pottery kiln

How about these, expensive but will not melt

Oh for the good old days of Rawlplastic (contains asbestos)

Owain

That is the obvious route. Another, if the panels all come straight off without sliding might be to set stainless steel studs into the bricks with fire cement, then to support the sides with nuts fitted to the studs. You could arrange an "air gap" between the panels and the bricks by doing that.

There's often a layer of fibre insulation between the bricks and the SS skin, but I agree, the skin does get very hot.

I would suggest not plugging the bricks at all if you can help it. They are usually _very_ soft, and won't take any sort of stress such as may be created by some sort of plug. For example, you can usually push a nail into them by finger pressure alone. They're designed to insulate, not to support stress. But if you really have to, then these self drilling metal plasterboard plugs might be OK. Just make sure you don't penetrate the bricks right through and make contact with the Kanthal wire elements. That way leads to a shocking and possibly fatal experience.

Resins are mostly no use when hot.

Metal plugs, or if you cba to pay for them just bits of cut tin can. But any type of expanding plug requires some tensile strength in teh brick, and it sounds like you don't have that.

Fire cement is very weak IME, it might do though. Sand & cement is better if not too hot for it. Or an external wire band maybe.

NT

You've reflected a lot of my thoughts here. The stainless steel skin contains the bricks and if things have become loose, a gigantic jubilee style clip would be a far better solution.

The bricks are very fragile, any force from a plug will crack a brick. Keep the bricks in pure compression instead.

Brass "rawlplugs"?

Mandatory in Trenzal where heat would cause plastic plugs to melt and wehre it would matter. Amazon has them at 10 for 6 EUR in M4.

Thomas Prufer

Or even rent a stud welder... apply stud of thread and length of choice, press button, done.

(I got to try a stud welder at a trade fair:-)

Thomas Prufer

Yes, there is a very thin layer of glass or ceramic fibre between the bricks and the SS. I guessed at it being padding between the 16 sided brick construction and the cylindrical outer skin. It's a top loader, the 12 Kg lid lifts like a car bonnet and has two swivel mounted stays. They each go through a jamming mechanism like a glue / mastic gun plunger has. Those are swivel mounted onto the outside of the kiln to support the lid open. On one of these swivel mounts the screws, which look like steel, have rusted away. They are perpendicular to the outer drum, straight int the brick. The failed screws were probably about 4mm dia x 25mm long self tappers.

Gas struts like a car tailgate might seem better - there is no counterbalance weight or spring. But the weight of the lid forms a seal of sorts onto a rope (again ceramic or glass fibre I assume) giant 'o ring' in the top face of the brickwork.

Are you sure that those rusted screws are not just self-tappers through the SS skin? I find it hard to believe that they are purposefully screwed into the insulation brickwork in any way that grips the brickwork or provides significant support for the stay. I would think they just protrude into the brickwork because of their length.

Try self-tappers, slightly bigger in diameter than the screws that have rusted, so they grip the SS skin.

Does your wife put slightly damp pots into the kiln and use the early stages of the firing to dry them out? That's a sure way to generate lots of moisture that will condense on the cold spots. She should make sure the pots are absolutely bone dry before firing them. Maybe she does, but there's no harm in mentioning it.