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I live in north Thailand and and would like to build a kiln that will fire up to cone 6 (if possible). In the past I have done large rice husk kilns but would like to expand my work.  I do not have many options for building materials. Some of the materials I do have are brick clay (very rough), normal bricks, rice grass and husks, cement, and sand. I may be able to find fire brick in the big cities.  Fuel options are propane gas (will have to order blowers which is possible), wood (but hard to find in Thailand), and I have heard of using used cooking oil which in abundance here. I would like the kiln to be at least 13 cubic foot in size, I throw large bottles. Any plans or suggestions would be very welcome. Thank you! Michael

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Might be something on line to help.

A friend years and years ago used to use recycled oil, sump oil from vehicles I think . She dripped fed it into the path of air blown from an old vacuum cleaner back in teh days when you could attach the vacuum hose to eith er end of the vac. From memory she got pretty high.

Sorry re. vagueness but

 

. Sure to be something out there.

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This is beyond the scope of what we can do here on the forum. Invest in a good kiln building book, like Fred Olsen's 'The Kiln Book'. You'll learn more from that than we could cover here. But do also search the forum here, as you'll find lots of tidbits on trouble shooting from people who have built kilns.

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I would build a simple catenary arch form and build it out of raw brick. Then look at a drip oil system and use some diesels and cooking oil. That sounds like the cheeps source of fuel you have. Maybe some propane burners to get it rolling. Check out drip systems and a very slow fire schedule so you don't blow up your raw brick. Build a small one first and see how it goes. Do a web search on a catenary arch and check out how to build the form. Here is a fantastic link for oil drip.

 

http://ceramicartsdaily.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/cmapr03vegoilbritt.pdf

 

Good luck and have fun! 

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There is a guy in Texas building a kiln that he plans to fire using recycled oil. He has researched it and done test firing. Using some type of burner, not a drip system. When I remember his name I will post it. He's on Facebook, you might try doing a search.

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research babcock burners, you should also look at Jon Faulkner's burners--theyre simple compressed air vegetable oil burners, Ive built them and the work reasonably well. (http://www.jonfaulknerpottery.com/).

 

Louis Katz is currently on sabatical in thailand, and if he is in your area, you might try to meet up with him.  He has a good bit of information about kilns and firing, and has spent a good deal of time in thailand researching pottery and production techniques. 

 

Best,

 

Michael

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I built a large catenary arch in the US during the mid 70s so that is very possible. I have also built a large pizza oven here in Thailand using a recipe of raw clay, rice husks, and sand. It gets very hot but I unsure of the temperature.

 

I can also get as much used cooking oil as I want, so that is also good. I am researching the drip systems.

 

Michael, can you tell me how to get a hold of Louis (email, phone, or facebook?)

 

Thank you for the positive input, it is coming together.

 

Michael

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  • 2 weeks later...
Guest JBaymore

Louis is very active from Thailand on Facebook at the moment. If you are on Facebook... search for him and friend him.

 

If you know any ham radio operators there in Thailand, they very well might know him and might be able to catch him on the air (he uses Echolink a lot). He is very active with the Thai ham community. I can't remember his temporary callsign in Thailand at the moment (I'm a ham too)...... but I will eventually :rolleyes: .

 

best,

 

........................john

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