: Rakuken - Viewing Profile

Hi all,

I can't find much information already on glass infused pottery, how to do it, and the like - but I wanted to try using reclaimed bottles (bottle frit from the same manufacturer, same bottle type,etc)... can someone tell me or give me even basic information on how this process is done? I googled it but really didn't find much information on it - which I was kind of surprise.
Very interesting - want to try it!!

Thanks!

Charlene

I read somewhere that to keep the stilt in the exactly right position on the bottom of a glazed pot while placing it in the kiln you can use glue. Sounds great! But what kind of glue? Will Elmer's type work? Some of my larger handbuilt pieces have warped in the glaze firing because, evidently, I didn't set it down on the stilts just in the right place, due to not being able to see what I was doing!

My first firing was about 10 years ago, no fiber, one forced air burner, cone 10 in 4 hours. It was too fast, unlike the Olympic Torchbearer the top was 2 cones cooler. Over the years I added fiber, another burner and two collars. I added fiber to slow the cooling for better glaze colors. Adding the second burner at the top evens out the firing. The forced air burner are very efficient. I now fire in about 7 hours to cone 10 with about 9 gallons of propane.

Aloha, Ken

I converted a 10 CuFt Olympic Torchbearer in a similar fashion and I used 2 MR 750 burners on high pressure propane and never had to exceed 5 PSI to fire to cone 10. I could easily have run most firings in 6 hours or even less if I wanted to as the the MR 750 has more than ample capacity on HP propane (BTU/Hr) to fire a 10 CuFt kiln even with just 3 inches of IFB. I never added any insulation except at the base as it was hard brick (a terrible heat sink-probably eating 20K BTU/Hr per firing). My intent was more to explore the possibility of converting to down draft and really wanted to even out the firing and have more predicatable and even reduction. I never planned to fire long term with it as I new I was going to build a more permanent kiln eventually. My chimney cross section area was 42.25 Sq inches (107 cmsq) but I was nearly 9 feet tall to get suffecient draft, and even that was less than I wanted. Simon Leach fires a salvaged electric 10cuft kiln with 2 weed burners from the hardware store and no additional insulation with a smaller chimney diameter and a stack height equal to the ht of the kiln - though for the life of me I am not sure why it works as well as it does. I added some height to my chimney because the flame path on exit traversed the bottom of the kiln, Simons ported directly into a chimney inside the chamber. I did coat the inside with HTC 100. If you have enough draft it looks like you have the needed energy input and you should be able to fire to cone 10 with your set up. It will not be very effecient of course, the addition of Cerawool to the exterior of the chanber and lid will improve on that significantly and represent a cost savings over time. I was using 100 lb tanks and they hold 2.2 million BTU (about 23 gallons), and I estimated I needed about 350,000 BTU per hour for the 3 inch IFB torchbearer to hit cone 10 in 6 to 8 hours of firing. Most firings were done in under 8 hours and did not quite use a full 100 lb tank (ie 23 gallons of propane). It was pretty wastefull. Interestingly when I was designing mynew kiln I came up with nearly the same BTU/Hr (320K) to make cone 10 in 8 hours, but it is more than twice the cubic feet because.
When I was in the contemplation stage of this build I went to see a kiln near me that a friend said the owner would let us use if we could get it to fire. When we checked it out it was nearly 40 cubic feet and of all hard brick. She was trying to fire it on 4 MR 750 burners running 8 in wc natural gas. After a failed first firing she added more hard bring to the interior to reduce the chanber size, which added more thermal mass, but did reduce the input needed slightly. The chimney size and hieght looked right, but when I ran the calculations the kiln as it stood would have needed over 2 million BTU per hour to fire to cone 10 in 8 to 10 hours! If we could have provided that energy input it probalby would have fired, but who could afford it? not to mention what temperature the exterior of the kiln might have hit over that time.