We moved house earlier this year. Let me tell you now that deciding to move the kiln between the Two of us sounded heaps easier that it actually is. The kiln (Rhonda) is not only very heavy her shape is also jolly awkward!
Although we thought she travelled well, when moving her to her new boudoir unnoticed that some of her fire bricks had become cracked!
A disaster I did not want to even contemplate…..
While I was busy ignoring the issue, husband took a practical approach and found this very useful pdf .
I spoke to the chaps at Bath Potters who didn’t seem to thick my almost total loss of brick thickness was too much of an issue and recommended special refractory glue adhesive or refractory cement…. I bought both to be sure!
I set about trying to jigsaw the broken pieces back into the body of the kiln (harder than it sounds especially as the bricks were at the bottom of one of the kiln sections and hard to get to!).
I balanced Rhonda on the edge of a board so I had just enough space to get to her broken bricks.
The glue worked to sticks the broken bits back together and then I packed the remaining space with the cement – trying not to get anything on the elements…
With trepidation I rebuilt Rhonda and then engaged her in a bisque fire. On opening the lid everything seems to have set and none of the bricks moved! I also used a thermal imaging camera on the outside of the kiln whilst it was running to be sure there were no hot spots.. There weren’t so the glue and cement appears to have done the job. Hurrah!