DIY welded steel kiln base

[not a bot]

Hi,

 I am fabricating some heavy gauge steel tube into a DIY welded  rolling cart for my wife's new kiln. I know it's not ideal to roll a kiln around but the mobility was a requirement for the space we have available.

 The factory supplied static base is finished to result in Aluminized Steel, which is a nice finish application, but I can't produce a plated coating in my DIY home metal shop.

 It had not occurred to me before, but now I am wondering if it is going to be ok to use paint on my fabrication, or if the items  in near proximity to the kiln will get too hot for paint to remain stable. I have been planning on using something like engine paint to protect the steel tubing from corrosion.

Will the legs get hot when the kiln is cycling through a firing sequence? If so how hot might they get?

Thank you.

Edited November 13, 2022 by not a bot

[Bill Kielb]

Just my experience and a suggestion or two
High heat paint is fine, use it on many kiln repairs in much hotter places. The outside bottom of the kiln is usually pretty cool. Just a suggestion I would support across the center span to keep the bottom from cracking. I would also use tall 4”-5” urethane castors so it rolls easily over little humps and bumps. Maybe Big box store castors - prox 15.00 each

Edited November 9, 2022 by Bill Kielb

[not a bot]

Hi,

 Thank you for the suggestions and the reassurance that high heat paint is not inappropriate.

The steel frame I have fabricated is connected to the factory plate that was intended to serve as the center support of the static stand, so all but about 1/2" on the outer edges will be resting on a solid surface. The factory plate makes it easy to use the venting system with the connections supplied.

I have been planning to add support under the outer edges, and add some side plates  as well, but I have not gotten that far.

To be honest I did not realize how the bottom of the kiln was just glued together until we received it. I wanted my wife to have her own kiln and figured we would just get started and figure it out as we go. I had waited for the kiln's arrival to take a look at it and the supplied stand. Then I figured out a design that I hope will work ok. The center support you mention seems like a must have feature.

I had some 5" polyurethane caster's on hand that are very similar to what you suggest, but after worrying about possible heat issues I overcompensated and purchased some heavy industry 6" steel wheel casters with the top locks. The 6" wheels are sized so that the over all height of the center plate matches the original stand dimensions, so the vent ducting will clear nicely.  

Thank you!

Edited November 9, 2022 by not a bot

[neilestrick]

Overbuild the stand. Any flexing of the metal will result in cracking of the floor slab, so make it really, really stiff. Use casters that are hard enough that they won't flatten when the kiln is just sitting there. Polyurethane wheels can develop flat spots, and the heat from the kiln can exacerbate the flattening. Steel or hard plastic casters are a better choice.

[not a bot]

Hi,

 I finished up welding, painting, and assembling the kiln cart, so we were able to mount and assemble our new kiln's parts on the cart to see if it will work OK.

It seems very stiff. It did not seem to deflect at all. We only need to move the kiln a few feet back and forth from a storage location to an operation location. The floor is smooth and level. I hope I have not made a mistake by building our own cart, but it was fun to fabricate, less than half the price of a ready made version, and made out of the sort of heavy weight materials that are impractical to specify for a consumer grade mass distribution product. 

Thanks for all the help getting started with a new kiln.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 13, 2022 by not a bot

[Bill Kielb]

Looks great, nice choice should be no deflection for sure. I am curious how hot the paint will get, it ought to be fairly cool and also curious of wheel temp, my experience more room temperature than not. Here is a hood painted with high heat as well as some of the welded mounting hardware - has held up for five years now without an issue and these areas ought to be much hotter than you will experience.

 

Edited November 13, 2022 by Bill Kielb

[not a bot]

Thanks for posting the photos and examples. 

If the paint on this cart reacts poorly I will post about it here. I used "Engine Paint" which is rated to 500 degrees F.

If I could have sourced it in a timely manner I would have used Bar B Que or Wood Stove paint which is rated to about 1200 degrees F. While I was searching for paint I learned that there are products made for coating engine exhaust pipes that are rated at 1800 degrees F.

I was mainly concerned with the paint becoming volatile and maybe combustible. It seemed like most of the discussion I found about high heat paint seemed to regard stability and appearance as the issues being considered, so I am hoping that the 500 degree engine paint will be ok and that I was just overthinking everything. I saw some articles that say the steel bands can reach 500 degrees F so I thought I should be cautious.

I'll keep an close eye on it for the first few firings.

[oldlady]

WOW!  built like a tank!       that is one lucky lady!     pretty kiln, what cone does it fire to and what cone do you plan to use on a regular basis?

 

[not a bot]

Hi,

 The Kiln is an L&L EasyFire E23M-3 that Neil helped us select. It is rated to cone 10.  We have no idea if she will ever need cone 10.

 The hope was to have lots of options. She is primarily enthused about working with locally found clay and has a goal towards learning to find and use locally found finish colorants. She had been taking some classes at a local open to the public studio, where she was constrained to use of materials that conformed to the workflow of that facility. Now she can experiment and develop her other interests.

 She has a shelf of small to be fired local clay pots ready to go, and we expect that there will be at lot failures before she gets the temperature just right.

 It will be complicated by the fact that she greatly enjoys working with clay from different deposits from different geologic periods. We live in the desert cliff region and have easy access to a cross section of material that was deposited over a range of 400 millions years.

 She hand builds, and her output is very modest. This is a pure pleasure hobby for her. She has been putting off purchasing a kiln for far too long, so I thought it was time to make it happen.

 I'll probably make a few things but I'm inclined to use store bought clay. I took pottery classes in college 40 years ago, but didn't learn much about the tech because we had a marvelous professor who made everything work so we could focus on shape and form.

It's great that now a days the tech information is so accessible, so we figure we can learn at our own pace and see what happens. 

[neilestrick]

Well done!