Posted to rcp...

Last weekend I acquired some 200 firebricks - the ones displayed here.


They were going to be used in a fire-place but never made it, so I asked the uncle who had them whether he would mind parting with them.

My original plan was to make a kiln along the lines of the one on this site and I have been in rcp before asking for help and have been helped considerably by those who have answered.

Now - the bricks I have got are not shaped like common house bricks... they are shaped like 22x11x4cm or 8.7x4.3x1.6 inches. If I build the Brisbane 250 with these, I'll get a fire chaber
and firebox of about 8 cm height or 3.2 inches high - not so good.

If I switch height and width, apart from stability problems (trying to balance 25 courses on 1.6 inches base...) I figure I'll have problems with how thin the walls of the kiln will be.

Whatever happens, I don't have enough bricks to do anything right at the moment.

One idea is to stand the bricks up on their thin side, and then have another layer of bricks outside them to insulate. If I cannot get other bricks, does anyone know a reason why I should
not use the stones which are sitting around in the garden? These are big limestone blocks, some of which are squared and have been used in the past as masonry. I don't think we'll be approaching lime-kiln hot (but I don't actually know how hot lime kilns get, although a first google search show 2,000F). Hmm answered my own question there probably.

OK - so buy more bricks is the way to go. If I run out of the fire bricks, does anyone have an idea where they should be put and where it is not 100% necessary - I realise the whole kiln can be made without firebricks, but since I have them, I would rather they be used where there is high temperature.

I have not tried anything like this ever, I have not got a very acute sense of planning in 3D (to the extent that following the detailed plan course by course on the above mentioned web site
would have been a challenge), and I am not even sure whether I can find suitable blocks with which to make a model and see what I can do to maximise the benefit of the fire-brick gift.

I am willing to learn.