These shots are from January of 2008 and show the butressing and blockwork around the all castable kiln chamber. Chuck Smith and his recently and tragically deceased friend Mike along wih a crew of mexicans did this great work. Though, they should not have done the same courses on everything - a couple of the corners cracked badly when we back filled with dirt.
The blocks surround my kiln built entirely of refractory castables given to me by the great folks at a local refractory construction company. Among the refractories used: Pnuecrete 60, Resco's Lo Abrade, Express 30, Online 60, Versagun 60, and narcon 65. I've learned a whole lot about refractory castables through trial and much error. The original arch had to be torn down due to improper (by-hand) mixing of the low cement castables. The new arch is better than ever and incorporates some cool little scoops that we call "inferno-foils". They may or may not do what we want - What we want is a redirecting of flames, heat, and ash. In many tunnel and anagama kilns I have seen, especially tall ones, the heat rises to the top of the arch and shoots to the chimney while leaving the work at the bottom of the kiln bereft of heat and ash and essentially dead. Many people stack their kilns tighter at the top and looser at the bottom to compensate for this characteristic (and I'll probably do the same), but I hope my little inferno-foils, which you'll see later in photos, will help break up the flame and maybe create some neat spots for work.
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