Building and firing a wood fired soda kiln
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The original kiln at Judy's studio
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I had to build a support in place to take the arch down.
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Prepping where the new kiln will live, this is right beside my existing kiln
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First course of bricks!
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Ceramic paper under the floor course
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Now the rough layout is there, where the flue channels and the firebox are
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A little higher. This shows the opening for the main chamber, the door to the ash pit and where the skew blocks will be for the throat arch. Also at the front of the kiln, I added 8 mouse holes for burning down the ash pit if it gets too big. That was probably overkill, but better safe than sorry.
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Beginning the throat arch, the skew blocks are made from refractory cement. You can make it yourself from regular cement, slaked lime, alumina hydroxide and stuff, but, not worth it to me. It is expensive but saves a lot of time. The arch bricks I used were left over from my first kiln.
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More refractory cement on top to level it off. This should have been poured at least one more course higher.
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That thinnest part cracks after a few firings, in 2024 I rebuilt the firebox and reinforced the arch
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Staging all the bricks in the rows as they came from the original kiln. During the tear down I numbered them all so I knew exactly where they went.
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A test of the arch, with the original form. It is just, way too tall. I do not know if there is a hard and fast kiln design rule, but, just looking at it, and knowing where the main firebox would be, it seemed like there was no way that flame would go all the way down to the ash pit, then back up all the way to the top of the arch. It just looked wrong.
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Laying out a new catenary arch
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Keystone poured
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Another error, the grate should have been four bars, this was changed in the 2024 redesign
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Pouring refractory for the dampers
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My first very dumb idea for the top of the door, a sprung arch off the two sides of the door.
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I left the door knowing it was not working and built up the firebox
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Foreman paid a visit
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Foreman said I was an idiot. She said that the door top should just be the main arch extended out a half brick. It was one of those Doh moments. So, I got rid of that crappy sprung arch and knocked out a couple of half bricks in the arch and replaced them with full, then filled in the spaces with new half bricks. And of course, cut a couple keystone bricks for the top.
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Back wall
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Layout out the inner door
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Outer door and sides
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Stoke hole doors, these changed in the 2024 redesign to run on suspended flat bar.
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Holy shit, it is a kiln
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Loading the first firing
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Linda Dougherty, the local godmother of wood firing.
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3:45 the next morning, first flame in the ashpit door.
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Toeknee Wilson very generously donated many of the bricks, especially chimney
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The biggest challenge firing Judy is keeping the airflow going in the right direction, it is very easy to make the primary air be the source of draw.
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Linda and Rebecca spraying after seeing movement on the cones
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Between spraying and boards we put in about 2kg of soda, in otherwords, shit tonnes
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Molly supervising Leon and Rebecca.
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Soda vapour coming out the chimney
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The wonderful Molly Magid. RIP
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