Wood Kiln Construction

Changes, changes, changes. I spent the last two years bugging people about kiln design and construction, looked at bunches of books, plans, etc.....and have come to the conclusion--If you want to build a kiln "JUST START BUILDING!"

I'm serious. Nothing goes according to "plan" and if you stick to that plan and are convinced to follow that plan and make it work---well, more power to you. Its just a big headache. In fact its just a pain in the ass. Have an idea and just start building and solve the problems as they come up.

In this case I've finally started mortaring the brick. Mix is one part sand, 2 part fire clay. I've never really mortared brick before so I took it slow mixing up very small batches in a 5 gallon bucket, although I only mixed about 1/2 gallon of mortar at a time when I first started. Stuff drys fast and I was by myself--a true tyro.

As I was saying. Just build it. The dimensions have changed everytime I put them on paper. Once the bricks were stacked and mortared my dimensions are: 32 inches wide and 81 inches long (outside dimension). Ware chamber is 18 inches tall in this photo but will be 20.5 inches, and 23 inches wide when complete, (approx 9.5 cubic feet). And its 35-1/2 inches long. The fire box is 24 inches long by 23 wide by 20-1/2 inches tall.

I'm still planning on one-inch thick kiln shelves for the roof, layered with soft brick and fiber on top of that.

Still working on the front part of the kiln. Right now I am going to tie-in all the brick and create a door with some air holes in the front.

I should mention that the base is 36 cinder blocks and on top of that a bunch of house brick, then the fire brick. The exterior of the kiln will have a 2 inch layer of insulating material of some sort. Oh! and I did incorporate 2 peek-holes on each side. One in front of the fire box area and one higher against the back wall. I plan on using soft brick to fill these holes.

I'll post some info on the chimney and flues in my next post. But this is where I'm at, at the moment, But, everything is subject to change.