Rebekah Krieger Posted September 11, 2017 Report Share Posted September 11, 2017 Hello- it's been a while anyways I found some salvaged fire brick for .50 each at a salvage yard nearby. They are salvaged from an old coke kiln. The problem is, I'm a novice and have no idea how to tell if they are high temp. I wanted to build a (slightly larger) version of the Phil Rogers test kiln for salt. His Book recommendation is 42% alumina. Is there any way to tell one brick from another? I don't want my kiln to collapse at low fire. I would like it to get up to 6-^8 so ^10 would be safer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neilestrick Posted September 11, 2017 Report Share Posted September 11, 2017 Hard brick or soft brick? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rebekah Krieger Posted September 11, 2017 Author Report Share Posted September 11, 2017 Hard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neilestrick Posted September 11, 2017 Report Share Posted September 11, 2017 What color are the bricks? Is there a name stamped into them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rebekah Krieger Posted September 11, 2017 Author Report Share Posted September 11, 2017 Sending you an image in Facebook messaging since the forum usually rejects my images. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rex Johnson Posted September 11, 2017 Report Share Posted September 11, 2017 We salvaged bricks for our first kiln in 1972 from a some sort of smelting oven out in Trona, CA. They were hard alright...and heavy. Turned out to be 3000+ degree bricks! Big diff from regular hard bricks. Curious to see what you have. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rebekah Krieger Posted September 11, 2017 Author Report Share Posted September 11, 2017 Rex- did that kiln build feel more sturdy than any of your other kilns? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rex Johnson Posted September 11, 2017 Report Share Posted September 11, 2017 We realized it wasn't wise to use such heavy brick in the end so we used it for the chimney only. We were building a cantilever arched kiln, and used regular hard brick. In hindsight I would have probably used high temp soft brick. Things to consider are how long it will take to get the kiln to temp. Super hard furnace brick is going to take alot longer to heat up from what I recall. However, if you're going to use it for salt, the tougher the brick the better I'd assume. Salt takes a toll on bricks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rex Johnson Posted September 11, 2017 Report Share Posted September 11, 2017 Have any info on the Phil Rogers test kiln for salt ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rebekah Krieger Posted September 11, 2017 Author Report Share Posted September 11, 2017 The Salt glazed pottery book by him has the plans in it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joseph Fireborn Posted September 11, 2017 Report Share Posted September 11, 2017 How small is the salt test kiln? Sounds interesting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rebekah Krieger Posted September 11, 2017 Author Report Share Posted September 11, 2017 The book says that it is approximately 12 ft.³ It appears much smaller to me . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neilestrick Posted September 11, 2017 Report Share Posted September 11, 2017 I couldn't read what's on the brick in the photo you sent me. What's the name stamped into them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark C. Posted September 11, 2017 Report Share Posted September 11, 2017 I would need to see the bricks-this new format is easy to post photos I think Post some quality images of the whole brick as well as the name on front. Make sure of the dimensions -are they 2.5x 4.5 x9 inch? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joseph Fireborn Posted September 12, 2017 Report Share Posted September 12, 2017 2 hours ago, Rebekah Krieger said: The book says that it is approximately 12 ft.³ It appears much smaller to me . Awesome. Is this what you are building? That seems like a really nice size to be honest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rebekah Krieger Posted September 12, 2017 Author Report Share Posted September 12, 2017 I was thinking of making it slightly bigger Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neilestrick Posted September 12, 2017 Report Share Posted September 12, 2017 12 cu/ft would be a nice size. You can get a good amount of pots in it, but not take too long to fill. That's good since you'll likely be doing a lot of testing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rebekah Krieger Posted September 12, 2017 Author Report Share Posted September 12, 2017 The bricks did not have any writing in picture. The guy said there are numbers but he wasn't tech savvy to send me pic (someone else took the main photo) he told me I was welcome to go down and look. It's an hour Drive in south Milwaukee so I will have to wait for the opportunity to check. He said he had all sizes , s"some that look like a pie shape" (which I am hoping are arch bricks) I don't suppose anyone would be willing to fire a test brick for me... (my electric kiln has only been fired to cone 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rebekah Krieger Posted September 12, 2017 Author Report Share Posted September 12, 2017 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fergusonjeff Posted September 12, 2017 Report Share Posted September 12, 2017 This may end up being a great purchase. They look like standard straights (9" x 4.5" x 2.5"). $0.50 per brick is a great deal if they are high-duty or better. Chances are they are super-duty bricks or even higher. I ended up using a mix of high, super, and whatever is even higher than that in my wood kiln. The only downside to higher-temp bricks is some can be very difficult to cut. I used a circular saw with a masonry blade to cut bricks and a regular high-duty brick will cut in just a couple seconds. The really hard bricks could take minutes and eat up a lot of the masonry disk. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark C. Posted September 12, 2017 Report Share Posted September 12, 2017 Rebekah Go buy those bricks I enlarged your photo and they have stamped names on them -meaning they are high fire bricks -buy them ALL. There are a few different stamps from that photo but its all good -go get them NOW-call the dude back and say they are sold you are com ing to get them. Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joseph Fireborn Posted September 12, 2017 Report Share Posted September 12, 2017 I really need to get my butt checking stuff like this out more often. .50 cent a brick is amazing. Congrats! keep us updated when you build your new kiln! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neilestrick Posted September 12, 2017 Report Share Posted September 12, 2017 Now you need to find an equal number of soft bricks for the outer layer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark C. Posted September 13, 2017 Report Share Posted September 13, 2017 When you are moving those bricks-please post some of the stamped names on them for me. Since most of my bricks are from the west coast I would like to learn some east coast -or midwest names. I have some classics like Jaybfine-empire-stockton Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neilestrick Posted September 13, 2017 Report Share Posted September 13, 2017 Yeah, I'd just buy them. It's a good price and they should work just fine, even if they're not as high in alumina as is ideal. I've built a couple of small salt kilns out of random used hard brick and they all worked well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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