Terra Cotta: My musings on...and resulting actions with.

[HorseloverFat]

An hour in on “big boy heat”..

Shelves are glowing..

 

[HorseloverFat]

2 hours on gas..

Pieces are beginning to glow.. cone is whitening..

No adjustments made to (above) choke or pressure settings.

 

[sorce]

Have you adjusted that wing...ahem...nut, to adjust your primary Air?

Seems tight.

Secondary Air recommends your burner face be a half inch away from your hole that is cut 1in. Larger than your burner. Your secondary air (minus leaks around the entire seal) seems a wee tight.

If so, you may be able to open your primary to accommodate.

Not only for efficiency, but to be sure you are in oxidation. It is said a kiln can't be in oxidation till around 1500F. You'll want to maximize oxygen then to ensure a good burnout of organics, and to keep iron from reducing and slumping.
Most folks leave primary and secondary air on full open and adjust pressure with just the damper.

Man....they said snow today or I would be firing too!

Sorce

 

[HorseloverFat]

So open the choke to accommodate for the tight door?

And yes I started at a good
baseline for my air.

It’s gonna snow here.. it was just the warmest day for a while.

 

[sorce]

open the choke to accommodate for the tight door?

Only if you end up needing to. Or if you can fiddle for more efficincy, but it seems ok so far.

Just be sure you're in oxidation, with no flame blowing out the chimney, for a good while after 1500F till your cones fall.

Because your cones will fall.

Sorce

 

[HorseloverFat]

Only if you end up needing to. Or if you can fiddle for more efficincy, but it seems ok so far.

Just be sure you're in oxidation, with no flame blowing out the chimney, for a good while after 1500F till your cones fall.

Because your cones will fall.

Sorce

Ok... I was thinking it seems very... um “apt” at least at the moment.

Thank you, much, friend.

 

[Millard B.]

Just joined the site last week looking for a source for Black Pine seedlings for my grafting project. I've joined the WPB Bonsai Club in 1979 and started making my own bonsai pots in 1989, have learned a lot along the way. At the time a 25lb block of clay cost $10, so to save a dollar while on vacation I dug five 5 gallon buckets of clay from a creek bank of the Erie Canal near my late wife's hometown of Oneida NY, removing every shovelful was a supreme effort, then carrying the buckets 200 yards across a cow pasture, transported the clay back to Florida, dried it out, ran it thru a 1/8" screen to remove fine pebbles and fine roots, dried it ,then ran it thru my pugmill, then bagged it up. The clay threw very well but slumped at cone 6- a dark chocolate brown, basically Albany Slip. After digging it up, drying it, screening it, pugging it, and bagging it I figure it consumed better than two full days of my time. Not cost effective at all- 5 blocks of clay would have set me back about $50.00. In 1830, without machinery, the Erie Canal was dug by Germans, Italians, and Poles -300 miles long, 5' deep, and 50' wide- WOW!

 

[HorseloverFat]

Just joined the site last week looking for a source for Black Pine seedlings for my grafting project. I've joined the WPB Bonsai Club in 1979 and started making my own bonsai pots in 1989, have learned a lot along the way. At the time a 25lb block of clay cost $10, so to save a dollar while on vacation I dug five 5 gallon buckets of clay from a creek bank of the Erie Canal near my late wife's hometown of Oneida NY, removing every shovelful was a supreme effort, then carrying the buckets 200 yards across a cow pasture, transported the clay back to Florida, dried it out, ran it thru a 1/8" screen to remove fine pebbles and fine roots, dried it ,then ran it thru my pugmill, then bagged it up. The clay threw very well but slumped at cone 6- a dark chocolate brown, basically Albany Slip. After digging it up, drying it, screening it, pugging it, and bagging it I figure it consumed better than two full days of my time. Not cost effective at all- 5 blocks of clay would have set me back about $50.00. In 1830, without machinery, the Erie Canal was dug by Germans, Italians, and Poles -300 miles long, 5' deep, and 50' wide- WOW!

With me.. I’m always frequenting spots that I can collect, while convening with nature... I always have a rucksack.

Thank you for sharing that.

 

[HorseloverFat]

3 hours on flame.. slight adjustments to choke and pressure...

Cone is whitened almost completely.

 

[sorce]

Bought to be more white than just that cone eh?

Sorce

 

[HorseloverFat]

4 hours on flame...

Looks like in the last hour.. my kiln worked REEEAL hard to get that extra air... damn... Patchwork needed after this fire...

So I opened the “door area” up a bit.. not modifying anything else.

 

[HorseloverFat]

6 hours on flame...

Open wide, lettin’er ride.

 

[HorseloverFat]

8 Hours... Steady as she goes.

 

[leatherback]

loooong process. And you heat it all with a gas flame thrower?

 

[HorseloverFat]

loooong process. And you heat it all with a gas flame thrower?

Yes sir. It’s more about (I am learning) how you catch and hold the energy from the flamethrower. A much different approach than a woodfire.

 

[HorseloverFat]

Well.. the first 18 hours are on an electric charcoal lighter... “prepping” as it were.

 

[HorseloverFat]

When I went for my 9 hour “hey, how ya doin?”.. the “door tool” i constructed had broken slightly, from what APPEARS to be a big “drip” falling from the roof..

And it was trying to breathe with the choke where it was... factored for the tight SECONDARY air intake..

But I got her “righted”... all is well.

 

[HorseloverFat]

Just shy of 11 hours.... Roarin’ like a champ.. “taking” some wicked wind gusts with grace and elegance...
It’s not going to be cold enough for snow until about 2 a.m.

So within the next hour I will need to make “cover” for certain parts of my operation.
Bring it on! Riding the storm out!

 

[Carol 83]

Well.. the first 18 hours are on an electric charcoal lighter... “prepping” as it were.

You could have made a bunch of ribs, a pork butt and brisket if that was a smoker. Sorry, that's just how I think. Carry on, good luck.

 

[HorseloverFat]

Mmmmmmm..... Brisket.