Soda ports and redo of burner entrance openings

On the advice from a clay buddy (thank you Tim See), I decided that those burner entry ports needed to be redone in hard brick. Easier to do now than correct when the kiln is done. Lots of unstacking and restacking. I am running low on hardbrick so I tried to use some of my rougher ones that were curved or uneven since the size was different from the IFB anyways. Had to use some fiber blanket and smaller pieces of IFB to get a nice tight fit. Not pretty, but should be very functional. Sorry, that second picture is a little fuzzy. Dogs must have licked the camera lens, LOL.

Got the rear burner port done as well. Figured I needed to add a couple of the soda ports a little lower in the kiln so a little more unstacking and restacking and I now have a soda port on each side. Planning on adding a least two more further up the kiln. The soda ports were made slightly tapered to snuggly fit a key shaped IFB brick.

Here is a view of the inside so you can see placement. The other one is mirrored on the opposite side. These are all lined in hard brick too.

A friend (thank you Catherine) stumbled across an advertisement for someone getting rid of silicon carbide shelves in the size and quantity I need. Fingers crossed that they are in as good condition as claimed. Will update when I see them tomorrow. Also off to pick up more hard brick from a friend of a friend (thank you Tom). Fingers crossed!