Dolf's Bushveld Oven

[Dolf]

Re: Dolf's Bushveld Oven

Hi
Thanks for the kind comments :-)

yes they are. in another thread earlier I was worried about this myself. The bricks came from a Pilkingtons glass furnace which was refurbished in th eseventies. These have been lying around since then in my father in law's possession. The big ones in th efloor are the only big ones I had. th erest is normal brick size.

I work as & when I have a chance. The farm is in BelaBela which is some 120km from my home. I surely hope it will be done before next May! :-)

[heliman]

Re: Dolf's Bushveld Oven

Looking good!

Are those fire bricks?

Any time frame to finish the project or are you just doing it when time permits?

Hope it will be open for business by May next year when I head to SA again!!

[eprante]

Re: Dolf's Bushveld Oven

Dolf,
Very nice work so far. You win the award for the most exotic setting. I keep looking into the bush behind your oven looking for a pack of hyenas or some other creatures.
Good luck,
Eric

[Dolf]

Re: Dolf's Bushveld Oven

I managed to get the floor in this weekend. I am quite happy with it for may reasons.
1. not too shabby for 2nd hand bricks that were lying around since the seventies.
2. I only had a few of the large squares and they were just enough!
3. The side chips & gaps do not look too badly
4. I see no ridges to catch the peel

So far so good, and having loads of fun :-)

[Dolf]

Re: Dolf's Bushveld Oven

Thanks! Glad you like it.
One bonus of africa is that the weather is often nice enough to spend the evening out with a nice fire and the milky way :-)
That space is my shrink - by day to toil with my tools/toys and by night to chill

[Onefella]

Re: Dolf's Bushveld Oven

I like your central raised fire-pit. Nice stonework too.

[Dolf]

I should probably have started a tread on the build earlier, but rather late than never I guess. I will also duplicate some of my initial pics just to keep the whole thing together.
The weekend I cast the insulation floor. You will see I only did the main circle. I planned to do the mouth as well, but in the final levelling of the floor which I did same time, I ended up going thicker than I planned & did not have enough vermiculite. Fortunately I read many comments re the option to insulate the mouth or not, so I rather finished the whole thing at the same time than to try to add another bit of vermiculite later.
In the pic you will see that I have only got the brick inner walls built and that the outer stone work is still coming. The pic with the floor cast is taken from the north west while the other two pics are from the south, so if you see 2 very dissimilar doors in the different pics, it is because there are 2 doors
The area below the oven is split by a dividing wall. The door under the oven mouth (the oak door) is for wood storage only (door to keep snakes out). The steel door is where I want to lock the batteries of my solar electricity away.