New Gas Kiln

After attending the Reduction Firing Workshop at John Britt's Studio back in Feb/March I decided to purchase a gas kiln. I didn't have the room nor time to build one. I checked with some companies that made downdraft kilns but in the end I didn't want to spend that much money (since this is a hobby). The models I wanted ranged anywhere from $10,000 to $20,000. Tom Turner and John Britt both recommended I look into Olympics Torchbearer kilns. I did some heavy-duty research on these kilns. They are updraft and aren't the simplest kilns to fire. After speaking and emailing tons of Olympic Torchbearer kiln owners I discovered two things:

1. Most people who were having serious problems had no idea what they were doing.
2. The people that did know what they were doing had some issues when they first got the kiln but made (and recorded) changes such as shelf positioning, damper settings, flame redirection, etc. It didn't take most of them long to get consistent results. One potter I spoke with last week said he can fire his to less than a 10 degree difference between the top and bottom shelves. Not bad.

Here's the kiln:
I built a small concrete foundation to hold the kiln. Olympic now offers casters on the kilns so it rolls easily.
I added short walls to keep out any breeze that might come along.

The gas company come out this week and installed the tank and line.

I fired it up today and opened up the gas. It reached 1000 degrees in about four minutes. So, I would say that I have enough pressure. It didn't come with a pressure gauge so I installed one

I keep the kiln covered with a tarp and roll it away from the studio to fire.

I plan on firing a bunch of tiles with test glazes in a couple of weeks. I will post the results from that firing. That's all for now!