The weather was good on Wednesday which enabled the build move on. Additional base blocks were needed so the kiln could be sited nearer to the wall to give more room for the angle iron supports.

By the end of the day we had got up to the 3rd course of bricks and the fire box arch former had been made.  Thank you to David Wright & Penny Withers for their help.

The white blocks are Durox Supablocs which will be used for much of the outer skin due to their excellent thermal properties, the speed and ease to build with and price. 

The gas fired down draft test kiln referred to in a previous news article (published on 4 December 2008) was successfully fired today.

After just under 5 hours cone 9 was well on the way down when the burner was turned off and the kiln closed up.  The next firing, when soda will be used, is scheduled to take place early in the new year.

I will write a technical article about the project in the near future once I have gathered together all of the information and photographs.

The kiln shelter is now up and the base blocks are in place.

Weather permitting, the build should continue on Wednesday.

For those who may be interested, I plan to write a technical article about the project which will include drawings and images.

Myself and a few others at the University of Derby began to build a test gas kiln today.  The kiln uses a traditional galvanized steel dustbin as the frame which is lined with ceramic fibre blanket.

Within the next month or so I will be building a wood burning kiln.  The design is based on Stephen Parry's smaller wood burning kiln which is similar to the the Phoenix kiln (see larger image) featured in Jack Troy's book, Wood-Fired Stoneware and Porcelain.

It is a very practical cross draft kiln from the 'fast fire' family with a robust arched firebox which sits below the chamber.
 
Thank you to Stephen Parry for his assistance and to Jack Troy for allowing me to use the image.