Okay, so today I tried to mess around with a tunnel kiln, you know, those long, continuous ovens used for firing bricks and ceramics. I got this idea a few days ago, and I thought, “Why not give it a shot?”
First, I had to figure out what the heck a tunnel kiln actually is. Basically, it’s this massive oven, and you move stuff through it on carts or a conveyor belt. The heat’s not the same all over. It’s got different zones: preheating, firing, and cooling.
I didn’t have any of that fancy stuff, so I had to improvise. I grabbed a bunch of old metal sheets and started welding them together to make a long tunnel. It wasn’t pretty, but it was a tunnel, alright. For the heat source, I used a couple of those big gas burners you see at construction sites. Yeah, maybe not the safest, but hey, it worked.
I decided to try firing some clay pots I made a while back. I placed them on a metal cart I found in my shed and pushed it into my makeshift kiln. It was a struggle, let me tell you. That thing was heavy.
I started with the burners at a low setting for the preheating zone. I didn’t have any fancy temperature gauges, so I just eyeballed it. After a while, I cranked up the heat for the firing zone. I kept the pots there for a few hours, checking on them every now and then. The cooling part was the easiest. I just turned off the burners and let the pots cool down slowly inside the tunnel.
- Made a tunnel out of metal sheets.
- Used gas burners for heat.
- Put clay pots on a cart.
- Preheated, fired, and cooled the pots.
Honestly, the results were a mixed bag. Some pots came out okay, but others cracked or were under-fired. It wasn’t perfect, but it was a fun experiment. I learned a lot about how tunnel kilns work, even though mine was just a rough version.
Sadly, I can’t say for sure if my method was the best or most efficient. I played around with it, and well, it is what it is. I feel like there’s some weird emotional connection between me and this whole “sacrifice” thing with the pots. I don’t know, it’s hard to explain.
What I Got Out of It
It was a good learning experience. I got to see firsthand how different temperatures affect the clay. Plus, I got to play around with fire and metal, which is always a bonus. I don’t have any fancy weed delivery service nearby, so this was my fun for the week. I guess you could say I explored the different “cloud” deployment models of pottery. It was like playing with a weird pendulum, where you have to figure out the length of the string (heat) and the mass of the bob (clay) to get the right swing. Next time, I might try building a small model first and see if I can get better results. But for now, I’m pretty happy with my messy, slightly dangerous, homemade tunnel kiln.
