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vass0922 - When you've been up all night babysitting the kiln even a summer morning seems chilly:
temperature:
1. temperature can be measured either by pyromerter or using small pyrometric "cones" which fuse and bend over at or near a specific temperature, or both. I use the cones that you watch through a spy hole.
2. here natural gas is being used with 6 venturi burners (3 on each side) -funny thing about kiln's, they are kind of like a "BTU battery" that can be trickle charged; that is you can attain higher temperatures inside the kiln than the peak flame temperature of the fuel/air input so long as you put in more BTUs than are allowed to escape. There is a physical limit of course but this is dependant on many factors: insulating material, chimney height, fuel type and burner design, etc.
Sweet,
Yes I Raku but haven't done any for a long time -plan to start again soon
Yes, toxic materials are quite common in ceramics, especially lead, but a great deal is now known and many substitute materials are available.
Some other common toxic ceramic metals that need to be handled with care (while I don't use any lead I do use all of the following as oxides to color glazes):
Cobalt, chrome, barium, lithium; and to a lesser degree (bad in large doses) copper, zink, and iron
I don't think you can even get uranium oxide anymore because of the slight radiation problem -was a great source of yellow though. Many other ceramic materials are very slightly radioactive (even mica) but the levels are so low that a mobile phone would probably pose more risk.
All ceramic dust should be avoided -most contains some free silica
I suspect that my chromium levels are pretty high and my lungs are probably pretty dusted.
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but how do you get a kiln that hot at a controlled temp? I mean what is typically burned?
Linear Mode
