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Drilling Fire Brick
I'm rebuilding my grates out of fire brick. Any idea how easy/hard it is to drill fire brick. I've cut fire brick pretty easily over the years to brick a few different arches, but have never drilled the stuff.
I'm looking to drill 3/4" or 1" inch holes with a mason bit to allow some of the ash to fall through, and more importantly, to allow some forced air to come up through.
Any of you guys that have done this, were you able to find pre driiled brick, or did you have to drill it yourself?
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why not just use a House brick with holes already in it? They won't last as long, but they are cheap usually.
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The slightly yellow fire brick drills like butter. Dont use the hammer drill option because that will cause cracking. H D has hole saws for tile and they will get you a bigger hole. If dust is a problem use a cordless drill and sublerg the brick in a bucket of water and drill the holes. When you drill as soon as the bit shows thru the backside stop and drill from the oposite side it wont blow out on you. Nice neat holes.
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When I drill them I use a 3/4" cement bit and haul the drill press outside, I made a jig to clamp to the table and slide them along , 1,2,3 , makes it go faster.
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Thanks guys.
What do you use to support the bricks - when using them as grates. I'm thinking steel mesh. It obviously can't be sheet metal - cause I need air to pass through and ash to fall through.
Do the holes in the brick plug right up with ash?
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Yes, what do you use for support?
How many 3/4 holes per brick?
Full or half brick?
Also, out of curiosity, why are there two sizes of fire brick? Where would you want to use a thin one over a thick one, and vice-versa?
Steve
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I use 2 pieces of angle iron 1.25" x 1/4" thick welded together and the ends cut off enough to allow the end to sit on the grate supports on my archfront and rear of the firebox. This allows air to flow between the supports and this design actually helps force air up into the holes in my opinion. This allows a nice flat support on top and I run the bricks lengthwise like the arch runs and have one of these supports on each side of a row of bricks and I would think as strong as these supports are and the constant amount of air flowing around them from my blower that they should last forever without any damage or wrapage.
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I use 2"x2"1/4" going across from brickrest to brickrest , space the brick so you have 1" of the end of the brick sitting on the angle , and the edge of the drilled hole is 1" in so it is free of the angle. The next brick behind it , same thing , sits , butts up to the other brick , 1" on the angle the hole is clear. The ends of the angle is notched to sit down on the brick rest.
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Suspicously sounds like WFMason and WestVirginiaMapler do it just like I do. You guys are good students. Everybody back to class. LOL
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It's easy to be a good student when you have a good teacher like Jerry.