Re: masterly - tail vs. swishy

Posted by Douglas

In Reply to: masterly - tail vs. swishy posted by Douglas brown

I have great news! When I went to the brickyard where I buy my supplies , I met an old man who used to own the brickyard - he told me to ask the new owner about the "old firebricks" for which I could get a deal on. It turns out they have a whole bunch of old bricks which were formed on an angle . some make a perfect circle of 28"in diameter (with a 9" thickness) others make a 36" hole - it turns out i can make a perfect 28" diameter arch with 9" of depth- these will fit beautifully without any mortar. so I can make my walls 2" high and then start my arch right away. - if I want to make a wider arch I could put in one or two of the 36" angled bricks.

he also has some firebricks which are 12"X9"X9" which will be perfect for my back wall and he has many 9"x"4.5"x"3" bricks which have a 45 degree mitre on the end.

All the bricks he will sell to me at 50 cents Canadian each -- what a deal!!!!

I propose to use the mitred ones as my base- and for the front wall - then make 9 arches 4.5"wide at 28"(maybe 29")

then build up the front like the masterly and make an arch of 16" in diameter for my door.

I now don't need a refractory cement cover as I have 9" of depth in fire brick - I will insulate with some rock fibre carpet of sorts - - i still have to figure out how to support the weight of the chimney - but I think I have enough room out front - my hearth pad is 61 " deep and I am only going to use 54 inches of it - so I think that will work!!!!