Oasis Rising

[WoodchuckDad]

Re: Oasis Rising

I am the slowest brick mason on earth. I would die of starvation if I had to do this for a living. It's hot as blazes and the mortar sets really fast so I have to use small batches. If I mix too much it starts to harden on me and by the time I get 3 bricks up(waiting between each one for it to set up enough to move my indispensable tool) the mortar is starting to dry out. You start with it almost too thin and before long it's getting too thick.

I reached the point where I had to get up in the thing to work on the back section so I guess that's progress.


I decide to do a rectangular opening on the inside and it will probably be 11 1/4 inches high, 20 inches wide


We did Pizza again on the gas grill. This time I used regular red clay bricks with 3 large holes. it works much better since the holes allow more direct heat to get to the crust. Here is a shot of Peel 1.0

[WoodchuckDad]

Re: Oasis Rising

A little progress today but not a ton. I got a full course up. I was using cold water but it's so hot that the mortar was setting up fast. I would mix it up thin and it would start to harden right away. somehow, on the 3rd course I got my tool out of true and a chain of bricks started get canted. I corrected it once I discovered the problem but I think I am just gonna have to live with these 4 screwy bricks.

[WoodchuckDad]

Re: Oasis Rising

The rain is killing me. Out of nowhere, summer weather is here. Hot balmy days followed by thunderstorms rolling in early in the evening So I get off work, go home, change and start working.....and after I lay 3-4 bricks, the storm rolls in.
The prep work to get going and the cleanup take so much time that it doesn't leave much time for actually laying bricks. Tonight I picked it up a bit and finally finished my first course. I am hopign that tomorrow morning I can take it to the second course and maybe get started on the 3rd. I have a lot of uncut bricks but figured since I had a lot of cutoffs from the soldier course I would put them to use.First course is the new batch of bricks cut in half at an angle to cut down on the size of the mortar joint.



second course is going to be made from cutoffs from the soldier course.


I find that this course (is it second or 3rd course???? do I count the soldiers?) requires the indispensable tool. Mine was only 10 bucks to make and I will offer it up when I am done. I will start measuring my height as well to make sure it isn't growing too much on one side.
My wife has been patient and wonderful so far. She brings me something to eat and drink and keeps things going inside while I'm outng there playing with the bricks.

[Dino_Pizza]

Re: Oasis Rising

Hey, with that pizza peel one-dot-oh you invented, I have high hopes on a truly ingenious vent-transition section from you .

Enjoy the pre made boboli on the barbi...it will only get better and tons more fun in the real oven once its done.

[WoodchuckDad]

Re: Oasis Rising

Yes the red bricks are firebrick. The builder supply I went to had 68 "buff" and 62 "rustic red" so I bought them all. I can't believe how many I have already gone thru. I am going to try to get more of them tomorrow. I will have to go to another sourch, though. It's a shame beccause they had the best price around. The red were only $1.29 and the buff were $1.49. I don't think they will be getting any more in for a while so I am just gonna have to suck it up and buy from another dealer. I was planning on using the red brick for the rest of the build but most of the other dealers around here either don't carrh it or charge almost double for them. You all have been temendously helpful in getting me started. We definately have the pizza bug now. My wife emailed me that she wanted PIZZA for dinner and had found a video on Utube of someone using bricks in their grill to make them so we have done just that. I am sitting outside right now. The grill is at 450 and my wife is inside prepping a boboli pizza crust. We will be doing that one first then she has a couple more "mix" pizza crusts to prep. I stopped at the store on the way home,, bought a 12 inch pizza pan, cut the rim off of it, screwed it to a 4 foot section of furring strip and VOILA! Pizza peel 1.0.
I am sure I will be buying a real peel from FB since I got all my info and inspiration from here but I wanted one now and I also wanted to experiment to find otu what I really need and like. the second Mozz Cheese pizza just went on there. Can't wait. By the way Dino, I have been using your build as a reference. I wish i could come up with a way to transition the vent like you did but I really don't think I have that much skill.
Oh, and Yes, it is 42 ". I figured go big or go home.

[Dino_Pizza]

Re: Oasis Rising

I had a similar problem. It's hard to keep the soldiers up and straight and they seem to tilt back and forth on their own once you move on. Don't worry, the 1st row of bricks above them will make it work out and remove any minor flaws. It'll be easier to keep "round" after that. I've never mortared brick before my oven but you will get really good at it by the next row or 2 and you'll learn the right mortar constancy.

Very nice block stand, well done with the steel and everything. Looks like you are building a 42" oven?

Are those red bricks fire brick for the soldier course? Just checking, I don't see too many of them but they look nice.

[lwood]

Re: Oasis Rising

subscribing - nice work

[WoodchuckDad]

Re: Oasis Rising

well I finally got my floor laid and my soldiers cut. I mixed up my first batch of Heatstop50 and put about half my soldiers up today. My hands are worn from the bricks (I got the bright Idea that I need to wash them so they don't have clay deposits.
I am worried about the wicked lean I got toward the end of the line to the right in this picture.


I didn't bother washing the outside of the bricks because I figured I'd probably put a coating of refractory mortar over it anyway( and of course it's gonna be unseen when I get the enclosure built)

[WoodchuckDad]

Re: Oasis Rising

I have completed my pour. I only ordered 3 bags(could have sworn I told them 4) but I did the math and thought I would have enough for a 5 1/2 inch vermicrete. I did a mix of about 7 1/2 to 1. I was surprised at how much water I had to add to get it to mix. the consistency was like shoveling poop. Somewhere between horse poop and cow poop. blended it in a wheel barrell with a small hoe. Somehow I only got 4 inches out of the pour. I guess it will have to do. As you can see, I still havn't taken the form off the hearth pour from last week. I will probably do that today. I am guessing I could take the supports out from under the hearth as well but I havn't seen any reason to rush it.

I guess I need to cut my bricks today and find something else to do since I have to wait for the vermiculite to firm up before laying the floor.

[WoodchuckDad]

Re: Oasis Rising

I ordered 4 4cf bags of vermiculite yesterday. Today I picked up 130 firebricks. 68 red 4.5x9.x2.25 inch bricks and 62 4.5x9x2.5 buff bricks. I have a tarp over the right now. Not sure if I should let them be wet. I passed on a pallet of recovered firebrick from a manufacturing facility because I was worried about metal toxicity.I will lay the vermiculite mix this week either tomorrow or the next day(weather permitting). I just need to find out how long to wait after that to start the bricks.

[WoodchuckDad]

Re: Oasis Rising

As soon as the sun came up over the trees it started to dry and harden a bit more. My anxiety level went down a bit. I sprayed it down twice then put a tarp over to keep it from drying out too much. Im crossing my fingers. Guess I will be able to start my vermiculite layer before to long.

[WoodchuckDad]

Re: Oasis Rising

Ok. That sounds great. much better than my nightmare of having to demolish it and start over.
Since the upper layer will be softer, should I wait longer to put the vermiculite on it? I wasn't planning to do that for several days.
Should I wait till it has dried for a week and then scrape at the top to remove the weaker part? I'm totally out of my element on this one.

[Tscarborough]

Re: Oasis Rising

If it were the floor of your shop it might matter, but for what it is being used for, no worries. It sounds not like too much water, but you overworked it pulling too much cream to the surface. The surface will be soft and tend to dust, but the compressive strength will be fine.

[WoodchuckDad]

Re: Oasis Rising

Here is a picture of the finished hearth pour. I am still quite concerned about the texture and setup of the concrete. it's been more than 12 hours and it isn't hard on top yet. IF any more experienced folk out there think I'm worryingj too much, please chime in.

[WoodchuckDad]

Re: Oasis Rising

I had used 10 80lb bags of quickcrete to fill cores last week which left me with about half the stand being emptyand I also added another section of wall this week in the middle of the stand for added support. Since I had a yard of cement in this rented mixer I went ahead and filled every core in the stand .

The gravel in this mix is a lot larger than you would find in the quickcrete mix and was difficult to move around the form. I pushed a couple of my rebar supports out of alignment and tried to fix it but I'm sure it isn't exactly as I intended. My wife proved to be pretty good at leveling the concrete out. When we were about half way thru the slab pour, I had to pull the mixer forward and start putting it into the wheelbarrel.

As we agitated the concrete mix and smoothed it, a lot more water came to the surface than I expected which leads me to thing that I had the mix too wet. I ended up having a 5.5 inch slab....and this morning it is still damp and somewhat soft. I expected it to set up much firmer and faster. The stuff on the top is also much grittier and sandier than what was poured by the crew that did the foundation pieces. I am a bit concerned about that but I will let it continue to cure since I don't have much choice at this point. I will spritz some water on it later today as it begins to dry (we finished the pour late yesterday so the sun was going down and the air had cooled considerably.)
Before we started the pour I excavated a small area in our sideyard to make a sidewalk from the finished area around the pool to the pool pump and controlls. I thought we would have plenty of cement left over. I ended up only having half a wheelbarrel full and had to start tossing 80lb bags of cement into the mixer. Thankfully I had a large stack of it in the Garage.