this next photo is a of the target brick inside - what you're looking at is the burner strapped to a piece of channel iron into which the oil flows, hitting the target brick, cut to a v to fit the channel- on the far left, you see a small mess of clinkers, and just to the right, the brick top surface- it's about 2x3 on top. it's actually not a target brick as much as a sponge/ wick for the oil, in order to give it more surface area from which it can burn.. soft brick
this video shows the whole setup
what you see there is two fuels in one burner- the propane out of the center orifice, and the fry oil in a quarter inch copper tube bent into a loop so that it can pass by the hot burner and then enters the back of the burner cup at the top. the oil then drips down through the porpane flame, and out of the cup onto the channel iron. Kent was trying to find that perfect flow rate at which it didn't just back up and make a mess.
the great thing is that it works at lower temperatures. the not so great thing is that only a small proportion of oil can be burned at a time.. even at the top of the firing, the oil could not be more than about a third on. and the propane was on high at that point. changing the proportion would result in the same thing we experienced before- crazy amounts of smokey reduction. but the whole shebang did get it's half of that little kiln up to temperature, near as the cones read. at the top, he experimented with treating it like a wood kiln- getting rid of the propane, giving a little oil, then off, then a few drops, then off. the pyrometer registered as one might expect, with a wave-curve of temperature increase and decrease, but overall a temperature loss with billows of smoke. I grew worried about scumming on the still-molten glazes, since he was essentially reduction cooling (great for me to see, since that's what I want to do!).
next up- possibly casting a venturi block into which this thing can fit, allowing for proper air flow that is not forced by the propane part of the burner. the theory being that the thing isn't getting enough air at those high temperatures...
