Building a Small Scale Wood Fired Kiln, Steve Mills Backyard Philosophers Kiln , pt1 the Big Picture
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 ก.ย. 2024
- On the New Moon of February 9th, 2024, I fired up my very own small scale wood fired kiln!
It's been a long held dream of 35 years and, when I finally got up the gumption to go for it, it took almost a full 2 years to collect all the materials, get the pole barn built and to finally construct the kiln.
I was first introduced to wood fired kilns back in the spring of 1989 when we were living in Davenport, CA. I got invited to participate in the firing of pottery legend Daniel Rhodes' two chamber Noborigama. For a variety of reasons, that firing turned out to be a life changing event, establishing my love of wood fired pots and setting me onto the creative, Tending a Handmade Life path I travel today.
The seed was planted ... so I waited and waited and knew when we bought our current little cabin and 7 acres in the mountains of Western North Carolina, this would be the place for my wood fired kiln dreams to come true.
But what would that kiln look like? Pretty much everything I could find online or in books revolved around complex designs and construction. About 3 years ago, I found a link to plans for a small scale wood fired kiln called the Backyard Kiln, designed by the late Steve Mills. Also known as the Philosopher's Kiln, it's a top loading/coffin style, designed to be easily and inexpensively constructed with regular house bricks and to be fired in one day with one or two people.
Amazingly, there was a free PDF with very precise details including a thorough materials list. Turns out the PDF had been turned into a little book as well. Here are links for both:
Free PDF: stevemillsmuds...
Book with better pictures and easy to use layout: tinyurl.com/yc...
I very much wanted to build my kiln on the cheap, but was reluctant to use house bricks. New fire bricks for even such a small kiln would have run close to $2500 for just the bricks; shipping or driving hours to pick them up added even more to the cost. Feeling like a blessing from the Universe, I am fortunate enough to have a potter friend/benefactor/mentor gift me with all the bricks, a combination of hard and soft brick in a variety of sizes and shapes, as well as the kiln door plus several cordierite shelves for the damper and extra insulation inside the chamber.
The next big hurdle was getting a pole barn constructed. Thankfully, my husband Dave is a pretty decent carpenter. He retired from his full-time job last spring and we finally got to work on the barn last summer. A bigger challenge was finding budget silicon carbide kiln shelves. New ones in the size I needed run about $150 each plus shipping, which is a dicey proposition and very expensive. I scoured FB Marketplace, Craigslist and all other avenues I could think of. I finally connected with a regional FaceBook clay group and found my budget shelves for inside the kiln chamber, the lid and fire box lintels.
With my hodge-podge of bricks and materials, it took quite a bit of trial and error and a lot of angle-grinder cutting to make the best use of everything and configure how to use the handmade kiln door. I got started on building the kiln in mid-December and, after holiday and weather delays, finished the first week of February.
The dimensions from angle iron to angle iron of my little kiln:
- 68" long x 38" wide (includes 5" of insulating bricks) x 44" tall (from base layer to top of chamber)
- Chimney is 78" from base of chamber to top which rises 13" above the metal roof and is approximately 7" above the tallest point of the roofline.
- Chamber dimensions: 45" long, 32" shelf space with 13" opening at end for air, 16" wide x 16" deep. Works out to about 4.7 cu/ft of loading space.
For those of you looking for a lot more specific information, here's the link to Part 2, • Part 2, Building a Sma... . The video is short and most of the specific info is in the written description, but you get a better look at how I put it all together.
There were quite a few other components and expenses involved. In Part 2 of this video series, I have more deets on bricks, shelves, miscellaneous materials and costs, design changes and other specifics to help the next person build their own small scale wood fired Backyard Kiln.
Be sure to check out the great Philosopher's Kiln build, part 2, the details!
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#woodfiredkiln #wildclay #womenwhowoodfire
Amazing video! Loved all the details on the building process 😊
Thank you! Hope it proves helpful ... 🙏
Very inspiring, perfect construction
Thank you! I had good directions, but a LOT of trial and error.
What a great video. Love your explanation.
Thanks so much! Hope it was helpful! 🙏
@@tendingahandmadelife I just bought a house in Rutherfordton NC. i have a traditional skutt kiln but I plan on and would love to build a wood fire kiln. I bought the booklet that you suggested and read thru it...thank you again. really helpful.
@@cavemandancer super cool! You’ll do well with the nice Skutt for bisque firings as I only have a teeny electric kiln that I use for metal clay. I just fired up my Philosophers kiln on Tuesday. It really wants to go fast and furious. We went 10 1/2 hours and got a bit carried away. We flattened ^10 and I’m not sure how hot it got, probably cone 12. It’s an excellent design. Good luck and thanks for watching and taking the time to comment! 🙏✨🌟💫
Thank you for the link to backyard kilns! You're definitely living a version of a future i want, now if only i could get out of an apartment so i could actually get to work on building it instead of dreaming.
Hope this works out well for you!!
Oof, boy howdy do I know how you feel. Having the right space to build my kiln has been my biggest obstacle. Once I got to a property to build it, I was afraid the cost would squash my dream ... but miracles happened and my dream came true. Hold on and keep dreaming ... you'll get there!
Good job!
Thank you!
Like you I'm a potter, but unlike you I'm still dreaming. Honestly shed tears seeing this. Reminsing myself to be patient as im sure this accomplishment was woth the wait. Congratulations. Whishing you the best with your kiln and looking forward to seeing some of your creations!
Thirty years for it to all come together, but absolutely worth the wait. Firing it up for real in two weeks! Best of luck in your own clay journey. Thanks so much for taking the time to watch and comment. 🙏💙
Cool
Thanks!
Sweet. From my own kiln building experience I've tried to use as much stainless steel as possible, and would highly recommend using stainless strap clamps, (a.k.a. hose clamp or worm screw clamp) in place of the galvanized wire. It comes in various lengths, but runs roughly just under a buck per foot or less on Amazon, and surprisingly goes a long ways. I got a 32' coil with 12 clamps for ~$25. It is impervious to corrosion and melts at a ridiculously high temp, somewhere above 2,500F and it's very strong. Stainless steel wire is also available.
Excellent info, thank you! I went with the galvanized wire to start, figuring I would upgrade at some point. Will look into your suggestions. 🙏🙏🙏
Very cool. I'm wanting to build a kiln for heat treating and preparing useful chemicals. Look forward to your future videos to see how your kiln is working out😊
Wow, that sounds very cool! If you’re not doing big volumes, you could build an even smaller version.
I just watched your first video. Looking forward to seeing what else you have in the future. Good luck to you.
Thanks so much for tuning in and saying HI! There’s for sure more wild clay and wood firing to come and no idea what else … time will tell. 🙏🙏🙏
I am in. Really good vid
Thanks! Working on part two now with all details of costs, materials and options.
Just uploaded Pt 2. All the specifics are in the written description.
Wow, I’m trying to build a kiln. That’s thousands and thousands of dollars worth of materials and labor to build the structure and then the kiln.
It can be a chunk of change for sure, but there are options. The pole barn was the most money, but our choice was to make it nicer rather than cheap. I’m working on the second video with all the specifics of cost and materials and options therein. Hope to have it uploaded later this week.
@@tendingahandmadelife cool, that sounds very interesting.
Just uploaded Pt 2. All the specifics are in the written description.
@@tendingahandmadelife thanks for the heads up!
Just wonderful. A dream come true.
@@credenza1 feels borderline miraculous!
I was with you the moment you said "pretty much everything on this Kiln got put up and taken down and put up and taken down multiple times". Planning is good, but even the best plan on paper (or computer) can fall flat without allowing for trial and error as it steps off the page and into the real world. Love this build, and looking forward to your next video.
Thanks so much! I had considered inviting potter friends to help, but wisely decided against it. I learned so much by the back and forth and ups and downs. Hoping to light her up again early to mid June and film it this time.
I just had a similar dream but of a soda kiln built it up and took it down 4 times before it was working great!
@@CruzQuinteroCeramics patience and perseverance pays! ✨🌟💫
Awesome video.
Thank you!!! Hope it's helpful ... 🙏
Regular shale and clay brick can take the temperatures, but regular brick does not like fast speed up and fast cool down. Firebrick can take that up and down, no problem. If you have a good amount of "red brick" heat up slowly.... and....... bring down slowly..... This is where those dampers probably help keep the heat IN, but I'm not sure where they are. The Russians, in their brick stoves, have a damper very high up in the chimney (they may even use a pole,) to keep the heat IN (after the fire goes out) and to keep the cold air from flowing down the chimney into the firebox. This way, the bricks radiate out heat for 12 hours after the fire has gone out.
Thanks for the info! The original plans called for using regular clay house bricks, but I was incredibly fortunate to be gifted enough hard and soft firebrick to complete the kiln with double walls for the whole chamber. The dampers are just at the base of the chimney. For the August firing, I’m going to slow it down, hopefully from an 8 hour firing to 10 or 12 hours with a reduction cooling at the end, per Euan Craig’s firing schedule. We’ll see! 🤞🙏
It's been fun watching you build your kilm I'm getting ready to build mine this summer and and still working out the design. I can't wait
@@jasongannon7676 thanks! It’s a labor of love for sure and the design turned out to be a really good one. Simple, straightforward and easy to construct. Good luck and all the best on your own build… super exciting! 🙏🙏🙏
Love it! I am presently in year 1 of the same dream of building this exact kiln. Maybe i will get to where you are at some day. :) Congrats!!
I’m firing it up for real on April 22nd. Video will follow. Best of luck to you on your own kiln building journey. 🙏💙
Fabulous!
Why thank you!!! 🙏🙏🙏
This was great! Thank you. Inspiring.
It’s totally doable!!!