Firebrick catalog?

[Xabia Jim]

Has anyone seen a firebrick catalog?

My FIL said that they show a variety of brick shapes available. He used to build gas pottery kilns...but I've never seen such a catalog.

[RTflorida]

Jim,
I'm sure the various manufacturers have catalogs. I know the refractory specialist near my home buys predominately from one manufacturer and has a multitude of different bricks (4 different duty ratings, splits, and if I remember correctly - 3 different degrees of angle on archway bricks).
He didn't show me a catalog, just his own "home made" spec/data sheets (which had been copied from another document (maybe a catalog). he then wrote in the prices of the items I was interested in.
After seeing his astronomical prices, I quickly exited, purchasing my items elswhere.
I'm sure if you were to ask, most suppliers would be able to provide a catalog....or get you one from their manufacurer rep.

RT

[I Love Pizza]

Finding brick is a little harder than I imagined, free is the best price no luck yet.

[steveparkinson]

Originally Posted by Xabia Jim

Has anyone seen a firebrick catalog?

My FIL said that they show a variety of brick shapes available. He used to build gas pottery kilns...but I've never seen such a catalog.

I remembered seeing something like this online a few months ago, and just spent several hours (!) looking for the link again. It's alsey.com

I was particularly interested in the arch pieces. The arch shaped bricks will result in the following size semicircular oven, if placed together without mortar. In other words, these will form 180 degrees:

No. 1 Arch: 19 bricks, 48" wide arch
No. 2 Arch: 18 bricks, 29" wide arch
No. 3 Arch: 9 bricks, 5" wide arch

But, it appears they only make these shapes in the high duty, so it doesn't make much sense for our purposes. I wish they made light-duty versions.

All of the pictures I see are of regular brick-shaped bricks for the dome for their ovens. Has anyone used wedge-shaped bricks? Pros/cons?

[dmun]

Originally Posted by steveparkinson

All of the pictures I see are of regular brick-shaped bricks for the dome for their ovens. Has anyone used wedge-shaped bricks? Pros/cons?

Pros: They are great, you can make a true close fitting dome with a minimum of mortar.

Cons: They cost about four times as much as rectangular fire bricks in the US. Unless you can get lucky and get some in the secondary market, they push the cost of building up into the realm of the unaffordable.

[RTflorida]

I was like a kid in a candy store when I walked into the display area of the local supplier who had every degree of taper imaginable. The bubble quickly burst when he handed me the price sheet. The least expensive tapered bricks were $4.50 each and went up to as high as $7.00. each. Even his standard firebricks were over $2.00 ea. I opted for another supplier at 77 cents per brick......and spent what seemed like an eternity cutting each brick to fit. By all means, if you can afford it, use the tapered bricks.

RT