Kiln Choices

There are a lot of considerations when you are preparing to buy a kiln. Often the advice to people buying a new kiln is to “buy the largest you can afford,” or “x kiln is great, and they have good service.”  These are general advice, not directly applicable to your needs.

More important is to think about buying a kiln that suits your kind of work. This might be:

• Flat and shallow sumps
• Small and detailed work
• Powder and other work that needs detailed assembly and little movement
• Deep slumps/ tall drapes
• Drop-outs and melts
• Large scale panels

These kinds of work are determinants for the size and depth of kiln you require. Even if you were to later decide on a larger kiln, the first kiln will continue to be valuable. And having a choice of kilns means you can use the one most suitable to the work.

The way you assemble your work will affect your choice of how the kiln opens. The most common styles are:

• Front door     
• Top lid    
• Clamshell/Top hat

Each has its advantages for different types of work.

Kiln depths are variable. Shallow kilns are easier to load. Deep kilns give more possibilities for casting and drops. It is possible to raise shelves on posts in deep kilns for flat work, making deep kilns flexible for both kinds of work.

The scale of your work will have a big effect on the kiln size. The larger the scale the bigger the kiln will be needed. But be careful to avoid “buying the largest you can afford” attitude. Kiln sizes vary:

• Tiny
• Small            
• medium  
• large
• extra large

 These are some of the considerations that have been organised into two grids. They are an attempt to organise by the kind of work you intend to do with this kiln - drops, casting, jewellery, etc. It then lists the choice by kiln characteristics such as size, opening method, insulation, etc. Some of these characteristics will not be relevant to you at this time, but may be later.

A range of kilnforming styles are given across the top and kiln characteristics down the side of the grid. Where the kiln is very good for the kind of work given at the head of the column a “Y” is entered.  Where the kiln is definitely not suitable a “N” is given. Where neither of these are given, the kiln will do the work acceptably, but not in an optimum manner.

 

 

This second grid relates to controls and various features that kilns have added to the basic kiln. It provides you with a checklist of items that might be desirable and allows you to compare different brands of the same shape according to the additional features they have or can have added.