The hole won't show when the lid is built/assembled, but I am concerned about the structural integrity of each brick. The design for the lid has 15 bricks sandwiched together and held in place by a welded structure that will hold them together. Here's a photo of the design. Guess it would have been helpful to post this first! The first design had threaded rod running through each brick with plates and nuts and bolts at each end to hold them together (that caused the hole that I want to repair). The rod became brittle and was sagging, causing the lid to sag during firing. Some bricks have fine cracks in them and these will be tossed out. In the photo below, it's hard to see, but there's another metal plate behind the nuts. That plate that moves freely. The nuts tighten and put pressure on the plate and the plates compress the stack of bricks enough to hold them in place. Hope that makes sense. Thanks for the interest and help. I appreciate it!
