rotary kiln

[rondoc]

I have built about 35 years ago a 8 cuft. kiln with a turntable  in the floor. It is heated by a single Silicon Carbide element and max input is about 15 kW. It fires to cone 10 . The advantage of the turntable is the heating is very uniform because tyhe heat transfer is mostly radiation and the rotation ensures uniformity, and a single element works fine. The turntable also makes loading easy . I would be happy to share details. The insulation is fiber plus 2600board. Efficiency is high so cost to fire is low.  The controller I built allows for 16 discreet power levels but I would like to change to the Raspberry Pi controller so I dont have to watch it so often. 

[neilestrick]

Post some pictures!

[rondoc]

22 hours ago, neilestrick said:

Post some pictures!

 

[Bill Kielb]

Pretty cool setup. Interesting in that it cost 15kw plus the energy to turn the turntable and (Judging by the shelving) fires about 4-6 cu ft of stuff. Neat idea, nice use of better insulation for kilns a pet peeve of mine. Nice job.

[rondoc]

Thanks. It is so well insulated you can put your hands on the outside steel shell with inside at con10! 

There is now some slight better insulation but I"m not going to rebuild. It only takes a 100 watts to turn the turntable.  The 15 kW is max power . During a typical firing power input goes from 3 kW until about 800F then 6 kW to 1200. From 1800 to 2400 it takes 12 kW.  I haven't done a kw,-hr measurement for a cone 10 firing but I will and post result.