Wood fire kiln | JKBlackburn

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The Smaug- seat of the pants design firebox wood kiln.

My wife and I started this project in June of 2017.

We worked on and off on it until completion and first firing in May of 2018. You can hover the image to see details or simply click the first image and then go through and read the details on each photo.

We welcome any inquiries if there are any comments or questions. Thanks.

The brick.

These are Kruzite 70's high alumina brick. We moved these 50 at a time from a supplier I know. They each weigh about 25lbs. My little truck did yeomans duty transporting them. 1600 altogether.

August, 2017. Beginning the kiln house

We expanded the parking area and built front fence along with an electric gate.

Next we installed the 6x6 posts.

The foot print is about 28' x 24'

Here are the girder trusses.

The girder trusses hold the roof perlons on.

The roof install.

The steel roofing is installed next. We extended the last posts to add another roof section on later. They are higher to compensate for the change in grade.

The finished roof and fence line

The kiln footprint

next we formed up the kiln pad and poured the concrete, reinforced with 5/8 rebar.

Laying out the kiln floor.

All of the brick are either no.1 or no. 2 arch brick which made designing a little complex.

The floor and back chimney.

Making the arch frame.

The arch brick were layed out and the arch form was drawn out on a 3/4 piece of plywood.

The form in place.

1 x 2 pine slats were used for brick support.

Starting the brick up of the arch.

A bad photo of starting the brick up.

The arch up to keyway

This photo shows figuring out how to cut the final key brick to hold the arch.

Meanwhile, in the back...

The chimney was another challange with these brick. I ended up making a mini recurve arch to form the chimney and back wall.

Meanwhile cont...no 2

a little detail, it took many attempts to get this correct.

Meanwhile cont...No 3

This is a close up of the recurve resting on a slightly constricted back wall chimney.

Then the exit flue in next.

Now that I was able to taper down the chimney with the recurve arch, the final dimensions are set in stone so to speak.

The arch keyway.

The final cut keyway ready for the last arch brick.

The cut brick.

I made a templete to cut each keybrick. 2 cuts each. Alternating the arch bricks to get a tight fit.

Completed keyway.

This took the better part of a day to cut and place.

Front view of the catanary arch.

Meanwhile, the chimney...

continues up to the roof line.

The damper slot.

This took another day to figure and cut, but an importent part to get correct.

The form comes out.

Always fun when the form gets pulled o;ut.

Completed form.

Here I thank all the folks that helped me:

Ron Immer

Bob Ferguson

Steve Davis

Brent Tenborg and Baker refractories

Craig Koch construction

many friends with their two thumbs up

and especially my wife, who is always willing to help and offer support.

JKBlackburn
Ceramic Artist
Atmospheric fired stoneware and porcelain

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