firebricks in south Florida

[tony boca]

I'm trying to do my research before attempting to build a pizza oven, but I'm having trouble locating firebricks in South Florida. Any suggestions?

[dmun]

Re: firebricks in south Florida

South Florida is a big place. Miami, Key West, Naples? Every big city should have lots of brickyards, which either have, or can get, what you need.

[tony boca]

Re: firebricks in south Florida

Thanks for the tip. I'm in Boca Raton, just north of fort lauderdale. I did manage to find one place called florida silica. they wanted $1.60 for red and 1.39 for white for 9x4x1.25. Does this sound about right?

[pzachef]

Re: firebricks in south Florida

Tony,
I live in Palm Beach County. Cemex USA used to be Rinker has Firebrick at $ 1.20 and Heatstop Mortar for $80 for and 80lb bag.

[dmun]

Re: firebricks in south Florida

9x4x1.25. Does this sound about right?

These thin bricks are called "splits". They are as expensive, or a little more, as the full thickness firebricks. They will work fine, but will take twice as many of them.

Firebrick color doesn't matter. The "red" ones fad in time to look almost the same as the beige ones.

[pzachef]

Re: firebricks in south Florida

Yes, Splits are about the same or slightly more money than the full bricks.

Full 4x9x2.1
Splits 4x9x1.25
Soap 2x9x1.25

[pzachef]

Re: firebricks in south Florida

I was just wondering if anyonbe has cast an oven.
I checked out HeatCast 40 for casting a mold instead of using bricks. Specs make it sound like it would be the stuff to use and you can add stainless pins to the mix to reinforce the structure? Just a thought. Check it out on Heat Stop - High Temperature Resistent Refractory Mortar

[tony boca]

Re: firebricks in south Florida

I stopped by the cemex today In Delray Beach. The man in charge had no idea if they were low duty or medium duty, nor what their composition was. The only thing he told me was that they are being used for fireplaces ($1.20ea). Hate to have the wrong kind of bricks and end up with toasted pizza. Has Anyone cooked with these cemex bricks and had good results? I just read that the light duty firebricks are 8lbs each. I'm going to call in the morning to see what the weight is of the ones they carry.

[larrya1049]

Re: firebricks in south Florida

Hi Tony I just weighed a one of the firebricks and it is coming in at 6 LBS. The dimensions of the brick are 4X2X9 and have to be considered in the overall weight of the brick. There's also a place down in Pompano Beach that sells firebrick. They also didn't know what type of firebrick they had in stock and from talking to the guy there it sounded like it was the same thing Cemex was carrying. They were also more expensive. Florida Silica is a good place to get clay flue liners from. They have a big selection and good prices. I picked one up from them last week.
Additional info:
I think it's safe to say that the cemex bricks are low duty. The weight approximates the Whitacre-Greer bricks in this post.
http://www.fornobravo.com/forum/f8/f...lina-5768.html
http://www.wgpaver.com/files/PDF/Fir...eet%20Buff.pdf
Larry

[tony boca]

Re: firebricks in south Florida

I called the cemex in Delray and had them fax me the product data sheet. The firebricks are made by Whitacre-Greer:
W-G red low duty firebricks
SiO2 65.9%
Al2O3 22.4%
Fe2O3 5.1%
CaO 0.4%
MgO 1.2%
TiO2 1.3%
Alkali 3.1%

Hope this helps anyone interested.

[pzachef]

Re: firebricks in south Florida

Tony,

I may sell the kit I bought and build anyway. After a preassemble to verify it's size, it turned out to be barely 32 inch diameter. I'm going to build bigger.

Anyway I was at Delray Cemex like I said before. They had samples up on the counter, full size, split, and soap. I bought a sample full size brick, see photo attached to this response. Is this what the specs you posted are for?

Bob

[tony boca]

Re: firebricks in south Florida

Bob,

The MSDS sheet that they faxed was for the red brick. It seems that Cemex gets their firebricks from Whiteacre-Greer. The photo appears to be the yellow brick and i would imagine it has the same specs as mentioned in Larry's link (which is also Whiteacre -Greer. I'm still undecided if i'm going yellow or red. The tough choices in life. Hope this helps.

Tony

[pzachef]

Re: firebricks in south Florida

Tony,

Thanks for the info, I checked out the Whitacre Greer website and found the the same information as well as the file attached to this response. Apparently these bricks are fine. They are Low Duty Refractory brick with 30% alumina. They also have tapered brick available as seen in ther arch photo. I will check on these and let you know what I find.

[larrya1049]

Re: firebricks in south Florida

Hi Bob,
That's the brick that I'm using on my oven. It cuts very easy.

Larry

[pzachef]

Re: firebricks in south Florida

I spoke to them today at Whiteacre-Greer, really nice guys. I told them about our retailer in the area Cemex, my interest in fire bricks, and they are sending me some sample arch bricks to measure and consider. They are tapered in one direction, all I'd have to do is cut them as wedges for the ring layers of a dome, who knows. If I pursure the use of them I'll be able to communicate to Cemex what I need al lot better using samples. They said they are going to mark them to indicate their type. I'll post what they send me here.

Bob