[weeble]

Yikes, that takes guts. I stack, I wedge stuff in, I pile em up, but that... OY. I'm firing for a very mixed group, all handbuilding, and I know there are a lot of very delicate sculptural pieces and some real doorstops in every load. The other end of it is we just plain run out of drying room LONG before we have that big a load of bisque! LOL Good to know its not really a problem to do though!

[Lucille Oka]

Okay the firing was fine. I had planned to do three vessels but one vessel was not ready. It had to get a coat of underglaze to be hardened on and could not be placed on or touching the others due to possible fuming. So I just placed one vessel on top of the other with large posts used as props on either side of the two vessels. Also the two vessels were lidded and cylindrical one of them in particular had to keep the lid in place as it fired horizontally. the other lid was placed inside the bottom vessel. There was a bit of fuming from the bottom vessel to the top one. But that is okay the top one will be given a covering of an opaque glaze. Sorry I can't give you pictures; not set up for it.

A stacking of two cylindrical vessels was not much of a stretch of courage, but I was antsy about the props moving but since this was a first stacking and it did well, I will try it again.

Thanks a lot for sharing to- Mark, Neil, Marcia, Denice, and Pres "The Pot Stackers". I hope I didn't miss thanking anyone it was not intentionally done.

[emptynester]

Question: Does it take longer to reach final temperature with this much mass? Or, is it more efficient because the clay holds temperature better than the empty air spaces in a loosely filled kiln?

[Diana Ferreira]

we use Alumina on our kiln shelves. They are not removed between firings, and thus the shelves need to be stored horizontally. But, to prevent the alumina from sticking to the bottoms of the shelves, we made little 6 mm high disks out of clay. 3 on each shelve, and you can stack 20 - 30 shelves. I use those little discs for stability when I stack my bisque kiln, because I am always scared that my vases, etc will roll around. I can almost fill my 15 cubic with glazed work from my 4.5 cubic bisque kiln.

[bciskepottery]

You should reach final temperture sooner . . . tumbling eliminates the mass of kiln shelves that also absorb heat during a firing.

[vervain]

After seeing this I partially tumble stacked my last bisque load. Worked great! It really was amazing to see how much space I had been wasting before!

Couple of question though-- does anyone who uses this method use a kiln sitter, and do you worry about things dislodging and falling on the mechanism? That was the reason I ended up putting a shelf in there. I was too afraid of something somehow falling and my kiln not shutting off.

Secondly, it looks in the picture like that kiln is packed all the way to the walls. Doesn't it shorten the life of the elements to have things touching them? Or maybe I'm just not seeing the spaces...

[Mark C.]

vervain, on 30 January 2013 - 03:58 PM, said:

After seeing this I partially tumble stacked my last bisque load. Worked great! It really was amazing to see how much space I had been wasting before!

Couple of question though-- does anyone who uses this method use a kiln sitter, and do you worry about things dislodging and falling on the mechanism? That was the reason I ended up putting a shelf in there. I was too afraid of something somehow falling and my kiln not shutting off.

Secondly, it looks in the picture like that kiln is packed all the way to the walls. Doesn't it shorten the life of the elements to have things touching them? Or maybe I'm just not seeing the spaces...

I do use a sitter and you want to leave room around it- And make sure nothing can fall on the sitter. This photo does not show but the load also has shelves in it and is more tumble stacked on top than bottom. I usually do not stack against walls but now and again pots touch a wall but rarely.

As you have learned -all that wasted space with room around every pot its such a waste. The idea is getting the most work in the space and now you are on that path.
Mark

[vervain]

Thank you for the clarification!

I think what I really need to do is get a little bit more kiln furniture. My setup is sort of an inherited amalgamation of oddly sized posts and broken shelves (hey, free is free, and the kiln itself works!). If I had the right stuff to be able to put a shelf above the kiln sitter to protect things from fallign on it, I would have a lot more usable firing space with less worry about my studio burning down.