Need help with my next steps.

[Ken524]

Re: Need help with my next steps.

There is a bit of disagreement on soaking. The standard practice is to soak the bricks until they stop bubbling. The theory is that the bricks are very dry and will suck the water out of the mortar causing it to not cure properly. I soaked my bricks until they stopped bubbling, used HeatStop50 mortar and had excellent results.

As I said, there are other opinions on this, I'm sure someone will jump in with the counter-point.

[GianniFocaccia]

Re: Need help with my next steps.

I have kept a spray bottle next to the dome and sprayed both the anchor brick and the next incoming brick just so the homebrew mortar doesn't have all the moisture sucked out of it. This has made quick work of mortaring and the bricks have bonded to each other like superglue.

[Omaharosario]

Re: Need help with my next steps.

I have kept a spray bottle next to the dome and sprayed both the anchor brick and the next incoming brick just so the homebrew mortar doesn't have all the moisture sucked out of it. This has made quick work of mortaring and the bricks have bonded to each other like superglue.

Any major cracks?

[dmun]

Re: Need help with my next steps.

Should you ever soak your fire brick before laying them?

Wet, yes, soak, no. You want your porous brick to absorb a little water from the mortar for an initial set-up. Mortar will tend to slip off a soaked brick.

[Omaharosario]

Re: Need help with my next steps.

Wet, yes, soak, no. You want your porous brick to absorb a little water from the mortar for an initial set-up. Mortar will tend to slip off a soaked brick.

What happens if you put no moisture on the bricks?

[Omaharosario]

Re: Need help with my next steps.

I soaked my fire brick in buckets for up to 45min for my solider course. The mortar is cracking and not curing. Do I need to start over? Any suggestions?

[GianniFocaccia]

Re: Need help with my next steps.

Any major cracks?

I haven't fired the oven yet so I can't report back. I will say that in the course of tearing out and re-mortaring the bricks that I felt needed to be re-positioned, those bricks that had sat longer seemed to have slowly absorbed the moisture from the mortar and pulled the portland into the brick, creating a suction-like bond.

[ggoose]

Re: Need help with my next steps.

Yes, until they stop bubbling...

gene