One of the most common materials used in modern construction is a brick. Making it at home is not so difficult. To do this, you need to know the technology of its production. Do-it-yourself brick making methods have been known since ancient times. Using your own material can significantly save money on construction.

Before you start making a brick yourself, you need to prepare the raw materials from which the brick will be made. For these purposes, clay of a certain quality and fat content is used. To find out if this material is suitable for manufacturing, you must do the following:

1. Place a sample of clay in a container with water and mix well. As a result, the raw material should not stick to the hands.
2. The resulting material is rolled into a ball, the diameter of which should be 5 cm, and into a cake with a diameter of 10 cm.
3. Samples are placed on fresh air so that the sun hits them. So they lie for several days.
4. If cracks form on the obtained samples, then such material is excessively greasy and it will be necessary to add sand to it.

To date, there are two methods by which bricks are made at home:

• using firing;
• without using it.

Step-by-step instructions for making products without firing

To produce a product on your own, you must adhere to the technology:

The main stages of firing bricks at home

You can make products yourself by firing the product. Today, this method is very popular, but requires a certain amount of knowledge. The result is a classic red brick. For these purposes, the following technology is suitable:

1. Prepare the place where the firing will take place. To do this, you can use a conventional barrel with a previously removed bottom. Such a barrel is placed on a steel furnace without a top. There is another option for burning - this is the use of a fire. To do this, you need to dig a hole and mount a barrel on top of makeshift legs. This design heats up evenly.
2. Bricks must be laid so that a gap is formed between them. Thus, the material is laid up to the very top of the barrel.
3. After the material is laid, the barrel is covered with a metal lid. It is recommended to warm up the products for an average of 20 hours. In each case, this time is individual. After this time, you need to cool the resulting product. The process of cooling the barrel should be gradual. This will take a long time and a gradual decrease in temperature.

This is the most important process that needs to be given special attention. Important point– when cooling down, do not open the metal lid. This can be done five hours after the product has completely cooled down.

General information about the firing process

Brick after firing does not tolerate temperature changes. You also need to protect it from exposure to sharp cold air. If this is not done, cracks may appear on the brick. While the products are in the container, moisture is removed from them and a large number excess carbonates.

While maintaining a competent firing mode, a barrel on a fire or stove can be heated evenly. The result of this will be - obtaining a quality brick.

Low-melting clay, when exposed to a temperature of 1000 degrees, turns into a clay shard, as it is sintered. Refractory clay forms a clay shard at a temperature of 1200 degrees. After the brick has cooled, check the quality of the material obtained. For these purposes, it is necessary to break one brick and look at its structure inside. It must be uniform.

Making raw bricks at home

At home, it is easy to make raw bricks. If in the manufacture of such a product all the required conditions are strictly observed, then it will not be inferior to fired clay bricks in anything.

You can make such a brick according to the following instructions:

1. Prepare a container for mixing the following ingredients: clay and purified fine quartz sand. The proportion should be 1:5. Next, you need to add water in a small amount and mix the mixture thoroughly.
2. Prepare a brick mold. It is recommended to make it yourself from plywood and boards. The classic form of a brick has dimensions: 250x120x65 mm. To improve the adhesion of the mold with the solution, it is necessary to make small protrusions on the surface of the lid, which will form recesses in the product. You can connect the formwork parts with long nails. The top cover must be made removable. The more patterns that are made, the faster the manufacturing process will go.
3. After the solution and the container are ready, you can start filling out the form. In order to make it easier to get the finished product out of the tooling, a mold with inside it is necessary to moisten with water and sprinkle its surface with fine sand, cement or dust. The raw materials in the tooling must be compacted so that there is a uniform filling. Excess clay is removed with a spatula or plywood.
4. The form must be covered with a lid, which is then removed.
5. The formed bricks are then removed from the tooling and turned over.
6. At the final stage, the finished product is dried. The best place for this: shelves located under a canopy. During drying, the product shrinks by 15% of its original volume. It is recommended to hide bricks from direct exposure to sunlight. Drying time is two weeks.
7. After drying, such a brick must be fired.

Bricks made by hand can turn out to be of higher quality and more durable than those made in industrial conditions. To do this, the main thing is to strictly adhere to the production technology.

Home-made bricks were practiced long before the construction of factories for their large-scale production. Even today, many economical owners prefer to make bricks with their own hands, instead of spending money on purchased products of similar quality. Building materials made by hand are sometimes even stronger than factory ones, and sometimes too strong products are not required to build a barn or garage in the country. In this article, we will tell you how to make bricks with your own hands at home without the use of specialized equipment - machines, presses, etc.

Homemade Bricks - Highlights

The advantage of homemade bricks over those made in the factory is not only in their cheapness and efficiency. The most important thing is the absolute environmental safety of building materials. You know exactly what a brick is made of, and you can control its physical and chemical characteristics at your discretion, making it stronger, lighter, more durable, warmer, etc.

Making bricks at home is not difficult at all, and methods for making them have been known for a very long time. In this case, you do not need special equipment or professional skills - everything happens in artisanal conditions. The combination of proven production methods, natural materials and new techniques allows for minimal cost get a quality product. So, in raw materials for bricks, you can add various polymer additives and plasticizers to improve its thermal insulation qualities.

Construction of a new building in the country, whether sewer pit, fence, small shed or guest house, not always associated with large financial costs. If you know the secret of making homemade bricks, you can save a significant amount of money and spend it on quality finishes, furniture, or housewarming celebrations!

What to make a brick

By by and large, a brick is an artificially created stone of a rectangular shape. Why rectangular? For construction, this particular geometric shape is the most convenient - it is able to withstand continuous loads, guarantees strength, stability, rectangular building materials are easier to transport.

The most important thing in the manufacture of homemade bricks is to find high-quality raw materials. To do this, you will need to find a deposit of good clay or purchase it at a base, factory, construction market, etc. The strength and durability of the products will depend on how clean the clay is and what inclusions are present in it. So if you find a clay deposit near your home, do not rush to rejoice and fill bags with it - first check the quality.

Not all clay is suitable for bricks. So, you need to check the level of its fat content. To do this, take some clay and soak it with water until it starts to stick to your hands, and you can sculpt from it. Blind a small ball about 5 cm in diameter and a pancake 1 cm thick and 10 cm in diameter. Place items in the shade outdoors for 2-3 days.

When they dry, you can start testing the strength. If cracks form on the surface during drying, then the clay is too oily and should be diluted with fine river sand to prepare the “brick dough”. If no cracks appear, throw the ball onto the asphalt from a height of 1 m without effort - if it survives, then you have got the perfect clay for making bricks.

If the brick-making clay is too dry, it will not crack, but will be quite brittle. In this case, it must be diluted with a more fatty composition. To prepare the solution, soak the clay with water and knead well to achieve the consistency of a very thick sour cream. If necessary, add river sand or oily clay to the mixture at the rate of 5 parts sand to 1 part clay. We must warn that this is only an approximate proportion, since all clays have different composition, and you may need to experiment to find your ideal solution recipe.

As mentioned above, plasticizers and other additives can be mixed into homemade bricks that can improve the performance of the material. So, for example, in the old days, small sawdust was added to the brick mass as a heater. And today the production of adobe bricks with straw is becoming popular. This "dough" is perfect not only for homemade bricks, but also for waterproofing and insulation of foundations.

How to shape a brick

When the issue with materials is resolved, you should take care of the shape of future products. At factories, a press is used to form raw bricks (raw bricks); at home, it can be replaced by home-made molds in the form of rectangles made of boards or plywood. A do-it-yourself brick making press can come in handy if you have started a large-scale construction. But for a small building or fence, wooden blanks are enough.

An elementary form for making bricks is made from thin boards, a couple of pieces of plywood and nails. To speed up the pace of production, it is recommended to make several blanks at once, otherwise you will have to wait until the composition dries to release the mold and start pouring the next brick.

The dimensions of the form can be any depending on your needs and preferences, however, it is better not to fantasize at first, but to make cells with the dimensions of a classic brick - 250x120x65 mm. On the top and bottom of the mold covers, build small conical protrusions so that voids remain in the products to improve adhesion with the cement mortar.

Knock down the mold from the boards, attach the plywood bottom, and leave the top cover unsecured so that it can be easily removed after filling the mold and take out the molded neat brick.

How to make a brick - instructions

There are several types of bricks depending on the specifics of creation: unbaked bricks or raw and fired bricks - molded and then heat-treated in a kiln. It is very easy to distinguish them - burnt bricks have a rich red tint, and raw bricks remain faded brown, like dry clay. By performance characteristics these types practically do not differ, although there is an opinion that burnt brick is stronger. However, if the raw material is molded from high-quality clay and dried properly, it is in no way inferior in strength to the product processed in the oven.

Homemade bricks are suitable for the construction of small structures, such as sheds, baths, garages. Below we will consider the manufacturing process of both types of products.

Unfired brick

The technology for making raw bricks is quite simple, and anyone can handle it. If you wish, even children can be involved in the work, since the molding process is quite interesting and resembles the modeling of “little cakes” in the sandbox.

How to make an unfired brick:

1. Moisten the inside of a wooden mold with cold water.
2. Sprinkle with clean, dry cement or ordinary fine dust so that the molded bricks can be easily removed and do not lose their shape.
3. Spread the clay mixture into the blanks and shake the mold well so that the "dough" fills all the corners.
4. Remove excess mortar with a piece of plywood or a wide spatula.
5. Close the form with a removable lid.
6. Leave the mold in the shade for a few days.
7. When the bricks dry, remove the lid and leave the products to dry for another day.
8. Then turn the cells over, gently shake out the molded products and leave to dry.

Such a home-made "machine" for making bricks will allow you to make high-quality building materials in a short time. To speed up the process, make several shapes at once with many cells, but not too large so that they can be easily turned over.

Drying is the most important and responsible stage. In the process, the bricks shrink by about 15% and may crack if the technology is not followed. In no case do not expose the forms with the solution to the sun - this will in no way speed up the drying process, but will only spoil the material. Also, do not leave the forms in the shade of a tree or at home, so that they do not get wet from rain or dew. It is best to put them under a shed or in a shed with good ventilation. Bricks can dry from a week to 16 days, depending on the dimensions, mortar composition, temperature and air humidity.

Brick firing

How to make raw brick from clay is more or less clear. But if you need fired products, you should prepare for more laborious work. Such a red brick may be needed if you need to close a hole in a fence of a similar material or build a small partition, make a mini-stove or barbecue in the summer kitchen. That is, if we are talking about 30-50 bricks, but not about large-scale buildings.

Of course, if you don’t find it by chance on your site industrial oven for firing, then - another matter. In all other cases, you will have to improvise. In artisanal conditions, clay bricks are fired in ordinary large barrels with a volume of about 200 liters.

In a free area without vegetation and communications underground, dig a hole about 50 cm deep and with a diameter slightly smaller than the diameter of the bottom of the barrel. Cut small holes in the bottom of the container or remove the bottom altogether. Along the edges of the pit, place stones about 20 cm high, bricks or iron legs to set a barrel on them - this way it will be possible to maintain fire and heat in the pit. At the bottom of the pit, make a fire, put a barrel and put raw material inside. Lay the bricks with gaps and slightly offset so that they warm up evenly. Cover the barrel with an iron sheet so that no one can get inside. cold air.

The firing process itself is quite tedious and long. It is necessary to constantly maintain a high combustion temperature in the pit by adding firewood or coal for 18-20 hours. For this reason, it is better to start work in the early morning. After the specified period, let the fire burn out on its own, and the barrel to cool completely.

Important: In no case do not put out the fire - a sharp temperature drop will lead to cracking of the baked clay.

After a few hours, the barrel and all the contents will cool down, and you can safely remove the finished fired bricks. But before laying it is necessary to check the quality of the work performed. To do this, you will have to sacrifice one brick. Break it with a construction sledgehammer and look at the break - in a well-fired brick, the color of the break is uniform and the same, without gradients and spots. The structure must also be homogeneous. Soak the debris in water for a couple of hours and see how the material behaves after soaking. A quality product should retain its structure and color.

In exactly the same way, you can do decorative brick with their own hands for facing the facade or fence, decorating the stove inside the house. The beautiful color of burnt brick will give the exterior comfort and completeness.

Making bricks with your own hands: video instruction

We hope our article helped you deal with the question of how to make a brick in artisanal conditions, and you can not only save money, but also gain valuable skills so that you can later build everything with your own hands.

Finally, we suggest that you familiarize yourself with useful video material on the manufacture of home-made bricks using a compact press:

And this is how bricks are made at the factory:

Brick is one of the widely used materials that became known to mankind several thousand years ago. By its nature, it is a stone of regular geometric shape. The material is produced by non-firing and calcining methods. Having figured out how to make a brick, you can make it yourself. You will have to work a little, but the savings will be very impressive.

Work on self-manufacturing brick is carried out in several mandatory steps. It all starts with the extraction or purchase of clay, then dough is prepared from which bricks can be made good quality, forms are created and filled, after which the blanks are dried and, if necessary, fired.

Preparation of raw materials for the manufacture of bricks

Before you make a brick, you will need to prepare the required amount of raw materials. On average, 1000 products take about 2 m³ source material. If you are harvesting raw materials yourself, you will need the following tools:

1. Shovel and bayonet shovel.
2. Brush cutter.
3. Fork with frequent teeth.
4. Kirk.
5. Wheelbarrows for transporting material.

Choose a suitable deposit, located as close as possible to the place of future brick production. The best way- dry, not flooded with atmospheric and groundwater a place.

Work on the procurement of raw materials begins with the removal of all unnecessary cover. With the help of brush cutters, the area is freed from small trees and shrubs. After that, you will need to equip a convenient access road. To extract and export clay was as convenient as possible, you need to dig a trench. Gradually, the trench will deepen to the base of the clay layer, so that you can enter and exit the quarry without unnecessary difficulties.

Frozen and dense clay is mined with a crowbar and a pickaxe. Use semi-circular or pointed shovels to develop looser and more quarryable layers. Shovels are used to load wheelbarrows with material. If the clay sticks to the tool, you can use a pitchfork. To facilitate the transportation of clay to the storage site, form flat surface from boards. It is enough to simply lay them on the ground. The material must be folded conically. The height of the cone should be no more than 1 m. It is better to make several small piles with a diameter of 1-1.5 m than one huge pile.

In the process of making bricks, you will need the following:

1. Shovels and clay.
2. Sand and shovels for him.
3. Flooring.
4. Scraper or staple.
5. Created.
6. Tolkun (pestle).

Depending on the work performed, the list necessary tools may be supplemented or reduced, but this is the basis.

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Step by step instructions for making dough for bricks

First you need to prepare the extracted raw materials for work. Preparation is reduced to the removal of stones and other third-party inclusions. The material must be checked for fat content. Take a 0.5 liter jar, fill it with clay, then transfer the material from the jar to a bowl, add some water and knead the dough with your own hands.

Understanding that the dough is ready is very simple. If it has absorbed all the water and starts to stick to your hands, you can stop kneading. Roll a ball with a diameter of 4-5 cm from a thick dough and at the same time make a cake with a diameter of about 10 cm. They will allow you to study the properties of raw materials. Dry cakes and balls need 2-3 days. If the cake is covered with cracks, then the clay is too oily. If there are no cracks, double-check with a ball. Drop it from a height of about 1 m. If the ball does not crack or shatter, you can use clay to work with. If necessary, adjust the composition by mixing clays or adding sand to obtain the optimum characteristics of the working dough.

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Making molds and drying blanks

To make molds, you will need sheet plywood and wooden planks 2-2.5 cm thick. The boards must be laid on plywood and fixed in such a way as to obtain cells of the same size. Keep in mind that during the drying process, the raw material will shrink by about 15%, so the cells must be made 15% larger than the standard brick size, which is 25x12x6.5 cm. Use long nails to fix the boards. In order for the dough to better adhere to the forms, they need to make conical protrusions. It is due to these protrusions that voids are formed in the products. It is best to make ledges in sheets of plywood used as removable covers.

Moisten the inner walls of the molds with water and sprinkle with a small amount of cement. This will make it easier to take out the bricks in the future. The cells are filled with clay dough and shaken so that the material fills the corners of the cells. Remove excess material with a metal plate. Close the filled form with a lid. After some time, the molds will need to be opened, checked if the blanks have hardened, and placed on racks to dry. It is necessary to dry in the air, it is impossible to use heaters and other similar devices for this.

When drying, moisture from the blanks will move to the outer layers and evaporate. Under the influence of surface forces, the outer clay layers will expand and contract the inner ones. Drying is carried out under a canopy. On a rack or leveled ground in the absence of a rack, you need to pour a couple of centimeters of straw and dry sand. Such a bedding will prevent the bricks from sticking to the surface and will help them dry evenly. If necessary, you can move the blanks, inspect them, etc.

stock up plastic wrap. You will need it if it suddenly rains. Drying takes an average of 1-1.5 weeks. Up to 85% moisture will evaporate from the blanks. The remaining moisture will be removed during the firing process.

After the process of natural drying is completed, the so-called raw brick is removed from the moulds. In this form, it can already be used for internal works. Facing with such bricks is not performed. Consider the fact that such products have poor water resistance.

The walls, which are built of raw brick, must be additionally protected from moisture. This is done by tying the sutures. Window and door openings are arranged at a distance of about 1.5 m from the corner of the room. The overhang of the roof, due to which the walls are protected from precipitation, is made from 60 cm in length.

To obtain a facing brick, the blanks must be fired. For this, a temporary floor oven is used. The firing technology includes several main stages. First you need to prepare the unit for work.

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Preparing the brick kiln

An elevated platform in a place inaccessible to groundwater and sedimentary water is best suited for installing a furnace. The site must be thoroughly cleaned of the entire vegetation layer, after which you can proceed to tamping and leveling. The minimum productivity of the furnace is 1500 bricks. Such a design will have dimensions of 2x1.6x1.8 m. Raw bricks are used for the construction of walls. The walls are laid out with a thickness of 1 brick.

Covering is done on metal frame. It is necessary that each row of the arch be laid on 2 rods or steel strips. In the middle, the vault should be at least 35 cm high. The hearth or firebox in such a stove is a through corridor measuring 50x40 cm. Along the entire length of the corridor, ledges 25 cm high must be made. They are made on both walls. After that, if coal fuel is used, grate bars must be installed there. If the stove will work on wood, grates can be abandoned.

In the firebox, you need to make a door 40x40 cm. Smoke channels are equipped in the vault. The channel should have a cross section of 28x25 cm. If the furnace will operate on brown coal or peat, holes 25x15 cm in size must be prepared. In this case, they must be additionally equipped with lids through which fuel will be supplied to the furnace. The chimney is laid out of brick. The inner section of the pipe is 40x40 cm, height is up to 5 m. The chimney is installed behind the furnace unit and connected to the channel. The channel itself is arranged in the back wall. In the middle of the wall you need to leave openings for viewing. In the future, you will lay them with bricks.

Back and side walls chimney, the corners of the front wall and the vault are placed on an ordinary clay-sand mortar. The front of the wall is laid without mortar. The part without mortar will be taken apart to cut the cage.

Construction never stops - it is little affected by the crisis and weather conditions. People have built and will continue to build, because the need for housing for a growing population does not disappear anywhere. Used to build walls various materials, and one of them is clay brick.

Since it is in great demand every day, the prices for it bite. The manufacturer can raise the cost quite strongly, since the client will always need to buy a brick - construction is impossible without it. So it turns out that the construction of the house has to spend a lot of money. However, there is an opportunity to significantly save money, because clay bricks can be made with your own hands at home. One person is quite capable of coping with this kind of task, but it will take a fair amount of time. You can do it yourself the following types bricks:

• Ceramic, or red fired;
• raw, or red unfired;
• adobe - red unburnt with the addition of straw.

What is needed for production

Before starting any work, it is necessary to collect the right materials and tools. Without them, you will not have effective production, and therefore try to have all of the following at hand, namely:

• low-fat and oily clay;
• clean sand;
• water;
• nails (you can also use self-tapping screws);
• boards;
• straw;
• cement;

And so, we have everything from which bricks will be made. But nothing will come of it without tools. So prepare:

• container for kneading;
• shovel;
• hammer;
• construction trowel;
• hacksaw;
• hammer;
• tandoor for firing.

The right preparation process

Since the most important element of a brick is clay, it must be of excellent quality and without any impurities. Fortunately, finding clay is quite simple, because it is common almost everywhere in our latitudes. But if there is no opportunity to get the mineral on your own, then buying it will not hit your wallet. In any case, it is much cheaper than buying ready-made bricks.

If you decide to make adobe without firing, then it is important to take care of the straw in advance. There is no fundamental difference here - it is suitable from almost any plant: wheat, rye, barley, oats and others. The main thing to take care of is to choose a good, not rotten straw and chop it, because a large one is not suitable for a small brick.

Production

It is recommended to produce bricks according to their standard sizes. According to the standards, the length reaches 25 cm, the width is 12.5 cm, and the height is no more than 6.5 cm. Once the forms are made, it is necessary to wet the walls with water and lightly sprinkle with cement - this way it will be easier to remove the almost finished brick from the molds.

To make the dough, mix sand, clay and water (if necessary, straw). Once the dough is ready, fill in the forms with it. Check that the future brick fills all the corners and cracks. After that, you need to level the top with a trowel and press the forms.

You need to let the composition harden a little. As soon as you notice that the brick has hardened, you need to turn the mold over and it will usually fall out easily. At this stage, it is not ready yet - there is a long drying procedure ahead.

As a rule, it takes from 6 to 15 days - it all depends on weather conditions and air humidity. The higher the temperature, the faster the brick will be ready for use. Very important advice: Do not attempt to dry in direct sunlight. This method can lead to the formation of cracks, and therefore it is better to dry in the shade.

Do not stack the bricks tightly together - there should be gaps between them through which air will circulate, which will significantly speed up the drying procedure. In addition, it is in this situation that drying will take place evenly, which will positively affect the strength of the finished product.

Always be prepared that as a result of drying, your brick will decrease in volume by about 15% - it's all about moisture loss. In the future, he will continue to lose it, but will not change in size.

So, you think you've already made a good building material? But this is not the final yet - it is important to check its quality. This can be done with a simple but effective way. We just take one of the bricks and simply break it into two parts. We look at it throughout its thickness: if the clay has the same color everywhere, then the drying went evenly. If you see any differences, then the brick is not completely dry. Using it in construction, after some time cracks will be noticeable, and in the end everything will come to the complete destruction of the building.

Burning

If you want to make the material as durable as possible, it must be fired. Fortunately, a homemade oven (tandoor) can be built at home using an ordinary iron barrel without a bottom. It must be placed on brickwork and a fire laid out. The brick is laid in the barrel itself and does not allow the fire to go out for a whole day. It is impossible to cool it on its own after this time - wait until it cools down by itself for 5 hours.

DIY brick making

One of the most widespread and oldest building materials is a brick. Essentially, a brick is fake diamond having rectangular shape. This form is much more convenient for construction than the form natural stone from which it was built earlier. The widespread use of bricks in construction was facilitated by the widespread distribution of the main raw material - clay and its high consumer properties, that is: high mechanical strength, durability, resistance to water, fire, atmosphere, and solar radiation. The easiest way is to buy a brick. The variety of manufactured bricks is now very large. But brick prices will NOT pleasantly surprise you. Therefore, if you want to save money, then at home.

Consider all the technology for making bricks at home in order.

Preparation of raw materials for the manufacture of bricks

Bricks are made from pure clays or from clays with the addition of non-plastic materials and burnable additives (sand, fireclay, sawdust, peat, husks, finely chopped straw, etc.). Non-plastic clays, such as silt, can be used as additives.
The greater the plasticity, the easier it is to make a brick. The easiest way to achieve the plasticity of clay is to keep it wet. in a good way increasing the plasticity of clay is its freezing in the winter.
To prepare clay for the production of bricks, the harvested and crushed raw materials are placed in a container (like a trough) and soaked with water, adding it gradually in 2-3 doses, with occasional stirring, until the clay is completely soaked.

Do not allow clay with inclusions of pebbles and small pebbles, cleared of the plant layer of soil, into the process, and also do not allow clay with white inclusions (carbonates) in the form of large particles larger than 1 mm into the production.
After soaking, the clay is left to age for at least 3 days, and a longer time is possible by covering the trough with a damp cloth or plastic wrap.

After aging, the clay is checked for quality and suitability for molding, drying and firing. At a normal working consistency, clay dough exhibits plastic and molding properties, retains the given shape without deformation and does not stick to hands and metal. As an example of an approximate determination of the quality of clay, the following can be given: clay is rolled as thick as a finger and wound onto a bottle. At the same time, it should not break and have cracks, and also not be smeared over the bottle. According to the destruction or notches on the samples, the need for additives is determined. These additives serve as a reinforcing "reinforcement". So, up to 30% additives can be added to fatty clays.

For the production of bricks it is better to take low-fat clay. As available additives can be used; river sand, sawdust, husks from cereals, peat chips, etc. Sand is used mainly to reduce the fat content of clay. The amount of added sand should not exceed 3 or 5%. Other fillers for brick bonding - no more than 20%. In this case, the particle size of additives is not more than 3-5 mm. The amount of additives is determined mainly by trial batches and drying of raw samples.

It is advisable to test the fat content of the clay. It can be done different ways, here is the simplest one.

To check the clay for fat content, 0.5 liters of extracted raw materials will be required. Water must be poured into this clay and mixed until the clay absorbs all the water and sticks to the hands. From this mass, mold a small ball, about 4-5 cm in diameter, and a cake with a diameter of about 10 cm. All this must be dried in the shade for 2-3 days.
After that, the cake and the ball are tested for strength. If they have cracks, then the clay is too oily and requires the addition of sand to work with it. If there are no cracks, you need to throw a ball from a meter height. If it remains unharmed, this means that the clay is of normal fat content.
Too thin types of clay do not crack, but the strength leaves much to be desired, and therefore clay of a higher fat content must be added to them. You need to mix clay or sand in small portions, in several stages, checking the quality of the composition after each mixing, so as not to make a mistake and find the necessary proportions.

Previously cited detailed description making cinder blocks at home - for those who are interested in this topic.

After the optimal proportions of the mortar are determined, it can be used to make bricks.

molding

Brick molding is done manually by laying clay in wooden or metal molds and then tamping.

Forms can be collapsible and not collapsible. Inner surface forms must have smooth surface. A sketch of an exemplary form is shown in fig. 1-a, 1-b. Before molding, the mold must be lubricated with oil, or whitewash (water with chalk), or simply moistened with water to prevent clay from sticking to the molds.

Metal mold for 1 brick

Wooden mold for 3 bricks

It must also be remembered that clay products decrease in size during drying and firing. This phenomenon is called air shrinkage - during drying and fire shrinkage - during firing. So, for the formation of an ordinary brick (250x120x65 mm), a form of 260x130x75 mm is required.
You can make forms for several bricks at once in the form of a plate and then cut the plate into bricks right size stretched string or metal tape moistened with water. The form can be with a bottom and without a bottom. Forms are established on a pure plain surface. Sawdust or a small amount of sand is poured into the bottom of the mold. The prepared clay is placed in molds with a shovel, then rammed. As the mold shrinks, clay mass is added to fill the edges of the mold. Excess clay from the mold is cut off with a flat wooden or metal lath.
Next, the cut surface is smoothed and the molds are removed. If the plate is molded, then it is cut into bricks. Then let the raw brick “wither” and send it to dry. Withering lasts one hour or 2 hours and is determined by the absence of indentations from the fingers when it is lifted. Marriage from molding should be re-introduced into production.

The use of hot water in the preparation of clay accelerates the drying of the raw material.
The raw molding process can be mechanized using the simplest manual screw press or driven by any power plant (electric motor, internal combustion engine, wind or water engine). Such a press can be made in any mechanical workshop.

Drying bricks

When drying, it is necessary to ensure that the evaporation of moisture takes place evenly both from the inside of the brick and from its surface. This is achieved by slow drying. Uneven drying causes warping and cracking of products. The correctness of drying is achieved mainly by experience. The drying time can be reduced by reducing the initial moisture content of the raw brick, as well as by more thorough processing of the mass, moistening it with hot water.
Drying of raw bricks usually takes place in drying sheds. With small volumes, if the weather permits, the raw material is dried in open areas. The period of natural drying of raw bricks varies, depending on climatic conditions, from 5 to 20 days.

The molded raw brick is placed in bags in 6-8 rows in height, with sand or sawdust pouring over each row. This brick is aged in a barn until it is set with raw bricks of sufficient strength. As they dry, the packages are built up with freshly molded raw material with a similar filling. The bottom row of raw bricks is often placed on a poke.
If you consider that the top rows dry somewhat faster, then the entire package will dry at about the same time. This operation will significantly increase the capacity of the drying area, with approximately the same drying time. If the brick is aged in a barn, then drying is carried out indoors for 3 days, and then in a ventilated one.
When choosing a site for drying, it is necessary to proceed from the fact that the soil is not wet. For these purposes, it is better to lay a wooden shield on the soil or, in extreme cases, fill the area with dry sand and make a drainage trench.

If drying is carried out outdoors, then it is necessary to make a canopy over the drying area from the rain. The outside temperature during drying must be at least 10°C. After drying, the raw brick is sent for firing to produce bricks.
The readiness of the raw brick for firing will be determined by the following criteria: a brick taken from the middle rows is broken in half and, in the absence of a dark spot in the middle (a sign of moisture), the raw brick is recognized as suitable for firing.

Brick firing

Brick firing is done in homemade kilns, the device of which is not difficult. The forms of furnaces, their device, laying of raw bricks for firing are described below.

The quality of the brick during firing depends on: the time of temperature rise, the final firing temperature, the duration of holding the temperature reached, the nature of the gaseous medium and the cooling rate. At temperatures up to 150 ° C, the raw brick is dried. In this case, a significant amount of water vapor is formed, which, with a rapid rise in temperature, is released so quickly that it can break the product. Therefore, it is not recommended to sharply increase the temperature.

When installing the furnace, it is necessary to provide for fire prevention measures. They should be no closer than 100 m from wooden buildings. Level ground water at the construction site should be below 2.5 m (in order to reduce heat loss).

Brick kilns can be round or rectangular. Variants of furnace shapes are shown in the figures below.

Round stove option. The sizes are arbitrary

A variant of the device of a rectangular furnace with several fireboxes. The dimensions of the furnace are arbitrary

The furnace is constructed as follows: first, a foundation is laid 60 cm wide and 50 cm deep, then walls 50 cm thick are laid out, decreasing after 2/3 of the furnace height to 25 cm. Inner part walls up to 2/3 of the height of the furnace should be vertical, then the wall can narrow, forming a chimney. The walls can be laid out both from baked bricks and from raw bricks on a lean clay mortar, so that the walls can be more easily dismantled after the ovens are no longer needed.

When laying walls, it is necessary to provide an opening for loading raw bricks, in which, after loading, a firebox is made. The furnace can be made both in front of the furnace and inside it. If the width or diameter of the furnace is more than two meters, then several furnaces can be made, depending on the size of the furnace.

The floor of the furnace, the so-called POD, is covered with dry clay chips or small gravel, with a layer thickness of 10 cm. The furnace is loaded, that is, the brick is set, as shown in fig. 4. The loading of the furnace with raw bricks begins with columns with a gap between the bricks, forming furnace channels during laying. Each channel is covered with raw brick, leaving a gap.

Charge density per 1 cubic meter of the furnace (its inner part) 220 or 240 pcs. ordinary brick size 250x120x65 mm. At the top, the cage density increases to 300 pcs. per 1 cubic meter

Cage density 220 - 240 bricks per 1 cubic meter. oven (its inner part). At the top, the density increases to 300 pcs.

Option for laying "legs" for high ovens

The first 4 rows are “cage legs”. Laying the raw material on the "legs" is carried out in a herringbone pattern. The top rows are compacted

Option for laying raw materials for firing

Lead the cage, strictly adhering to the scheme. After 1.5 m, or 2/3 of the height of the furnace, the cage of raw material is carried out simultaneously with the laying of the walls of the furnace. In this case, the masonry is led to a narrowing with a slope of about 30 ° C. The higher the oven, the more efficient its operation, since the heat of the flue gases in the upper part is used to dry the raw brick. For better draft on the stove, you can put a pipe. The oven is carefully covered with a thick layer of clay. The opening is closed under the firebox. The firebox should have a well-fitting door or lid. Firewood is used for roasting, but charcoal is more efficient. It is possible to install burners-nozzles operating on diesel fuel or fuel oil. For better combustion solid fuel it is desirable to install grate at a height of 20 cm, which must be strengthened.

Fuel consumption per 1 thousand units. fired brick is 1.8-2.6 cubic meters or 100-140 kg of coal. Roasting goes through several stages. First, the oven is ignited and the temperature is maintained up to 150-200°C for drying raw bricks for 2 days. Fuel at the same time - low-grade firewood. Then increase the fuel supply, gradually raising the temperature to 850-1000°C, the firing time is 3-4 days. The temperature can be observed visually. 850-1000°С - light yellow-orange color.

After complete firing, the cooling stage begins. The cracks that have appeared are again smeared with clay. The firebox is laid with bricks, covered with clay, excluding air leaks. The time of such cooling is at least two days. After complete cooling, the furnace is opened, the brick is selected, sorted. A well-fired brick should ring when struck with a hammer. Unfired bricks or unburned bricks are re-laid for firing or used on a foundation or internal walls in dry rooms.

When firing bricks and cooling the furnace, the following safety rules must be observed:

The firing and cooling of bricks must be under constant supervision and control;
- prevent premature opening of the furnace;
- do not allow inspection of the readiness of firing and cooling of the brick, climbing onto the furnace;
- do not allow a large mass of water to enter a hot furnace in order to avoid steam burns;
- Laying raw bricks for drying and fired bricks, when disembarking from the kiln, should be carried out only with an inclination inside the stack in order to prevent the stack from falling.

For a small amount of homemade bricks, you can use a simpler "kiln" for firing bricks.

This can be done in an ordinary barrel, with a volume of 200-250 liters. It is necessary to lay bricks in a barrel, leaving small gaps for uniform heating. You definitely need a pit under the fire, 40-50 cm deep. The bottom of the barrel is cut out and the barrel is placed on the fire on legs 20 cm high. It will be more convenient to maintain and regulate the fire, and the heating of the mass of bricks will be uniform.

Now the barrel needs to be filled with bricks. They must be laid with small gaps, one on top of the other. Then, in order to prevent cold air from entering the barrel during firing, it is required to close it. sheet metal. A cut-out bottom can come in handy here, it will be especially convenient if handles are attached to it.

And now you need to stock up on fuel and patience. The process takes from 18 to 20 hours, all this time, while the bricks are being fired, it is necessary to keep the fire under the barrel. After that, the barrel should cool down. This should happen gradually, while the lid cannot be opened. You need to regulate the temperature in stages, reducing the fire of the fire. An artificial method of cooling is not suitable here, cooling must be only natural.

After 4-5 hours after the barrel and its contents in it have completely cooled down, you can open the lid and take out the finished fired products.

Causes of brick defects in its manufacture and measures to eliminate them

	Type of defect	Reasons for education	Solutions
		I. Forming
1	Raw has low strength and breaks without effort	Increased sand content of clay or the presence of inclusions	Adjust the composition of the mass, do not allow clay with inclusions into production
2	The raw material is easily deformed and easily sticks to hands, the timber is easily deformed	high humidity masses	Reduce the moisture content of the mass by introducing dry additives
3	The raw material is stratified	Insufficient compaction of the clay mass in the mold	Increase ramming force
4	"Raisins" - inclusions of unmixed lumps	Tire not mixed well, not enough water to set the clay, not enough time to soak the mud	It is better to mix clay and mixture. Add water for clay locking, increase the exposure time for mud locking and curing of the charge
5	Noticeable inclusions of grass, roots, large shavings, etc.	The clay is not free of impurities. Unsifted sawdust used	Clear the mud. Sift sawdust
6	The size of the raw material is more or less than necessary	The charge has changed, the molds have worked together, the uneven cut of the “hump” on the molds. Increased mass moisture	Adjust the composition of the charge, replace the molds, evenly cut off excess mud from the molds, reduce the moisture content of the mass
		II. Drying
1	Large amount of raw material has cracks	Incorrectly selected charge. High mass moisture	Pick up and adjust the charge. Reduce clay moisture
2	The presence of deformed bricks	High humidity of the formed mass. Raw is put with force for drying	Adjust humidity. Raw put to dry more carefully
3	Raw dries unevenly in height	A large number of bricks in height. Dense laying of bricks during drying	Reduce the number of bricks in height. "Discharge" the laying of dry bricks
		III. Burning
1	The fire goes along the top of the furnace, not burning the lower rows of the cage	The charge is too discharged, which causes the flue gas flow to be drawn to its upper part, the fuel is incorrectly distributed by volume	Seal top rows cages. Distribute fuel evenly
2	Brick has many cracks	A sharp rise in temperature and its large differences	Lengthen the firing mode, thin out the upper rows of the cage
3	Brick has many cuts	Rapid cooling of products, insufficient closing of the furnaces, the occurrence of cold air leaks through the furnaces	Increase the cooling time of products. Better seal the fireboxes
4	Brick has reduced strength	Condensation on raw vapors water (steaming)	Reduce the humidity of raw material entering the kiln, increase the drying time of raw material before firing, increase the drying time of bricks in the kiln
5	Burnt brick, when saturated with water, increases in volume and collapses.	The presence of inclusions in the form of "dutik" - white inclusions	Switch to another clay or grind it more thoroughly, do not allow clay with white limestone inclusions to be produced
6	Overburning or underburning of bricks in separate places according to the volume of the furnace	Irregularity in the traction system, cold air leaks	Too dense or sparse charge in the volume of the furnace, too large opening of the furnaces Monitor the uniformity of the fuel supply
7	Brick has chipped corners	Careless attitude to raw materials in all operations	Handle products with care

The quality of the work done needs to be checked and for this a small test of self-made bricks should be made.

Sacrifice one brick and split it with a construction hammer. If it is well fired, it will have the same color and the same structure throughout the break. Now these fragments should be filled with water for several hours. After being in water, a well-fired brick should also have the same color and structure over the entire surface.