David had been firing the Olsen Fast Fire that he built years before and he decided he wanted a larger kiln that he could fire more easily. I designed a front stoker that used the high quality but odd sized bricks that he had. He recruited a few friends and we built the kiln in about 9 days. It was cold and we spent more than a couple late nights stacking bricks but we were fortified by Alecia's top notch home cooked meals.

This kiln sits right between 2 posts that support the shed. When we removed the arch form we had to slide it out a foot, cut it off and repeat. It ended up in about 6 pieces. For the chimney we used an 18" galvanized culvert pipe. The culvert pipe won't last forever (although Andrew Stephenson's was up to 14 firings and still in good shape). However, it's a quick and inexpensive solution if you are careful about fire-proofing the roof where the chimney goes through the rafters. I recommend framing that area with metal studs because the pipe radiates a lot more heat than bricks. The galvanized coating actually melts off and the pipe glows orange after dark. It's also a good idea to tie it off with guy wires to secure it during high winds.

I went back up to Dublin a few weeks later and we fired the kiln. We took it up slowly because it was loaded with some greenware that was still wet. We fired for about 14 hours and threw in about 10 pounds of salt. David is happy that the stoking pattern is a lot less strenuous and he doesn't get scorched as much. The cross draft design is a much more effective way to wood fire than a down draft.