2 door hardtop

My Dad's 55 Oldsmobile Rocket 88 was a turquoise and white two door hardtop. The big woodie also has two doors and 9 inch thick hard brick arch covered with 3 inches of fiber and a hardtop made of  insulating castable and Portland cement. We covered the firebox arch too. Donovan thinks this will be a slow cooler with all the mass and the insulation. Kilns are so poorly insulated these days people have resorted to firing down to get good glaze results.

Oldsmobile Rocket 88

The handmade Caddy is complete, idling and waiting to pull out of Dodge. All the builders are pooped. Nicely done Donovan Palmquist and assistant extraordinaire Judah. You are both among the finest detail craftsmen in the bizz. I learned as much about care of making as I did about kiln building. It was a mini graduate degree compressed into almost 3 intensive weeks.
When I was a kid my dad bought a 55 Oldsmobile Rocket  88. He couldn't wait to hit the prairies so he could bury the speedometer and be able to see the cops for miles. Looking at this machine I feel like Dad felt.

The Chamber

The chamber is done and now for the flu channels and the bag wall. We spaced the bag wall up to 2" spacing after it cleared the throat arch. The idea is to drive the flame up to the top of the kiln but still get some of those pots at the bottom kissed by the flame.

The Big Arch

goes up today. All bricks laid dry so that mortar doesn't fall on the pots during firing. It will be exciting to drop the arch form. I'm sure no matter how many times Donovan has done it there must be a sigh of relief.

Go big or go home!

Yesterday the door arch was put in place. Today we put the arch on the chamber and the arch over the bourry box. The kiln goes from looking huge to looking big to looking smaller and then bigger again. Once the arch is over the chamber I'm wondering how big 100 cubic feet looks. The car kiln has been started simultaneously with the woodie. As if it is not a big enough project.

15 foot erection

The 15 foot erection of the stack required the use of Uncle Herm's man toy to lift bricks to the roof. I can't imagine carrying them up the ladder. There are well over a thousand hard bricks in the stack. There should be enough draw to suck up a small dog or unsupervised child.

Steppin' UP

T

There are a lot of details in this kiln. Looks like over 10 arches in total. Here are the arched hobs.
When I first saw pics of them in one of Donovan's other kilns I thought it over kill. They are 4 1/2" not 9" bricks. The stepping up of the bricks in the chimney is creating a rather large collection box to cool down the exiting flame.