Converting an Electric Kiln

for Wood or Gas Firing

by Bruce Bowers

Vase, 11 inches in height, thrown and altered stoneware, with Green Crackle Glaze, Orange and Black Slip, soda/wood fired to cone 11.

Covered jar, 11 inches in height, thrown, altered and carved stoneware, with Green Crackle Glaze, soda/wood fired to cone 11.

hose of us living in urban areas have limited access to ring in a fuel-burning kiln, because stringent zoning and re regulations place severe limitations on our ability to build outdoor kilns near our homes. While many potters nd a community college or local ceramics organization that has a gas or wood kiln, this situation often means turning your work over to someone else who is in strict control of this crucial part of the creative process. For more serious students, this situation can be less than satisfactory, but easily remedied.

When I taught at Hiram College in Hiram, Ohio, I could re my pots in the colleges gas kiln. This allowed me to experience all of the excitement, surprise and mystery of reduction ring. Later, when I moved to an urban area just outside of Washington, D.C., my only means of ring was in an electric kiln, and my work changed accordingly. Although this held my interest for a long time, I came to miss the adventure and the unexpected results that can come from ring in a fuelburning kiln. Electric kilns are wonderful tools, but my creative needs

96

Electric Firing

Bowl, 6 inches in diameter, thrown and altered stoneware, with Shino Glaze and Black Slip, soda/wood fired to cone 11, by Bruce Bowers.

demanded another ring method. It was frustrating to think that my options were limited. I started teaching at Glen Echo Pottery in Maryland. I am able to re in a gas kiln again, and we also rent various wood kilns in rural areas. After becoming absolutely hooked on the wood-ring process, I began to think about how I could achieve some of the same effects on my own and with my students. As it turned out, the answer was right under my nose. There were several old electric kilns in storage that we thought

were beyond redemption. With encouragement from the potterys director, we converted one of these old kilns to gas and added a stoke hole for wood. The entire conversion took about three hours. In my wildest dreams, I never thought the nished kiln would produce the results it has. We are able to get terric ashing, ash buildup and, by adding a small amount of soda, a richness of surface that is usually reserved for pots produced in large, wood-red kilns. As a matter of fact, I just had a group of pots red in a big three-chambered wood kiln and, when I put these side

97

Ceramic Arts Handbook

insulating rebrick chimney

661-inch rebrick damper

4-inch-diameter flue 10101-inch cover shelf, centered 2 inches below flue

peep hole

5-inch-diameter burner port 110-inch strips of silicon carbide kiln shelf layer of kiln-shelf scraps and ber insulation, coated with alumina hydrate

3-inch-diameter stoke hole

double-layer floor

stack of bricks under center of kiln floor for support

by side with my pots red in the conversion kiln, I could hardly tell the difference. The kiln conversion was virtually free. We used old silicon carbide shelves (sometimes broken ones), old posts and an existing propane burner on a exible hose. Our only cost was a few dollars for kiln wash and clay to ll the old element grooves. Further, the kiln operates very efciently, on less than 5 pounds of propane pressure, so the cost per ring is quite low. This is an easy classroom project that involves students in the actual ring process. To get started, a simple ad placed in the newspaper or a yer posted at your local pottery supplier could yield an old beater kiln just taking up room in someones garage.

Our classes run in six-week sessions and we always re our conversion kiln on the last day of the course. Each student is assigned a 20-minute stoking shift, and the entire class observes and participates in each phase of the ring. They cut and prepare the wood, prepare and stack the kiln, re, and then unload and clean up. Students feel very much in touch with their nished pots, since theyve paid careful attention to each part of the creative process.

Converting the Kiln

The bottom of the kiln was composed of two electric kiln bottoms sandwiched together. Broken shelves were then installed on top of this and the chinks between the shelves were lled with ber insulation. This entire oor was then liberally sprin-

98

Electric Firing

kled with alumina hydrate. Makeshift hobs, made of broken silicon carbide kiln shelves, were placed on the oor and braced by brick fragments. These keep the wood above the oor of the kiln to allow better air circulation and, as a result, better combustion. The rebox, therefore, occupies the bottom 5 inches of the kiln. Both gas and wood are introduced through the rebox. All elements and electrical components were removed from the kiln, and the element grooves were lled with a very open clay body, composed of 50% reclay and 50% sawdust by volume. Two holes were cut in the jacket and bricks, using a drill bit and a reciprocating saw. One hole is at six oclock (burner port) and the other is at about one oclock (stoke hole). A hole about 4 inches wide was cut in the lid, and a rudimentary chimney was made by placing four K23 insulating re bricks on end to form an open rectangle. The outside of the lid and the area around the chimney were then covered with scraps of ber insulation to inhibit excessive heat loss. A damper was made by simply placing two thin sections of insulating brick on top of the chimney. All shelves, and the tops and bottoms of all posts, were liberally coated with a high-alumina kiln wash of 50 parts alumina hydrate, 25 parts silica and 25 parts EPK Kaolin. For wadding, we used 50 parts alumina hydrate and 50 parts EPK (all above measurements are by weight). The interior of the kiln, including the lid,

The burner for the conversion kiln is braced with brick on one side of the kiln, while the stoke hole for salt-soaked wood is on the other.

was coated with this same kiln-wash mixture. It is important to emphasize that the shelves used in a kiln of this type should not be full rounds. We used sections of old broken silicon carbide shelves, leaving plenty of room for ame circulation around and up through the center of the setting. It is also very important to place a cover shelf about 2 inches below the inside of the lid, above the stacked ware. This helps prevent a cold top section and also helps create thorough circulation of the ame. A 99-inch piece of silicon carbide

99

Ceramic Arts Handbook

shelf works well. We were able to get a temperature differential of less than one cone between the top and bottom of the kiln.

Firing schedule
9 A.M. Open damper fully, turn gas to 1 pound of pressure and open primary air ange to produce a short, oxidizing ame. 10 A.M. The rst blush of color is seen in the kiln atmosphere. The damper is still fully open and the gas is turned to 2.5 pounds of pressure. Primary air is opened slightly to continue with fully oxidizing ame. 11:30 A.M. cone 08 is down. The damper is closed slightly. The gas pressure is turned up to about 4 pounds. Primary air is cut back slightly. No blowback of ame at the burner port is visible at any point in the ring cycle. (We have had our best results when we forego a amedeecting brick inside of the burner port.) A distinctly orange ame about 6 inches long is consistently visible at the damper during this stage of clay body reduction. There is also slight backpressure at the bottom stoke hole and a lazy, hazy ame is traveling throughout the kiln. No smoke is visible. 12:30 P.M. The damper is almost fully open. Gas pressure is turned up to slightly less than 5 pounds. Primary air is opened a bit to create a neutral atmosphere. A short ame is visible at the damper (light orange with a slight greenish tinge). At this point, wood is added, one piece at a time, through the stoke hole. This activity immediately cre-

Gas and Wood

Our kiln is red with propane gas using a model S-22 atmospheric Venturi burner, made by the Hauck Manufacturing Company in Lebanon, Pennsylvania. A exible hose allows the burner to be used for our conversion kiln as well as for our main gas kiln. The converted kiln is red with gas pressure from one pound to slightly over four pounds. The gas burner is augmented by the inclusion of about 100 running feet of 12-inch pine (#2 pine). The wood is sawed into 1-foot lengths and soaked in a super-saturated solution of 1 pound of soda bicarbonate (baking soda) and one pound of sodium carbonate (soda ash) for about ve days. By slowly adding these two chemicals to boiling water, it is easy to create a super-saturated solution. The wood is then dried in the sun. When done properly, a thin white residue will be visible on the surface of the boards. This technique allows the soda to be introduced very slowly and to naturally follow the direction of the ame and ash. Also, 8 ounces (total) of fully saturated salt water is sprayed onto the last 25 lengths of wood, to be stoked after cone 9 is bending. This helps prevent totally dry areas on the pots.

100

Electric Firing

ates a reducing atmosphere and the stoke hole is quickly plugged with a piece of soft brick after each addition of wood. Pine burns with a long, somewhat lazy ame and its effects are immediately apparent in the kiln atmosphere. The kiln is allowed to clear completely to neutral before the next stoking. Cone 2 is reached at about 1 P.M. 1:30 P.M. cone 8 is just starting to bend. From this point on, we make virtually no adjustments to the gas pressure, the damper setting or the amount of primary air. We are simply ring with a neutral atmosphere (as far as the gas is concerned), and are falling into a pattern of alternating neutral and reducing atmospheres similar to those that one would achieve in a normal wood-red kiln. Stoking of the soda-soaked (but dried) pine is increased to two pieces at a time. A moderate orange ame appears at the damper after each stoking. After letting the kiln atmosphere clear for about ve minutes, we repeat the process. 2:304:30 P.M. All settings remain the same, except stoking increases to the rate of three pieces of pine about every ve to seven minutes. This creates moderately heavy reduction with no smoke but with a strong orange ame about 12 inches high at the damper. The kiln clears to neutral and then is stoked again. cone 9 is down by 3 P.M. After 3

P.M., the same stoking frequency is maintained, but 8 ounces of fully saturated salt water is sprayed, using a plant mister, directly onto the pine just before stoking. This is repeated with each stoke cycle using only a small volume of the solution each time. The water vapor and the burning wood help distribute the salt along the path of the ame. Due to the high vapor pressure of salt, it migrates throughout the kiln very well. At 4:30, cone 10 is down and the main propane tank is turned off, the line to the burner is bled and the kiln is closed. The temperature climb slows quite a bit during the last two hours. It is very easy to get to cone 8, but harder to get to cones 9 and 10. This is partially due to the increase in stoking and the accompanying reduction. It is also the result of ring in a kiln that was originally rated for cone 68. We are, therefore, pushing the insulating properties of the refractory bricks and are losing a lot of heat through the walls and lid. We estimate that, with proper care and religious kiln washing, this kiln should be able to withstand about 40 rings. Luckily, we have a few more abandoned kilns waiting for conversion and several offers of future donations. For people who love wood ring, but dont have ready access to a wood kiln, this project is a wonderful adventure.

101

Ceramic Arts Handbook

Recipes
In our conversion kiln, we have our best results with light-colored, low-iron stoneware clay bodies . Porcelain also works very well, and can yield very handsome carbon trapping when hit directly by the soda . We nd that higher-iron bodies tend to look muddy and exhibit very little ashing, unless covered with a white slip .

Orange Slip
Cone 10

Shino Glaze
Cone 10

Kentucky OM 4 Ball Clay . . . . . . . 42 .0 % Avery Kaolin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 .0 Borax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 .4 Zircopax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 .6 100 .0 %

This slip ashes nicely on light clay bodies and produces color in the orange, red and tan range . It needs some soda or salt to look its best . Apply to leather-hard clay or bisqueware .

Soda Ash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Nepheline Syenite . . . . . . . . . . . . Soda Feldspar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Spodumene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ball Clay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . EPK Kaolin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

4 .0 % 45 .0 18 .4 15 .2 15 .0 2 .4 100 .0 %

This bleaches to a warm off-white when hit by soda or salt . It can be enhanced by sifting mixed hardwood ash over the damp glaze .

Shino Slip
Cone 10

Soda Ash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Nepheline Syenite . . . . . . . . . . . . Soda Feldspar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Spodumene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Avery Kaolin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kentucky OM 4 Ball Clay . . . . . . .

3 .2 % 36 .0 8 .6 12 .2 28 .0 12 .0 100 .0 %

Green Crackle Glaze

Cone 10

This ashes well on light-colored clay bodies, and produces colors in the white, tan and pink range . Apply to leather-hard clay or thinly to bisqueware .

Barium Carbonate . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 .2 Whiting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 .0 Custer Feldspar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 .8 EPK Kaolin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 .2 Yellow Ocher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 .2 Silica . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 .6 100 .0 Add: Bentonite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 .0 Epsom Salt . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 .1

% % %

Black Slip
Alberta Slip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 .6 % Kentucky OM 4 Ball Clay . . . . . . . 22 .7 Chrome Oxide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 .5 Cobalt Carbonate . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 .2 Red Iron Oxide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 .0 100 .0 %
This is an excellent decorating slip for brush work over bare clay or the Orange or Shino Slips above . It is very dark and looks best when used sparingly . Apply to leather-hard clay or thinly to bisqueware .

Mix Epsom salt in water before adding other materials . This is a dark waxy celadon that turns brilliant blue green when hit directly by heavy soda or salt .

Hamada Glaze
Cone 10

Red Iron Oxide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Whiting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Zinc Oxide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Custer Feldspar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . EPK Kaolin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Silica . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

8 .9 % 15 .5 2 .0 41 .1 12 .0 20 .6 100 .0 % Add: Bentonite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 .6 %

This glaze ranges from dark brown to black when used as a liner, and turns a runny amber when used on the exterior and directly hit by the soda .

102