Pressing firebricks

Ive been working on a home addition at my house for over a year now. I dug out along the foundation to lay drainage pipe and heating tubes from the wood furnace. The soil is a very sticky clay here. Perfect for the firebricks we have been making for the lining of the furnace.

After sitting in the sun for several days with no rain, the clay hardens into stiff clumps that need broken down for mixing with sand.

50% clay, 40% sand, and 10% portland cement.

Here is a pile of free creek sand taken from my property.

The mix is damp but not soggy. It will clump in your fist.

And here is the result from the press!

Making clay firebricks.

My oldest son William has joined me making bricks. I have contracted out to him the job of making the firebricks for my wood heat boiler. He has done a pretty good job for a near 16 year old kid. Using only a shovel, wheelbarrow, mixer and hand mold, he has made me 60 of these so far.

Wood boiler for house heating project

Im working on another project with my kids this summer. I want to build an outdoor wood fired boiler to heat our house this next winter. The idea is to save as much as possible on heating the house with propane by using wood heated water from this furnace.

The water tank is 250 gallons and will rest ontop of the firebox.

The heated water will be pumped underground to the house. It will pass thru a water tube radiator in the gas furnace airduct. The heat transfer will warm the air that is forced thruout the house.

Brick ruins in Clinton County. Updated 12-1-09

I took a drive after work one day last week and stopped by a couple ruins I had wanted to see up close.

This was an old two story farmhouse. Its hard to see from the road. Few know its even there. Thats a good thing because no kids have put graffiti on it.

I would love to find who the owner is and work out a deal for the old brick.

This is your typical one room schoolhouse. Built back in the 1880s.

The bricks are not to bad for being made on site in a clamp kiln.

The front door was replaced with a large barn door at one point by a local farmer. But often the loads on the brick wall cant take the wide span. Over the years the wall has crumbled some.

Here are a few updated photos of the farmhouse ruins I thought you may enjoy. Dated 12-1-09

Progress update for 6-11-09

Over the past few weeks we have put our homemade brick aluminum furnace to some good use casting stuff.

We reached temps higher than before. The aluminum melted very well.

This is a sword William cast from the scraps we had.

Hers an axe head he made also. Its rough but he likes it.

Some arrows he cast and later made into spear points.

Full day of brick furnace use! May 09, 09

Both of my sons and I spent the day firing the furnace to melt down loads of aluminum for some practice casting. Its the hottest fire we have had in the furnace yet.

Here is the aluminum we have melted down. It took about 20 to 30 min of the fire at full go to melt the scraps of aluminum down. We went thru about 3-4 wheelbarrows of firewood also.

We need to sift the rocks out of the sand in the future for a casting with finer details.

The happy results of an afternoon of effort.

First fireup test! April 12, 09

Even though the chimney isn't to its finished height yet, I was excited to try out the furnace to see how it may do with a small fire in it. Would the flue and chimney draw smoke? Very well was my observation! I found it to do very well. It may have had trouble though if it had been a windy day with the low chimney height it has now. I will fix that soon.


It feels really good to see it in action!


I made a small fire this time so not to crack any bricks. Just wanted to drive out the left over moisture in them and the mortar joints. Did see some steam coming out of a few places. Not to much though. Some of this brickwork had been drying out for a few months now.



Once the fire was hotter it drew through the flue great! Not to much smoke in the shed.

Brickmaking and furnace update for April 11, 09

Heres the progress on the furnace chimney! It wont be long now till its first smoke!


I love the warmer weather we now are enjoying here.

Brickmaking update for April 3, 09

Flue passthru for my furnace is finished. Now all that is left is to finish the chimney and add the doors.

I am also still trying to find a quicker method to create my radial bricks for the chimney. Running some tests.

Back outside. 3-26-09

With the warmer spring weather Ive had here, I set up my brickmaking outdoors to increase output.

By stockpiling clay and sand in bigger piles, I can mix up more and larger batches for the presses.

I have made alot of progress on the chimney base since the last post. I am nearing completion of the flue and base. Im starting to form up the chimney stack now. This is were its gonna really take shape!

Construction update 3-20-09

Poured some concrete for the bottom of the flue passthru and ash chute. It is a concrete made with sand and gravel from a closeby creekbed. In the mix is a portion of clay. The idea being to give it some ability to resist the heat of the gases as they pass thru the flue.

Furnace update for 3-06-09

Ive enjoyed the warmer weather and made some big progress. Poured the top concrete slab for the furnace.

Ive also added to upright slabs at the chimney base to help support the weight of the coming brickwork.