Building a gas kiln has proven to be a difficult thing in my current situation. Primarily because I'm a renter, not an owner. It comes down to an issue of space because I don't have a space which would be acceptable as a kiln site. Lately I've been looking into fiber because of it's ease of use and lightness. I had planned on making a small basket style kiln for a while as a test. Something like the Simon Leach raku kiln video on youtube linked below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQB7bDAYWL0&feature=fvsr
After looking at many, many... many videos and blogs about fiber kilns an idea struck me to build the kiln on a trailer. So as I'm planning this, shopping for a metal flat bed trailer and compiling a materials list I stumble on a website of Steve Davis, who makes trailer kilns and does workshops. I had been thinking how clever of an idea I'd just come up with, and been really excited because I'd never even heard of this idea before. I can't say I am dead set on his entire design of the kiln, but it's certainly great. It's pretty much what I'd already designed except I'm using different burners and my flow path is not a straight cross draft but a down draft. Because of the type of burners I've designed I need a larger firebox than this kiln has designed. There's really no better way to conquer the space issue for me personally.
I will be building one, with a completion time of mid summer hopefully. I've really been itching to get back into stoneware temperatures. I am contemplating building a smaller mock up design that will only require about a two rolls of fiber and a cart instead of an entire trailer to save on initial costs considering I don't know if I like the fiber as a kiln material.
Linked below is Steve Davis's website showing his designs for what he calls a Kazegama.
http://www.kazegamas.com/kazegama.htm
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