back in place

happy builders 1

happy builders 2

dirty group

back wall insulated with old brick

chimney base

damper slot

attaching fiber

front with burner port and salt port

fiber blanket on front

kiln loaded and ready to brick up

door bricked Ready to fire!