39 inch Corner Build

[Larry P]

JR, did you taper the bricks for your outer arch? I was just looking at doing that and my 10" wet saw is not nearly big enough to taper the 4.5" edge of the brick. I guess you raise the blade and do multiple passes?

[JRPizza]

Yes, I tapered bricks for all my arches. It was kind of a pain but I think it just looks better. See my post #130 for how I cut the and some more discussion back I think in post 23. I have a 10" saw and had to make two cuts per side, but when I set up my jig, I made two cuts on each brick, fat side towards skinny side, then reset my jig and made two more cuts, skinny side towards fat. I can help walk you through it more if you want.

[UtahBeehiver]

You can do a taper arch brick with a 10" saw. I did both the inner and outer arch with a 10" HF saw. Here is a simple wedge set up I did and any rough areas I ground with a diamond cup wheel using a 4" angle grinder. You can use a program from Anglelizer to help you determine the brick dimensions base on mortar joint size, size of brick and arch radius. It is free, go to General Tools and you will find it there. BTW, my bricks were 5 3/4" wide.

[JRPizza]

Russell, my HF saw will not cut all the way through a 4.5" brick, as there is a 5/8" arbor and a washer that is probably at least an inch. I also played with the angleizer program, but I thought it output numbers for their tool, not just direct measurements. Maybe I was using it wrong?

[UtahBeehiver]

You can use it for the tool but I just made myself a scrap thin brick template and traced the cut lines on both ends of the brick and connected the dot along the length. Your are correct the the arbor will not let you cut all the way through from one side but you can cut from both sides or smooth out the rough cuts with the diamond cup. Only the front side facing you needs real attention, the portion under the mortar joint, no one ever sees.

[Larry P]

Yes, I tapered bricks for all my arches. It was kind of a pain but I think it just looks better. See my post #130 for how I cut the and some more discussion back I think in post 23. I have a 10" saw and had to make two cuts per side, but when I set up my jig, I made two cuts on each brick, fat side towards skinny side, then reset my jig and made two more cuts, skinny side towards fat. I can help walk you through it more if you want.

Got it! Looks like you and UtahBeehiver made similar jigs. I can make that work on my saw. Thanks

[Larry P]

You can use a program from Anglelizer to help you determine the brick dimensions base on mortar joint size, size of brick and arch radius. It is free, go to General Tools and you will find it there. BTW, my bricks were 5 3/4" wide.

I'll check it out. I think I have this figured out in my cad program but doesn't hurt to double-check.

[JRPizza]

Larry, what I found to be more important than getting the angle exact is marking your arch form to get your spacing right. It is tough to maintain an exact uniform mortar layer (at least for me), but if you have the spacing marked out you can adjust as you go and not end up with a real thick or thin bond at your keystone. If you look at my outer arch you can see that I started out a little thick, but was able to compensate as I went and my arch looks relatively balanced. Without the marks for the brick centerline and edges I think I would have been unhappy with the results.

[RandyJ]

Another idea for keeping the same spacing is to use some kind of spacer. I used wire nuts that gave me what I wanted for spacing.

[Larry P]

Good tips; thanks guys.

[JRPizza]

I need a little advice. I have a question that I was not able to find a clear answer for poking around in the forum.
Is it OK to "sandwich" your vent adapter plate between two layers of bricks just using mortar, or do you really need to use masonry screws to attach the plate, then do the sandwich? The plate will have about 1.25 inch overlap with the upper bricks and about 1.8 inch overlap with the lower bricks. With the adapter plate embedded in mortar are screws really necessary?

[david s]

I can't say I really understand your drawing, but I would not put much faith in drilling and screwing anything into refractory. The continual heat cycling and resultant expansion and contraction of the refractory and steel joint of the screw combined with the fact that a screw depends on its stress to the surrounding material to hold itself in place makes this a poor fixing choice. In addition drilling holes in your refractory is asking for cracking to develop there. Also anything apart from stainless steel screws is likely to suffer from corrosion because of the heat involved. Sandwiching the thing between the bricks is far preferable IMO and drilling some holes through the part of the anchor plate that sits between the bricks even better.

[JRPizza]

Thanks David. Are the extra holes you refer to drilling to allow the mortar to flow into and through them providing a better bond?

[david s]

Thanks David. Are the extra holes you refer to drilling to allow the mortar to flow into and through them providing a better bond?

Yes, exactly. They also prevent the tendency for delamitation there too. Remember that being steel the heat will rush to the more conductive material first, so probably make the holes fairly large.

[UtahBeehiver]

JR,

I can't say with expert proof that anchoring the vent plate to the lower brick is required but that is what I did the mortared a top layer brick cap over the plate. I has been going on 5-6 years of open exposure and I inspect every year and have not had any problems so far. I have about 4 feet of double wall SS vent pipe so I install the masonry anchors as insurance against wind load and to secure the anchor plate to the high temp. sealant under the plate.