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Joshua Barretto

I'm quite surprised that the kiln got up to those sort of temperatures given its size. At 10 bricks + a paving slab, it's the sort of thing you could fairly easily carry to the beach or some other isolated spot if you live in a flat and don't have access to a garden or yard (check your local laws to make sure you can do it legally, of course). Also, barbeque charcoal is cheap and easy to come by (maybe less so in winter admittedly).

8 comments
Joshua Barretto

I think I might try to make a small mug next

Joshua Barretto

I completely forgot to post this. Last week I made a mug and fired it.

Results:

- Temperature got up to 1,400 °C, higher than the melting point of iron. Far too hot!
- Using a fan to force air into the bottom is unreasonably effective
- I did a very stupid and wrapped the pottery in foil beforehand (to avoid scorching). Predictably, the foil melted and infused into the pottery. Results are not pretty.

nadja

@jsbarretto I mean you have a high-temperature probe already, go build a PID-controlled fan :P

nadja

@jsbarretto I'm looking forward to that, take plenty photos ;)

Joshua Barretto

Over the week I made another mug. Much better formed. I fired it today and the results are quite pretty. Unfortunately I had very little charcoal left and I couldn't fire it for more than about 45 minutes, which is nowhere near long enough. It's since broken :( Also, not nearly enough glazing. Lessons have been learned, however!

One of those lessons is to buy a better quality thermocouple that won't melt 350 °C below its rated temperature.

Workshopshed

@jsbarretto oh yes, charcoal plus fan makes for very hot temperatures

Joshua Barretto

@Workshopshed Indeed, and the more air you can throw at it, the cleaner it burns: there was almost no (visible) smoke coming off the thing at all!

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