Monthly Tech-Tip from Tony Hansen SignUp

No tracking! No ads!

A Low Cost Tester of Glaze Melt Fluidity
A One-speed Lab or Studio Slurry Mixer
A Textbook Cone 6 Matte Glaze With Problems
Adjusting Glaze Expansion by Calculation to Solve Shivering
Alberta Slip, 20 Years of Substitution for Albany Slip
An Overview of Ceramic Stains
Are You in Control of Your Production Process?
Are Your Glazes Food Safe or are They Leachable?
Attack on Glass: Corrosion Attack Mechanisms
Ball Milling Glazes, Bodies, Engobes
Binders for Ceramic Bodies
Bringing Out the Big Guns in Craze Control: MgO (G1215U)
Can We Help You Fix a Specific Problem?
Ceramic Glazes Today
Ceramic Material Nomenclature
Ceramic Tile Clay Body Formulation
Changing Our View of Glazes
Chemistry vs. Matrix Blending to Create Glazes from Native Materials
Concentrate on One Good Glaze
Copper Red Glazes
Crazing and Bacteria: Is There a Hazard?
Crazing in Stoneware Glazes: Treating the Causes, Not the Symptoms
Creating a Non-Glaze Ceramic Slip or Engobe
Creating Your Own Budget Glaze
Crystal Glazes: Understanding the Process and Materials
Deflocculants: A Detailed Overview
Demonstrating Glaze Fit Issues to Students
Diagnosing a Casting Problem at a Sanitaryware Plant
Drying Ceramics Without Cracks
Duplicating Albany Slip
Duplicating AP Green Fireclay
Electric Hobby Kilns: What You Need to Know
Fighting the Glaze Dragon
Firing Clay Test Bars
Firing: What Happens to Ceramic Ware in a Firing Kiln
First You See It Then You Don't: Raku Glaze Stability
Fixing a glaze that does not stay in suspension
Formulating a body using clays native to your area
Formulating a Clear Glaze Compatible with Chrome-Tin Stains
Formulating a Porcelain
Formulating Ash and Native-Material Glazes
G1214M Cone 5-7 20x5 glossy transparent glaze
G1214W Cone 6 transparent glaze
G1214Z Cone 6 matte glaze
G1916M Cone 06-04 transparent glaze
Getting the Glaze Color You Want: Working With Stains
Glaze and Body Pigments and Stains in the Ceramic Tile Industry
Glaze Chemistry Basics - Formula, Analysis, Mole%, Unity
Glaze chemistry using a frit of approximate analysis
Glaze Recipes: Formulate and Make Your Own Instead
Glaze Types, Formulation and Application in the Tile Industry
Having Your Glaze Tested for Toxic Metal Release
High Gloss Glazes
Hire Us for a 3D Printing Project
How a Material Chemical Analysis is Done
How desktop INSIGHT Deals With Unity, LOI and Formula Weight
How to Find and Test Your Own Native Clays
I have always done it this way!
Inkjet Decoration of Ceramic Tiles
Is Your Fired Ware Safe?
Leaching Cone 6 Glaze Case Study
Limit Formulas and Target Formulas
Low Budget Testing of Ceramic Glazes
Make Your Own Ball Mill Stand
Making Glaze Testing Cones
Monoporosa or Single Fired Wall Tiles
Organic Matter in Clays: Detailed Overview
Outdoor Weather Resistant Ceramics
Painting Glazes Rather Than Dipping or Spraying
Particle Size Distribution of Ceramic Powders
Porcelain Tile, Vitrified Tile
Rationalizing Conflicting Opinions About Plasticity
Ravenscrag Slip is Born
Recylcing Scrap Clay
Reducing the Firing Temperature of a Glaze From Cone 10 to 6
Simple Physical Testing of Clays
Single Fire Glazing
Soluble Salts in Minerals: Detailed Overview
Some Keys to Dealing With Firing Cracks
Stoneware Casting Body Recipes
Substituting Cornwall Stone
Super-Refined Terra Sigillata
The Chemistry, Physics and Manufacturing of Glaze Frits
The Effect of Glaze Fit on Fired Ware Strength
The Four Levels on Which to View Ceramic Glazes
The Majolica Earthenware Process
The Potter's Prayer
The Right Chemistry for a Cone 6 MgO Matte
The Trials of Being the Only Technical Person in the Club
The Whining Stops Here: A Realistic Look at Clay Bodies
Those Unlabelled Bags and Buckets
Tiles and Mosaics for Potters
Toxicity of Firebricks Used in Ovens
Trafficking in Glaze Recipes
Understanding Ceramic Materials
Understanding Ceramic Oxides
Understanding Glaze Slurry Properties
Understanding the Deflocculation Process in Slip Casting
Understanding the Terra Cotta Slip Casting Recipes In North America
Understanding Thermal Expansion in Ceramic Glazes
Unwanted Crystallization in a Cone 6 Glaze
Volcanic Ash
What Determines a Glaze's Firing Temperature?
What is a Mole, Checking Out the Mole
What is the Glaze Dragon?
Where do I start in understanding glazes?
Why Textbook Glazes Are So Difficult
Working with children

Building a Lindoe Downdraft Gas Kiln

Luke Lindoe designed this kiln in the 1960s. Since the Medicine Hat and Redcliff area were at the Center of a large and diverse ceramic industry there was a lot of industrial gas kiln and burner design knowledge and experience in the area. Luke took that knowledge and applied it to production pottery.

Over the years many potters made kilns based on this design. A kiln in the lab at Plainsman Clays has been operating for more than 50 years. This design proves itself with each firing, producing front-to-back and top-to-bottom consistency of both temperature and atmosphere. Over the years we have attempted to replace it with other commercial kilns, but nothing comes close. Luke made a subsequent change to six vertical burners firing upward under a lifted version of the frame, that design had advantages and disadvantages.

These drawings and pictures were recently found in the vault at Plainsman Clays.

We are part way through converting the book originals to web and PDF format. We plan to convert the drawings to vector and 3D. And possibly combine this with the burners book by Jim Clachrie (see bottom of this page). If you are able to assist with this project please contact Tony Hansen.

Related Information

A gas kiln built by Luke Lindoe in the 1960s is still used at Plainsman Clays today

It fires very evenly from top to bottom and front to back. We have used it for quality control to fire thousands of porosity and shrinkage test bars to monitor the maturity of the clay bodies. Oh, we also fire pottery in this!

Gas kiln near cone 10R in the Plainsman Clays studio

It is old, but nothing we have ever used fires as evenly and reliably as this downdraft kiln. It was built by Luke Lindoe in the 1960s. I have used it through my entire life as a potter since the early 1970s. Two burners at 2 inches oil-column will take it to 1000F fairly quickly, but it takes 4 burners at 4 inches and 20 hours to get it to cone 10. I can judge the back pressure and degree of reduction by the length and color of the flames at the peepholes and color of the flame passing the damper at the back. Changing the damper position by an eighth of an inch during reduction is enough to discern a change in the flame.

Cone 10R load of fired ware in Plainsman gas kiln

It fires evenly in temperature and atmosphere from top to bottom, front to back. Nothing more can be expected for any studio kiln. We use the C10RPL firing schedule.

Drawing 1 of Lindoe gas kiln

Drawing 2 of Lindoe gas kiln

Drawing 3 of Lindoe gas kiln

Drawing 4 of Lindoe Gas kiln

Drawing 5 of Lindoe gas kiln

Drawing 7 of Lindoe gas kiln

Drawing 8 of Lindoe gas kiln

Welded frame of Lindoe gas kiln

Welded car frame for Lindoe gas kiln

Bottom of car - Lindoe gas kiln

Underside of car for Lindoe gas kiln

Car after refractory base poured - Lindoe gas kiln

Car floor of Lindoe gas kiln

Lindoe gas kiln - Bagwall first stage

Lindoe gas kiln - Gas kiln burner placement

Lindoe gas kiln - Interior floor structure

Flue system on car for Lindoe gas kiln

Original File: carend.jpg

Lindoe gas kiln - Back flue construction

Lindoe gas kiln - inside view of burner port

Lindoe gas kiln - Inside view of slotted brick

Lindoe gas kiln - Burner port outside

Lindoe gas kiln - Walls complete, ready for roof

Lindoe gas kiln - Inside view 1

Lindoe gas kiln - Top of wall, ready for roof

Lindoe gas kiln - Walls done, ready for roof

Lindoe gas kiln - Back wall bricks inserted to support roof

Lindoe gas kiln - Asbestos sheeting applied to roof

Lindoe gas kiln - First roof bricks in place

Lindoe gas kiln - Adding asbestos boards to roof

Lindoe gas kiln - Wooden roof form

Lindoe gas kiln - Ready to fire

Links

URLs	https://digitalfire.com/burnerbook/index.php Gas Burner book by Jim Clachrie
Glossary	Reduction Firing A method of firing stoneware where the kiln air intakes and burners are set to restrict or eliminate oxygen in the kiln such that metallic oxides convert to their reduced metallic state.

By Tony Hansen
Follow me on

Got a Question?

Buy me a coffee and we can talk