Megamelon on sat 3 feb 07
First post here (long time listener, first time caller), might as well =
make it long...
I am getting back to pottery after quite a hiatus. I generally go =
overboard when I start something like this, and in keeping with that- I =
have located a pile of refractory bricks from a brick-making kiln.
400-500 Standard bricks at 45 cents each, and there are these 200-300 =
other ones that "the guy" claims are 5"x9"x14.5" bricks that were part =
of the car backing for $2.60-$2.80 each. They cost him over $6 each new =
(assumedly in good bulk). He didn't know the rating off the top of his =
head, but they were part of a kiln that was fired to 2000F at high =
pressure, so I assume they're more than enough.
My calculations on a 27-30 cubic foot Olsen Fast Fire style kiln show =
that I would need about 900 bricks for a single-wall structure, =
including the chimney. I could be way off there. Clearly the larger =
odd-sized bricks (each of which is the volume of over 6 standard =
9x4.5x2.5 bricks) would go really far for this, and give me a thicker =
wall- maybe I'd even expand it to more like 36 cubic feet.
So- my questions-
Will I be able to put a good enough score in these with a worm drive =
skil saw to break them easily with a 3# hammer?
If they're a different material than the straights, will there be a =
problem with a difference in expansion between the 2 brick types (if, =
say, I made the kiln of the bigguns, and the chimney out of standard =
straights), or is this too small to consider?
In Olsen's book, he has 1" mullite shelves over the fireboxes- will =
these hold up? Seems like a risk to have a material sandwiched in there =
that would require a complete tear-down should it crack (I'd look at =
brick placement to reduce the span accross the fireboxes a bit). How do =
they do this in really big fast fire designs? Arch it?
I'm sure that I'll ask more later. Thanks in advance (I've really =
enjoyed reading a huge portion of the archives).
-pablo
I'm not just the Hairclub president, but I'm also the janitor
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