Passive Damper and Arch Support

This week has slipped by and it seems like I have been a slacker. I guess I am slowing down as I approach the 60 years on this planet milestone. It may be just the age or it may be that the city frenzies are fading into the past. I did get a bunch of bowls glazed and fired for the Cookeville Cooking on the Square event. This benefits Habitat for Humanity. Below are the hand built bowls that I whined about not caring for earlier. I still am not fond of them, but the glazing almost saved them. They were fired in oxidation to cone 7 with a Mid-South Opulence glaze called antique iron.



I have brought the chimney up and constructed the passive damper. This is basically a hole to open to decrease the "draw" up the chimney. It is used to make small adjustments as compared to the active damper. The next task on the stack is to cut a hole in the roof and continue up to its full height.



I started the arch support for springing the arch into place. Below you can see it laid out on OSB.



I traced the curve onto the OSB and then used a compass to offset the curve by the thickness of the plywood that I will use to cover the support.



Here are the support ends cut out by my trusty-rusty Sears jig saw. This was my father's. He had it a few years and I have had it about 20 years. Still going strong (but I have my eye on a DeWalt 18v cordless).



Steve, who is going to do the metal work for me, called and if things go as planned, that should get done next weekend.

I am picking up the building of the kiln in mid-process. I hope to show the design and construction from the start, but if I try to do that here and now...well, it just won't get done. So we start at layer 5 for now and the rest will come...really.

Layer 5 is a header course where the bricks go cross ways. The purpose of doing this is to add stability to the wall. I struggled to get this level as the hard brick on the inside isn't exactly the same height as the Insulating Fire Brick on the outside. I am also fighting a bit of a sag in the middle of the left side wall. It is not big, but enough to bug me.



The next layer, 6, has the ports for adding the soda/salt. I am planning on using a sprayer and with the soda ash and/or salt dissolved. The ports are 3" x 3". The original design had ports only on one side of the firebox, but I decided to add them to both sides to give me a little more ability to get the glazing uniform.