Kiln
Kiln is a multi block structure mainly used for firing pottery that consists of a heat source and a chamber with a chimney.
There are 4 kinds of kiln chambers available: Tunnel kiln, Square kiln, Beehive kiln and Climbing kiln.
| Type | Pottery slots | Chimney material | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tunnel | 4 | Mud Brick | - |
| Square | 4 | Mud Brick | - |
| Beehive | 8 | Stone Brick | Adapted from TFC+ |
| Climbing | 12 - 24 | Fire Brick | - |
Tunnel kiln and Square kiln can be built with a Mud Brick Chimney, which means they can be constructed before acquiring a saw and a chisel.
Tunnel kiln and Square kiln differ only in shape and their chamber can be either one or two blocks high.
In case of Square kiln, please note that the chimney must be placed in the corner that is opposite of the firebox.
Beehive kiln is constructed very much like the TFC+ Beehive kiln and requires a stone brick chimney to build.
Climbing kiln requires the chamber floor and ceiling to be made from fire brick blocks. A minimum size Climbing kiln requires 24 fire brick blocks. It can be expanded up to two times with each expansion requiring 12 more fire brick blocks. At least one Fire Brick Chimney block is needed for the kiln chimney.
The following kiln heat sources are available:
- Burning Wood Pile
It is recommended to leave no more and no less than 2 sides of the burning wood pile exposed.
Exposing more than 2 sides causes the wood pile to burn faster. Faster burning means the heat will accumulate faster and that can speed up the process, especially for wood types that burn at lower temperature, however more items will need to be consumed, which may require refilling the wood pile during the process.
At the other hand, if only 1 side of the burning wood pile is exposed, the firewood will burn slower and produce less heat, and it may be very difficult to heat up the kiln chamber sufficiently.
For the kiln firing process to finish, the wood pile needs to be burning for a certain period of time and a certain amount of heat needs to accumulate.
If there is more fuel left after the process is complete, the wood pile will continue to burn. Any excess items can be removed to save fuel, or used for the next run.
This means depending on the type of wood the process can finish sooner (or later) having burned less (or more) items.
Baobab firewood is used as the baseline and when used as fuel the process will finish in 18 hours consuming 16 items, which corresponds to the TFC+ beehive kiln behavior.
As a contrast, when Oak firewood is used as fuel the process will finish in about 15 hours consuming only 6 items.
Because less firewood is consumed for the majority of types of wood, and because firewood is consumed over time, it is recommended to decrease the burning time in the config, thus making the firewood burn faster. Then, depending on the type of wood, you might need to add more firewood during to process. This will make using the kiln more involved and simulate the need for tending the kiln during the process as in the real world.
To decrease the burning time of firewood in a wood pile set the value of woodpile.burnTimeMultiplier to less than 1.
As soon as the heat source is lit and the kiln chamber structure is valid the process will start. Removing the heat source or breaking the kiln chamber structure interrupts and resets any progress.
Fire particles will appear on top of the chimney and stay until either the process is interrupted or completed.
Keeping the heat source active after the process completes will ensure that any metal in small vessels in the kiln chamber remains liquid as long as the chamber structure is not broken.
- More kiln heat sources can be added via the API.
- More kiln chamber types can be added via the API.
- Technically, Tied Bundles of Sticks can be used to heat a kiln chamber sufficiently, but the process will take 24 hours and consume 28 items (252 sticks).
- Climbing kiln simulates an Anagama sort of kiln, as an upgrade to the Beehive kiln, with more pottery slots and requiring a number of fire bricks and a fire brick chimney.