One of the important things i wrote about in the kiln book was "make friends with
the propane driver, and the outside boss of the company.
I give mugs, pots of all kinds. Have them in for coffee and tell them about
how we fire to extreme temps in our kilns. We are not goofey folks playing
with gas kilns. We do very serious work and research. Gary was very proud to
be mentioned in the kiln book as an "expert". Yes, the Synergy company has one
of our books on display at the main office.
I have two five hundred gallon tanks, and a two fifty hooked together. I keep them full. Each of them has a
high pressure regulator on the tank. Gary decided we needed that extra boost.
A house regulator is really small for our needs. Each gas line going to a kiln
has a pressure regulator that I purchased for that system. We can turn the burners
to total on, and control the pressure with the inline regulator. (I live in place where farmers
dry corn and beans. They need pressure for that 1000 gallon tank so the gas boys understand
gas pressure and they have four of five high pressure regulators bouncing around in the truck.)
When we fire the big salt kiln made of hard brick we need all the pressure we can
get.
My small kiln that holds about 80 pots needs a great deal less. In fact pushing that
to high pressure will slow the firing. It is not like a foot feed on a car.
It is called "THE SWEET SPOT". When the pressure, the damper and the chimney all work
in harmony to keep the pyrometer climbing. The faster it climbs the happier Melvin gets.
The double venturi works, that damper creating a 5 inch back pressure flame works.
The minute a kiln stalls something is wrong. Find out what it is. Do something, it
will not fix itself. Pots love to fire in 6 hours. And they love it when you do things
on the cooling cycle.
We have been taught by Carol. down fire.
mel
website:
www.melpots.com
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