Fiddling On the Roof

Actually, I played viola in intermediate orchestra.
From there I went and played trombone in band cause orchestra wasn't cool.
If you know what I mean.
Then again, that's not what this is about.
So anyways, yesterday I forgot to post this up so you, the reader are getting yesterday's news today.
Sort of a late, late, late edition.
Work continues on the Holy Oracle of the Copper Red(HOOTCR).
We finally got the roof up, which is important for it's been raining a lot lately.
I mean we got a tarp on the kiln, but still it's great that now it's not going to be rained on:



It was easy going as the 4x8 sections of plywood fit perfectly.
Almost.
A look at the top:



We'll be adding some tar paper on the plywood next week.
As you can see, we left the center of the roof unfinished, we just sort of nailed some pieces in there to cover it up.
That's because we still have to mount up the chimney, or vent.
The kiln is what is known as an updraft kiln so there's a vent hole directly in the center on top.
That's where the hot gases escape and it's also from there you control the kiln atmosphere.
More on this later.
Anyways, there's this hood we need to install that will sit right on top of the kiln and exit through the roof:




Technically, you don't really need the hood and chimney thingy, but it does help to control where all that hot exhaust goes.
I mean if the kiln were in some large indoor space, you probably wouldn't need it, except if you wanted to vent that exhaust outside.
If you know what I mean.
So anyways, we're figuring out how to mount that puppy through the roof so that the roof doesn't burn down once we start going.
It doesn't get like red hot or anything, but pretty darn close so we're going to have to insulate it somehow where it exits the roof and still be water proof.
We can't have it leaking don't you know.
Anyways, as far as the Temple goes, the plan is to semi-enclose it on three sides, leaving space on the top and bottom for air to blow through.
Remember, the kiln chamber gets up to 2200 degrees and since the outer sides of the kiln do get hot, we thought it would be prudent to let air circulate around it.
The kiln I mean.
We should be done in a couple of weekends.
Then we have to work on the gas, propane in this case, and see where and how we are going to mount up two 124 gallon tanks.
We figure the kiln burns about 3-4 gallons per hour, and a full firing takes about ten hours.
That's a lot of propane!
So we're working with the gas folks to see what we can do.
More on this later too.
I gotta say, I'm getting excited about working with high fire clay and glazes again.
Stay Tuned.