Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Christy's moving up in the world

Christy continues her progress upward on the chimney. Unfortunately we are all out of good clean bricks, so I've taken up the task of cutting and and cleaning bricks for the chimney. Christy's become quite the chimney princess, as I run around below cleaning her bricks, and passing up whatever else the princess might need.We've also completed the sidewalls, and cast the side stoking ports. We cast the ports around plastic planters which seemed to be the size and shape we want.
Joe

3 comments:

klineola said...

Maybe you have already covered this, but why the round stoke doors, and round chimney. Don't get me wrong, I think the chimney is great, but I have round peeps and have to make custom bricks for them and when they break it's a problem of replacement. I have a few extra that I've made to replace any that might break during a firing. The kiln looks great!

Joe and Christy said...

Michael,
We chose the round chimney for a couple of reasons. They use quite a few less bricks as compared with a rectangular chimney. Really though I just think they are pretty.
The round stoking doors, we put in, in hopes of having a door slightly larger than the standard 4.5"x5". ours are 5.75" diameter. Also we are hoping that they seal up better than a square door, not letting in any air where we don't want it. We are hoping to cast plugs for them, or throw plugs using a mulite, kaolin mixture. It's a learning experience, and hopefully a choice we won't regret...
How do you make plugs for your round peeps?
Joe

klineola said...

I love the round chimney also.
To answer your question, I threw my plugs with a mixture of fire clay, kyanite(because I had a bunch of it), alumina, sand, and fine sawdust. I pulled handles on the open ends to draw them with. They are just like a big tumbler with a flared end on the outside, not unlike a trumpet. I made them in this shape for the same reasons you have said: to seal up the opening as much as possible. I have since heard of using other burnout materials, such as cous cous. My reason for using sawdust was to make them lighter. I check my cones a lot and didn't want to get tired from hefting heavy plugs.