Designing a kiln brick by brick
How to use the kiln builder, and the masonry it models: running bond, sprung arches, catenaries, and round walls, with the counting that traces every brick back to the saw.
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Pottery notes
Posts on pottery: materials, technique, kilns, glazes, and the physics behind the craft. Written to help potters get better work out of the studio.
How the element calculator works
From Ohm's law to the Kanthal design procedure: wire diameter, hot resistance, coil geometry, and the surface load that decides how long a heating element lasts.
How the kiln energy calculator works
Inside the energy calculator: a coupled steady-state heat-loss solver, temperature-dependent conductivity, the mean-area wall method, and how loss becomes the power and fuel your kiln needs.
What 60 electric kilns tell you about power
A survey of 60 production electric kilns, the physics behind the kiln builder, and where Olsen's quick formulas land relative to what is on shop floors today.