Fire brick advice needed

[Luke.Brod]

Hi all. I am new to the forum so I am not sure if I have posted the correct place.

I have been wanting to build a pizza oven for quite some time now, but as they are so expensive to make I keep on putting it off.

I have just been given some fire bricks from an oven at work they are used but I think that they will be ok?
They were used to line the floor of the oven for heating mild steel and titanium up to temperatures of around 720 degrees Celsius. Not sure if that would have done any damage to the brick?

These bricks weigh 166 pounds per cubic foot. So from what I read I think they are high Duty fire briks. I understand that medium Duty fire bricks are what is recommended but as I am on a budget using these or not building an oven at all, for another 5 years, are my only options.

I was thinking of buying new medium Duty bricks for the oven floor.

Any advice would be much appreciated

[Jinly1]

yes you can use those bricks, high duty fire bricks just have more Alumina in them. they are heavier , denser and cost more than the medium duty ones. I don not see any problems with them, just don't use regular clay or concrete bricks, they cannot handle the intense heat , because they lack the calcium alumina that refractory bricks contain. Good Luck on your oven.

[UtahBeehiver]

The bricks in my build are super duty (they were manufactured for a steel mill and over 60% alumina). Free is good, but super duty bricks are very hard to cut and take there toll on diamond blades. Tscar advocates low duty bricks on the floors. There are several UK builds that have been done over the years. Check out Bookemdano's build, he repurposed red clay bricks and heater tiles in his build.

[RandyJ]

You want to use low duty for the floor. I used super duty and high duty for my dome. They worked great. And so far are holding up nicely.

Randy

[Gulf]

I'm not sure about the UK. But, over here, in my part of the states, low duty firebricks are the easiest to find. That is the standard for fireplaces. So, that is what is most commonly stocked in building supply and big box stores.

[dakzaag]

Make sure the brick don't have heavy metal waste in them. Using new for the floor seems like a good idea to avoid any contamination concerns. You could build a small fire pit with the used brick and see if the smell funny or anything weird. Cheap is great until it isn't.

[Luke.Brod]

Thanks for all the advice.

Unfortunately before I could collect the bricks higher management heard that I had been given them and put a stop to it, due to them wanting to dispose of them through their hazardous to health policy. Better safe than sorry.
I've just got to keep my eye out now. Hopefully some will come up soon because I've set my heart on building one sooner than later.

Unfortunately the wife thinks I've got bigger fish to fry as we only moved in 6 months ago and the whole place needs work.

[dakzaag]

Build a quick and dirty oven with the bare necessities. Once you get used to the awesome taste coming out of your oven, the new oven will move right up the priority list.