Wonderful WigWam - WOW

Scott McKain and John Livingston made this WigWam Kiln out of 16 gauge steel with an ingenious method of clamping it that uses angle iron to stabilize the seams. It was a little challenging to put it together for the first time because the flat sheets had to be bent to fit. However, after the heat of firing the kiln, the sections retained the curves and will be easier to put together next time.

Once again, our wood was fairly wet - much of it was more than 30% moisture, so we did not get the yield we would have liked, however the kiln got plenty hot - more than 700 degrees C at times. And we made a lovely batch of biochar, destined for the rabbitry manure pits and ultimately, John's worm bins.

John and Scott assemble the WigWam

OK, now how do we get him out of there?

All loaded up

We have ignition!

Color shows how the burn advances. Thermocouples let us know what's going on inside. The lid was added to try to cool it down a bit as temperature rose above 700 degrees C

Quenched with water, time to unload

Nice looking biochar