Saturday, April 16, 2011

Safety First!



Cheers!

6 comments:

Unknown said...

That's a nifty contraption. How high does that tripod go? I think if you could make it point down into the stack a little, it would work really well.... and the stack is going to be hot enough to evaporate any moisture before it gets down into the kiln. Will you post the final set up so we can see? :)

Peter said...

Hi Brandon,
Dry windy times and fire season is certainly scary. Nice try with the water spray, but I do wonder if the wind will be too much of a problem. Also the huge volume of heat coming out of the stack and its velocity, might make water spray unable to reach anything but some of the sparks that might drift from the edge of the column of heat.

I'm not sure if these would work, but I know that steam engines on the railroad or agricultural traction engines often used metal spark arresters. Out of interest I looked up such things and found this site http://heritagesteamsupplies.co.uk/Z-Heritage-Steam-Supplies/Spark-Arresters/p-297-863
You might be able to fabricate something from steel that would do the job. Only problems I could see with an arrester could be reduction of flow, or sooting or tarring up (The balloon shape of the spark arrester would counter some of the potential flow reduction).
Anyway, good luck!

doug fudge said...

My dad and I agree that it is a great idea.

brandon phillips said...

Peter-
The only problem with the spark arrester is that the heat and flame coming off the stack corrode and deteriorate the arrester, I'd have to replace it every firing. I looked into fabricating one out of stainless steel but it was very expensive.

I have a plan for a mister that envelopes the whole stack but I don't have time to fabricate it before next weekend so I was trying to come up with a temporary solution. It is supposed to rain the 2 days before I fire so it all may be moot anyways...at least this time!

Peter said...

Hi Brandon,
Stainless steel would be the way to go really, a shame that it is so expensive. After sending the post I felt a bit foolish for suggesting the spark arrester as I realise that our kilns are in a totally different league regarding heat output as compared with steam engines...but it is an interesting alternative. Glad to hear that you may get some rain before you fire. Good luck with it.

Scott Cooper said...

When I saw the keyframe for the video, I thought, "holy hell, he's using garden hose nozzles for burner tips!" Ends up you're not quite as crazy as I suspected, but I'd still like to see the version with gas going through that contraption, for entertainment value if nothing else.