Beehive Brick Kiln

[marklayton]

Decided to begin a project to test the limits of my sanity - a 1:32 scale beehive brick kiln, built up of individual brick.  These batch-process kilns for firing brick were common throughout North America and Europe.  They were originally coal-fired, but many were later converted to oil.  The Medora (Indiana) Brick Plant historic web site has a lot of good information about the week-long loading, firing, and cooling cycle of the kilns, as well as photos of the loading process:  http://www.medorabrickplant.org/
"The Medora Brick Plant kilns are about 30 feet in diameter.  The walls -   8 feet high and 24 inches  thick.  The domes ceiling/roofs were self supporting sitting on the walls.  When loaded and processed each kiln (1950's-1992) was to yield 70,000 saleable brick from the 72,000 to 73,000 brick that it contained per firing. A three to five percent loss.   It took about 1 lb. of coal (that generated the heat) to produce one brick."  Of course, I'm not planning to make the walls that thick!

Below are photos of...
1. a surviving kiln in a park near Lorton, VA.
2. an abandoned brick plant in Northwest Washington, DC that is well documented on the HABS-HAER site

Mark

[marklayton]

More photos...
1.  detail of the band clamps on the kiln in Virginia
2.  a kiln in the UK showing conversion to oil
3.  detail of loading door on kiln in Virginia.  Steel doors are just to keep people out of the sturcture

Mark

[marklayton]

I bought some of Heinrich Schmid's nice 1:32 scale brick, but they don't have the same proportions as most common US face brick.  We corresponded for a bit, and an order for 40,000 bricks convinced Heinrich to make some to the size that I wanted.  They're slightly thinner than a US brick, but that compromise saved him a lot of tooling development.

The photo shows that sometimes bricks are stuck together.  Those separate easily with a knife.  Some of the bricks do have some 'flash,' but that cleans up easily with a pass over sandpaper.

Yes, that's 40,000 bricks...  "They're coming to take be away, ho-ho, ha-ha, to the funny farm..."

Picked up a length of 10" concrete forming tube, and am building the form.  More to follow...

Mark

[RoughboyModelworks]

40,000 bricks....

You're going to be giving Sir Nick a run for his money in the bricklaying department. Well, as a good friend of mine says about such tasks... "It's a zen thing."

Paul

[Tom Neeson]

Good God man why!!!...just kidding.

Actually laying that many bricks sounds easier than scribing them into cast plaster or the like. I want to scratchbuild some brick buildings in 1:48 and am thinking of cutting bricks out of .030" x .020" strip styrene and laying them one at a time. Can't wait to see your progress.

Tom

[marc_reusser]

And they say I'm nuts!

Great reference photos, this looks like it will be a neat project. I look forward to your progress.


Marc

[finescalerr]

I'm going to count the bricks in the full size structure, then compare the number of bricks in yours. If you are off by more than two bricks your model will be disqualified. -- Russ

[shropshire lad]

I'm going to count the bricks in the full size structure, then compare the number of bricks in yours. If you are off by more than two bricks your model will be disqualified. -- Russ

  Disqualified from what ?

  Nick

[shropshire lad]

Mark ,

40,000 f...... bricks ?  Herr Schmid must be laughing all the way to the bank . And I thought I was pushing the boat out at 3000 bricks . Man , you must have some deep pockets .

  So will you have this structure built by the 2013 narrow Gauge Convention ? No ? How about the 2015 Convention ?  Oh well , just bring along what you have completed !

  How do you intend keeping the bricks apart for the mortar courses . I used HO 6x1 stripwood , but as your structure is circular you might need to find something else .

  As the only ,or one of the only, other fools to build a structure out of individual bricks I know what you are going to have to do to achieve acceptable results . Good luck .

  Still , when yopu throw in the towel after laying 10,000 you can always sell the rest of the bricks off . I reckon that in ten years time there will be many structures around built in this way .

  Have fun ,

  Nick

[marklayton]

Thanks for the encouragement!

The next step is to become efficient at cutting the brick.  An old NWSL stripwood Chopper actually does a great job of breaking these mini bricks in half without any scoring.  As Nick will recognize, the kilns are laid up in an English bond, where every other row is set end-wise.  Since on the model there is no mortar joint behind the bricks set length-wise, a full half brick is slightly too long, so I will make a jig for the disc sander to dress the broken end and get the length right.

Home Depot carries lightweight cardboard form tubes up to 16".  Got a 48" length of 10" diameter, and carefully cut a section with a utility knife.  It isn't really stiff enough to hold shape, so I reinforced it with 3/8" plywood disks cut on the bandsaw.  Am applying a printed paper wrapper with lines for the courses, arches, and openings.

Mark

[Hauk]

Yes, that's 40,000 bricks...  "They're coming to take be away, ho-ho, ha-ha, to the funny farm..."

Fools rush in where angels fear to thread!
This will be an interesting project to follow!

Regards, Håvard H.

[Chuck Doan]

Egad!

[Belg]

Mark, much success in your latest endeavor to drive yourself insane.  This will be a great undertaking, do you envision using all the bricks for your project?
One quick question when laying the bricks up in a circle, I wonder do you have to remove any of the rear corners as not to have too large a gap in the front face? Look forward to your project and your techniques for curving the top closed. Pat

[marklayton]

Pat -

I'm modeling this kiln with bricked-up openings (i.e. during a firing cycle), so a single layer of face of brick is all that's needed.  121 bricks makes one course, and their are 43 courses.  So only about 5,200 bricks, if I've measured correctly.

The form tube is 10-3/16" in diameter, or just over 27 scale feet in diameter.  With that large a curvature, there is no need to even have the brick touch at the back corners.

I've just about finished the top course.  I'm working top-down in case there's less than a brick's worth of room at the bottom, so the dirt and pavers will hide it!  Using 60-minute Epoxy, and finding it doesn't have enough initial grab, so bricks tend to move and I have to be very careful of bumping a neighboring brick.  Decide to experiment with double-stick foam tape.  While the glue isn't as permanent or strong as Epoxy, once the structure is grouted, it should become a rigid shell not relying on good adhesion to the form.  Will post some more pictures tomorrow.

Mark

[Ray Dunakin]

Don't worry about it driving you insane. Just the fact that you're attempting this seems to indicate you're already there!

Seriously, very cool project -- should be a fun and interesting build. The prototypes look great.

I'd like to try hand-laid brick sometime, if I can find (or create) a source for 1/24th scale bricks that will hold up outdoors.