So I have read the kanthal wire equations for kilns and they specify a maximum surface load of heat for a furnace and the equations are typically volumetric, i..e you find surface area of kiln, use wire gauge, etc.
Fairly easy if not a bit tedious to design a kiln. You can do it in a few hours.
Do all these equations hold true for 'odd' shapes that you don't typically associate with kilns? My idea was to make a dissimilar sheet metal joiner, so say you want to make a copper-steel sheet bond,
it would be like a panini press, so the kiln would be really wide but short.
do you need to derate anything for this non convectional design?
Or if you wanna build a kiln that conforms around some funny shape thats thin, like a U.
The idea being so you dont need to heat up a giant volume to heat a thin bit of sheet metal.
http://www.west-l.com/uploads/tdpdf/06080303.pdf