The Grooved Brick Construction Technique

The Traditional Approach For
Installing Elements In Soft Brick Kiln

Making the slot in the brick
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Advantages:
  1. Relatively shock proof. The element is not exposed and is not easily touched.
  2. Student resistant. (Nothing is student proof.)
  3. Easy installation.
  4. Heavy duty- long oven life. You will tire of the oven long before it wears out as its life expectancy is 25-30 years.
  5. Heat retention. The oven has lots of mass so if the door is opened, it will not chill as quickly as would a fiber insulated oven.
  6. Wide heat use. Can be used over a wide temperature range: annealing at the low end (950° F), glass casting in the middle range (1600° F), and high fired ceramics on the top end (2200° F).
  7. Simplified annealing. Because of the mass it doesn't need as many steps in the turn down for annealing .
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Disadvantages:
  1. Dinosaur construction. It is heavy and hard to move. Not good for the jet set type.
  2. More expensive to operate. Costs more to heat up and operate than does an all fiber model. In order to anneal glass at 950° F you first have to heat all the bricks to 950° F. Over the life of the oven this could mean a lot of money­ perhaps thousands of dollars.
  3. Takes longer to heat up. Ditto, reasons in point 2, above.
Grooving Bricks
Above, Drill Press used to Groove Soft Bricks (Insulated Fire Bricks)
Note: For more information on installing
elements in soft brick kilns read
Chapter 18 & 19 in Dudley's new book,   
A Glassblower's Companion.		 book image
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