Paul on tue 14 may 02
I have a few last minute questions for any of the experts out there who are
feeling particularly gracious (and patient).
I am ready to build the arch and most of the bricks, and the rest of the
kiln, is from an old kiln i tore down a while back. I got a good deal on
some new 2600 ifbs at the last minute, which i used mostly on the hot face.
Due to some irregularities in matching up old and new brick, the side walls
have a very slight inward slant. They seem stable, but does anyone think
that this will make the kiln deteriorate faster than normal, or do you think
that the outward force of the arch will help compensate for this? Sounds
like a strange situation, i know, but i would never have been able to afford
to build a kiln from scratch, so i have to deal with this kind of thing.
The other thing i still have not been able to find out is what angle
should
the skews be cut at. I have looked at the charts in Olsen's book but none of
them seem to address specifically the type of arch i have, which has about
3" of rise per foot of span. From looking closely at the arch form, it seems
like a 45 degree skew would work but i would like to know if anyone has any
exact method of figuring it out. Also, i have some hard-duty featheredge
skew bricks from the old kiln which look like they might fit if laid on the
side, which i think is not how they are normally used.
Thanks again,
Paul
John Weber on wed 15 may 02
Paul, I too built an arch by the "seat of my pants". Maybe someone who
really knows what they are talking about will respond, but here is how I
solved your second problem. I just laid out the brick on the ground with my
form and when I got to the skew brick I just eye-balled it. It seems to me
that the only critical issue is that it has to match with the angle of the
arch brick so you have a flush fit. The more critical brick for me was the
key brick on top. I just eye-balled it as well and with some minor
modification it all fit fine and has fired well for several years. As I
mentioned in another post today, if you can get a copy of Robert
Piepenburg's book, The Spirit of Clay, he shows exactly what I am describing
at page 382.
As to your first question, I also had to use new and old brick, and everyone
said it would be a problem. Well, it is a problem because everything just
doesn't fit like you would like to fit. So, you end up with a looser kiln
and if you fire in reduction, you may need to plug holes as you go along.
However, it will still work until you win the lottery or sell all those
pots. By the way, I think if you can afford it, don't mix the new and old
brick in the roof. Good luck. John Weber
-----Original Message-----
From: Ceramic Arts Discussion List [mailto:CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG]On
Behalf Of Paul
Sent: Tuesday, May 14, 2002 4:00 PM
To: CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG
Subject: ARCH CONTRUCTION
I have a few last minute questions for any of the experts out there who are
feeling particularly gracious (and patient).
I am ready to build the arch and most of the bricks, and the rest of the
kiln, is from an old kiln i tore down a while back. I got a good deal on
some new 2600 ifbs at the last minute, which i used mostly on the hot face.
Due to some irregularities in matching up old and new brick, the side walls
have a very slight inward slant. They seem stable, but does anyone think
that this will make the kiln deteriorate faster than normal, or do you think
that the outward force of the arch will help compensate for this? Sounds
like a strange situation, i know, but i would never have been able to afford
to build a kiln from scratch, so i have to deal with this kind of thing.
The other thing i still have not been able to find out is what angle
should
the skews be cut at. I have looked at the charts in Olsen's book but none of
them seem to address specifically the type of arch i have, which has about
3" of rise per foot of span. From looking closely at the arch form, it seems
like a 45 degree skew would work but i would like to know if anyone has any
exact method of figuring it out. Also, i have some hard-duty featheredge
skew bricks from the old kiln which look like they might fit if laid on the
side, which i think is not how they are normally used.
Thanks again,
Paul
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Snail Scott on wed 15 may 02
At 03:59 PM 5/14/02 -0400, you wrote:
>Due to some irregularities in matching up old and new brick, the side walls
>have a very slight inward slant. They seem stable, but does anyone think
>that this will make the kiln deteriorate faster than normal...
This sounds like a good thing to me! An inward
slant will have greater resistance to the
outward push of the arch than a straight wall,
and much better than an outward-leaning wall.
-Snail
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