Firebrick drilling?

I have a firebrick on the bottom center of my firebox, about 4x4 inches, that gets removed to rake ashes into an ash pan under the stove. The firebrick has an eye bolt that broke, no doubt from the heat and being hit by the poker, and I'm sure it has to be zinc. I have a stainless eye bolt a little larger in diameter, that I would like to use. This firebrick previously broke in half, and has been cemented back together, I also used larger washers for better support.

Can I safely enlarge the hole with a masonary bit, or is the firebrick too brittle? If I do this, I would place the firebrick into a vice and gently secure it for drilling.

 

A standard masonry bit will work...I would tend to want to just lay it flat on some wood rather than clamped in a vice though...I think that would very easily crack it...

 

I do have some tile bits for my rotozip, that I could use to do that. I think that would work, if nothing else I could try it. That's a generous offer on your part, it's not just the cost savings for me, but the time and effort to mail it on your part. Thank you very much. Hopefully I don't need to take you up on it.

Once I took the firebrick out to the garage, and removed the old eye bolt, the cemented brick came apart. I guess I'll try wobbling out each half of the hole, and cement it back together....

 

Or cement it again, clamp it, then drill it? Either way should work...firebrick is pretty soft as masonry goes...unless you have some real high grade/temp brick...but that is not typical in most stoves.

 

Since it was already apart, I ended up taking a round file to both sides. I cemented it back together, about how long should it sit before putting it back to use?

 

Per instructions...but the ones I've used were 24 hours.

I've had really good luck with repairing bricks with furnace cement...never had one break in the same spot again...almost seems like the repair is stronger than original.

Yeah if its the common thin bricks you can buy those almost anywhere...some places will even sell them individually.
Easy to cut with a cheapo diamond blade on an angle grinder if its a special dimension/shape...

 

A quick measurement shows they're about 1-3/8". Is that a thick or a thin one?

I've been thinking about replacing it, but I hate dealing with the manufacturer.

brenndatomu, looks like I won't be firing up the stove tonight, it's been a few months since that's happened, it's a good thing it's a warm night.

 

I'd call it thin...but its a weird thickeness...1.25" is much more common...would that work?

 

I have a similar setup in my stove and gave up on it. It was more of a hassle to remove the part at the bottom then rake the ashes into the pan , remove the pan and empty it. I found it much easier to just use a small scoop/pan to remove the ashes from the stove and put them directly in the ash pail.
The part in my stove you would remove is made from steel plate that is 3/4 thick with a loop welded to the top to lift it out. Could you make one from thick steel instead of it being brick. No worries about that breaking.

 

That could easily work, I pressed the tape measure onto the stove bottom.

 

Yup, I tried the "remove the plug and chase ashes down the hole" dance exactly once...much easier to just shovel directly out.

 

Mine gradually got harder to remove, till it was really difficult to get out. Once I got the brick out I also pulled the bricks to the N/S of it and cleaned ash from between the bricks, and put them back in snug together. That made a huge difference.

 

I've done it both ways with this stove, and I like using the ash pan. I use a couple different size drywall taping knives to work it down the hole. Slide the pan out, and just outside the front door I have a metal trash can, a quick dump and back in. I save the ashes for our neighborhood road during snow or ice.

 

Whatever works best for you is the way to go.
Mine go in a metal bucket as well and sit there for a while until I know for sure that there are no hot ashes left there. Then get dumped out back.