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Dan Kiln (Copenhagen) Who Has Information About This Kiln?


Niko

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Hello everyone,

I'm from Germany and I just signed up here. I did some online research about "Dan Kiln" but the only information I could find is that this manufacturer went out of business in the 1980s. There seem to be many knowledgable people around here so I want ask if anyone knows about this kiln (power, max temperature, ...).

Around a week ago I picked up this kiln for free. It seems to be from the 1970s but there was no manual or anything like it. The woman who published the ad for this kiln said its max temperature is 1400°C. I wonder if that could be true. The plate on the controller says "SK 04" but the field for input power is left blank.

Thank you for reading :)

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I think she is probably reading that of the controller dial. Not quite sure why you really need to go past 1300 (cone 10) for most pottery.

 

Hard to know what kind of power consumption it will be. You could try and get a resistance reading of the whole kiln and that could give you an estimate knowing your voltage and resistance. I would guess 30-40 amps like 7-10 kw.

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How about the insulation. Does a modern kiln have any better insulation than one from the 70s or 80s? As far as I can see the Dan Kiln has 3 layers of insulation. 1 or 2 layers of bricks (the inner bricks are very light and porous), some kind of fiber and loose vermiculite filling.

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There is a vent in the ceiling. Right, that little hole in the back wall is for the pyrometer. It was included but I removed it. Heopfully it's still working because the s-type isn't very cheap. There is quite a bit of rust but yes, for free it's not too bad. They tried to sell it for quite some time and in the end offered it for free. But no one was able to move it :D I'd like to know the actual weight of it. Anyway, as I can't find a manual or schematics for the controller I will convert it to gas. The heating elements look fine except one that is broken. Do you think it's worth to keep them intact? Are they still useful for someone who needs to replace broken elements?

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I don't think the bricks have changed too much. It's really all the tiny air pockets that are insulating and stop convection currents because they are so small. The silica and alumina of the brick don't actually insulate as such. They look fine from the picture. As long as they are not falling apart your are good.

 

Doubtful somebody would take the old elements to use in a kiln but you can use them to make your own bead wires or metal stilts stuck into clay. I have done that before with reasonable success at getting the whole of the bottom glazed with only three small marks from the wires.

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There are free or very cheap kilns every now and then. Some weeks ago there was another one but it was too far from my place. Usually those ads contain a sentence like "its free but you have to carry it up the basement stairs and its 450kg". Few people do that.

 

I will convert it to gas but I still need to think out where to place the holes for burner and chimney.

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If the elements sit loosely in the grooves they can be removed without breaking. Depends on the shape and depth of the groove.

 

You could make a simple updraft by putting a flue opening in the top, and having a small burner come in on each side of the door or from the back. Another option is to weld a frame on to the backside to make a downdraft chimney, again with 2 burners. I did that once to a small kiln very similar to your and it worked great.

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I need to get on this "give me free kiln" list. Where do I sign up!? 

 

Nice kiln, I hope it turns out to work well for you once you decide what your gonna do. I like what Neil said about going gas.

 

I spend at least one hour a week looking on ebay and so on for pottery stuff, got to keep the eyes open. Seen a few huge kilns for free as they are hard to get rid of. Smaller kilns always seem to sell for something.

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